Lake ice conditions and some reloading

I was talking with some friends the other afternoon and the subject of ice conditions for icefishing came up. The question asked was whether the ice was still strong given all the snow load covering most lakes. The person asking was wondering if the ice was stronger because of the recent intense cold snap and if the snow cover was detrimental to the ice strength. Also, whether the weight of the snow on the ice could cause an overflow condition.

The discussion went like this, unless a “road” was plowed over the ice, the snow was deep enough in most instances to prohibit highway vehicle traffic because of the snow depth of two to four feet on the ice. A snowmachine would be no problem but an ATV, unless it was on tracks, won’t work any better than a car or truck.

The person making that observation stated that he wouldn’t drive a highway vehicle out on the ice even if he could for safety concerns. While not saying so, I suspect his concerns were for driving across an unknown thin ice area and breaking through and going into the water.

This thin ice could be the result of an underwater spring in the lake or from an inflow or outflow stream hidden under the ice and snow cover. I have driven my truck out on lake ice in past years, but it has always been later in the winter when the ice was a measured three to four feet thick. The snow cover was minimal, and the ice was clear and solid. I also knew there were no springs or inflow/outflow activities where I was driving my truck.

The other important item mentioned in this discussion was to avoid any depressions in the snow cover on a lake. The depression was most likely made by overflow coming up on top of the ice in this particular spot. With standing water on top of the ice and saturating the snow, this would bog down snowmachine tracks and grab any wheel trying to roll through the slush.

Walking out to ice fish should not be a problem this time of year, even under our current ice conditions, however, because of the probable snow depth on an untracked lake, walking wouldn’t be easy, even with snowshoes.

I jokingly asked the inquiring person if she would drill her own holes to fish through the ice. She commented that her fiancé would do the drilling with a manual auger. I was surprised to hear the manual auger comment. I have a manual auger, but I don’t use it if the ice is approaching a foot in thickness. I have a power auger for thicker ice. She stated that her fiancé gets a good workout when hand drilling through the two- to four-foot-thick ice we currently have. I would suppose so!

I haven’t been icefishing for a couple of years now for a few reasons, notably surgical recovery, and weather. Last winter was almost as snowy as this year has been and simply trying to access a lake has been more work than I wanted to undertake at the time.

I have all the gear necessary: a tow-behind sled for my snowmachine to haul the power auger, fishing rods and reels, the ice shelter, a propane heater, a chair, and all the other smaller items which can make a day on the ice enjoyable. I hope to get out a little later this spring after the days have warmed up some and after I’ve been able to dig out my covered trailer holding my snowmachine.

Then I’ll need to unload the machine and run it some to make sure things are still working properly. I should have done some of this work earlier in the winter, but best laid plans of mice and men….

In the interim, I still have a bunch or reloading to do. I need to finish my reloads for my “Bang n’ Clang” rifle and I want to handload for a single-shot rifle I got a while back and have yet to shoot. I’m also planning to develop some “light” loads for a single-shot handgun I have in 444 Marlin caliber. What am I calling a light load here? Something like a 44-magnum load.

I harvested a moose several years ago with this gun using factory loads and it was not a pleasant gun to shoot. It’s heavy enough that a 44-magnum load would be “easy” to shoot compared to the full 444 Marlin loads.