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Ice quality compromised?

There's been 2" of clear ice on the bottom and 3" of white (cheap ice) ice on the top of most of the lakes and ponds that I've been fishing. Since the recent rain and 40+ temps, there's a lot of water on top of the ice. I'm guessing that the upper layers of white ice will melt and compromise the quality of the ice.

This is my first year ice fishing, so I'm very sceptical of going out on thin or poor ice. I would think that after the upper layers of ice melt and the rain refreezes, the ice will become much stronger.

What's your thoughts/opinions of the ice quality with the recent weather occurances?

Thank you, Bowhunter57
 

jagermeister

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Most of the spots I've checked out have been 6-8" thick in the past few days, and my brother said he was fishing on 10-12" on Sandusky Bay today. The thicker areas like these should still be fishable if this weather doesn't last long. The problem lies in the ponds/lakes that are fed by many tributaries... if we get a big melt, the tributaries will flood the ponds from underneath and create hazardous situations. Plus they get murky as hell, too. Since it's supposed to get fairly cold at night, I'm hoping this daytime warmth doesn't hurt the ice much.
 

jagermeister

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JBrown,
Sounds like the ice is considerably thicker a littler further north. I may have to go back to some farm ponds and stay of the larger reserviors, until the surface water refreezes.

Good hunting, Bowhunter57

Yea I'd say that's a good plan.
 
Well, my brother and I went out to a local farm pond and tried our luck. Our luck was good with the ice thickness, as it was as thick as it had been. However, our luck with the fish...sucked! We spent most of our time fighting with the wind and trying to keep the groundblind from blowing away...and eventually we lost.

A sudden gust took it and our stuff went flying everywhere. :smiley_crazy: We were scrambling trying to get everything on the deck and not flying away. We recovered most everything and called it a day.

The winds are supposed to be much less and lighter, for Saturday, so we're going to try it again tomorrow. :smiley_bril:

Good hunting, Bowhunter57
 

jagermeister

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I tried to go to a couple marinas near sandusky bay this morning. The ice appeared to be fishable at first glance, but after hitting it with a spud bar, I found out it wasn't very good. In total it was about 5-6" thick... but only the top inch or so was solid... everything underneath was honeycombed. There were even some spots where the spud went right through in one stab. I guess I'll have to wait for more cold weather to get out there.