An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Sketchy Ice

Hello friends, I have all the right tools to do some heavy-duty ice camping/fishing this winter and unfortunately keeping good ice has made ice travel (at least coming home alive) a bit of a challenge. One of my newest toys is the ION Alpha ice auger, and mine is with a 10-inch auger. Last winter I used an ION for the first time and was amazed at how easy and quiet it was to handle. I got an extra battery and have not had to use it, and to be perfectly honest, I do not miss my propane auger at all.

Anyways, back to this crazy trip that I went on. Since the ice in the north this winter is pretty sketchy for a snow machine, ATV or pickup truck, I had to pick a spot to camp where I thought I could catch fish and hike in by foot. My hikes would require two round trips and each time I would be pulling two fully loaded Otter sleds. I chose the Trempealeau Lakes, which is a backwater of the Mississippi River and literally a sportsman’s paradise. I had camped about eight years ago and caught several northern pike, including a 40-incher, and did well on panfish. Thursday, Feb. 1 – High 52, low 30 First, I had good news – there was 7 inches of solid ice for what is my favorite sport, camping and fishing on the ice. Naturally, I had my golden retrievers Ruby and Red along and they were as excited as me as we began trek one, which would be about 700 yards pulling maybe 200 pounds. Both treks went well, and I put out two tip-ups for gators and rigged a Finicky Fooler with a large “goldy” for perch. I was over about 4 feet of water that had a muck bottom. I had two hours of daylight left and lots of work to build camp. I caught one jumbo perch and a little one, and had no action on the tip ups and no cares as I had two nights in paradise and knew I would figure out the fish. The pups sleep in my Eskimo “Fat Fish 4” with me and I have them sleep in an Otter sled so they stay dry. It was so warm tonight that for maybe the first time ever I did not use my heater. Friday, Feb. 2 – High 54, low 31 Today would have been my girlfriend Michelle Chiaro’s 52nd birthday and my guess is that had she not passed away, she would have been on this trip with me. I was up long before daybreak; it was very foggy and my holes from the day before were not iced over. I did the two tip-ups and the Finicky Fooler plan and right away caught a beautiful 28-inch gator which is perfect for deboning and eating. It was not long and I had company, and by mid-morning there were eight of us fishing a maybe 5-acre area. Three of the guys were using an airboat. Everyone was from the area and we all got along very well. Fish catching was slow, but I was having a blast as I cooked pork chops in my outdoor kitchen and on occasion talked to my neighbors.

The fish were slowly adding up and I knew by the following afternoon something cool would happen. At about 1 o’clock, I realized that the ice on the channel near me was deteriorating at a steady rate. One of the fishermen was alone and had a bad hip. I walked over and mentioned my observation and the man was not concerned.

I went back to camp and worked on some gear. About 20 minutes later, I was standing at camp and without any warning broke through the ice up to my ass. I was wearing a life vest, a 50-foot rope and had hand grip nails around my neck. I did not touch the bottom and propelled myself out with ease. I have to admit, I was bummed, in the very least because I had to move my camp as the ice had literally rotted out. Ten minutes later, I was checking a tip-up 50 yards from camp and went through again. I got myself out, went over and told the guy with the bad hip as well as everyone else, and returned to camp well aware that I needed to break camp and get off the ice.

My neighbor headed off in a bad direction, put his spud through the ice, headed my way, and the fellas, real good guys, with the airboat decided to take him in. It took me a while to break camp. The other four guys were taken in by airboat and I did two round trips pulling two sleds each trip and was one happy ice warrior when I was on dry land.

By the time you read this, the air temp will be cooler and I shall find good ice.

Perhaps Michelle was watching over all of us! Sunset

Mark Walters