Lessons Learned.

[Walleye Express]

A friend just sent me this picture of a guy who found a soft spot 2 miles out of Ericson road yesterday. Notice anything about this picture that both tells a story and something all ice fishermen should take care to watch for?

I'm assuming this guy was fallowing near the snowmobile tracks, assuming the ice was safe enough. Snowmobiles deplace their weight a lot better at both slow and fast speeds, and can actually run on water when given enough speed and gas. Quads cannot. So fallowing snowmobile tracks with a quad is not the best idea. Plus, just heading off on your own, making your own trail out, while not on a worn track/path is yet another bad idea this early in the season, or any time for that matter.

And all this is not to say that this cannot happen to even the most caucious individuals. Nor is it to say that these guys (whoever they were) are careless nuts. It's easy to get caught up in the spectackle when you arrive and see 100 trucks parked on the ice, 1,000 others in shanties from horizon to horizon with all types of machines driving around everywhere. You just have to keep telling yourslef to be safe, use your head and take your time.

[Priority1]

I lost a good friend last March. That snow covered ice can be extra dangerous. I hope they made it out OK.