Hello! Folks I am Ken Eastman from Wildlife Habitat Consultants. We are going to talk a little bit about ice-safety here. That is when you're thinking about going out ice fishing. As you see I got a big long looking iron bar here, in my hand it is called an ice chisel. And the reason why we have something like this specially spring ice and early ice, late nearly ice, they call fall and winter and early winter and late early spring. As you see on the end it just has a piece of metal and they sharpened it. They got an ice-chisel made --what it is made for, is to chop a hole through the ice and it is a good thing and some of these bigger lakes also they have a lot of currents or like, so let's take Lake Champlain, we are in Northern New England here.
Let us look at Lake Champlain. You have got a lot of underwater currents, and if you are some of these smaller body waters, where these two mountains come together, they'll just come together and lake narrows up. There is always an under tow, under current here, now wears the ice. It can be very dangerous. And what is nice about this is, this is something not really new, well these guys have been using this for centuries.
They originally designed it to chop a hole through the ice, but through the years they found even trappers, they found if you swing it as you walk along and let it drop on it's own, it will go through roughly two inches of ice. And two inches of blue ice will hold a man. It is not recommended, they're 3 or 4 but 2 inches will hold a man. But at least that way if it goes through it gives you a warning that there is thin ice here and then you can step walk backwards on your own tracks. At least get out there hopefully, you don't go through.
And that is one of the reasons as you walk along you just let it drop. It is all you do, and that will go through. And also you can use it to, you got a hole out there, you want to chop, there are number of variations you can do it. You can open up holes, or if you want to spend the time and you are really ambitious and you can do like the old timers did, make a hole it just is quite a little bit to it.
One nice advantage you should do is especially on early and late ice, wear life vest like I got here, or some type of floatation device. Another thing is handy to have at that time of year and you should have these all the time probably, they call them ice-bits. Now there they are, some go around your wrist, these have to go around your neck, and I've seen some guys use screw drivers, or nails in a piece of wood. And all they are short points, so if you should go through. You are not like a dog, you don't have a toe nails or you can claw out otherwise but it works like a toe nail and digs into ice you can at least hopefully you can get yourself out.
The vest will keep you warmer, you wear a vest and also it will help you float. Now there is a couple of other things that we're trying to look at ice creepers. If you fish real glare ice, you should wear them, that is another safety precaution, so you are not slipping. Good idea to take a tow or rope with you. Hook it to some type of, what happens to be a boat-cushion. If you get it on that, you can always --somebody is out there, if you are far away, you can throw it to somebody, not without you getting yourself in danger, yourself. That is one nice, just a couple of little safety things you should take.
All we are going in assumption, no ice is safe ice, that is the best rule of thumb. Just because somebody went out there don't mean you should follow behind him. The best thing to do if you are going to get into fishing, is get a Lake Charts. On these Lake Charts, it gives you your reach, your high points, your depth, but it also shows you around the outline where these brooks that comes in. You are got to be aware all year long around those brooks.
Because that water is coming in and it is always wearing the ice, that is a big concern. You have to be careful with that. Now that we've discussed and done the basics on ice-safety, why don't you come along and get in a shanty. In the segment we are going to discuss is --basic equipment and techniques.
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