Stupid question

[crewchief2]

I am pretty new to ice fishing, and was wondering how you guys deal with this much snow on top the ice? Thanks. c

[Mikey topaz]

I am pretty new to ice fishing, and was wondering how you guys deal with this much snow on top the ice? Thanks. c

The right to do it is scout the place before the snow to check the ice and kinda learn what areas are good and what areas to stay away from... as long as the thickness is consistent all around and there’s no sketchy spots your good to go.

If you didn’t have time to scout it out I would spud and take your time with your safety gear on and scout the area out you are about to fish. When’s there’s this much snow it can be helpful to bring a shovel and once you drill a hole shovel the spot so your tip up sits nice on the ice. Pullin the sleds in this stuff literally sucks on ice! Take your time don’t kill yourself. Best of luck

[icebadger]

As mikey said the snow can be a pain in the butt pulling a bunch of gear across the ice gets to ya after a while so you might want to fish close to where you get on. you should have good waterproof boots as the snow is wet when you drill a hole the water comes up through the hole and makes slush around the hole. you will have less problems as the snow refreezes however. The ice will be thicker and you better have sharp blades or your day is going to be a long one good luck and be safe.

[Gerry Zagorski]

You might want to check our this upcoming webinar https://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114724

[crewchief2]

Guys, thanks for all the info, luckily i do know where on the lake i want to fish, just have to drag the sled about 300 yrds.
I had checked it last Sunday and it was a bit sketchy for my liking, there was 3 inches of ice, with 6 or so inches of water on top then another 2 inches of ice. Looks like the wind probably had a lot to do with that. Looks like some good cold weather on the way next week or so. Thanks again, and everyone stay safe out there.

[Jigman13]

It's not a stupid question. Better to have asked then to have died and not asked!

If it was sketchy then it'll likely be sketchy now. 2+ ft of heavy, dense snow on top of sketchy ice equates to a substantial amount of weight applied to the surface of the ice. Quality, uniform black ice at 4" will theoretically hold around 700-800 lbs of load. 2" roughly 200 lbs (you wouldnt catch me on 2" ever--I have kids to take care of!). Consider the pressure the snow is putting on the ice on top of the lake's surface, too. Punch a hole to alleviate pressure and what happens? Pressure gets released i.e. water will be pushing up your hole.

Snow also insulates whatever black ice is below. While it may not melt as a direct result of said snow insulation, it'll inhibit the ice from growing. Furthermore, melt-off from the snow is obviously warmer than the ice underneath so it will deteriorate.

The ideal scenario is a bit of melt off yesterday, today and tomorrow followed by significant temp drops to freeze it all back together where you end up with a few inches of black ice followed by inches of gray ice and 'snow' ice.

[crewchief2]

It's not a stupid question. Better to have asked then to have died and not asked!

If it was sketchy then it'll likely be sketchy now. 2+ ft of heavy, dense snow on top of sketchy ice equates to a substantial amount of weight applied to the surface of the ice. Quality, uniform black ice at 4" will theoretically hold around 700-800 lbs of load. 2" roughly 200 lbs (you wouldnt catch me on 2" ever--I have kids to take care of!). Consider the pressure the snow is putting on the ice on top of the lake's surface, too. Punch a hole to alleviate pressure and what happens? Pressure gets released i.e. water will be pushing up your hole.

Snow also insulates whatever black ice is below. While it may not melt as a direct result of said snow insulation, it'll inhibit the ice from growing. Furthermore, melt-off from the snow is obviously warmer than the ice underneath so it will deteriorate.

The ideal scenario is a bit of melt off yesterday, today and tomorrow followed by significant temp drops to freeze it all back together where you end up with a few inches of black ice followed by inches of gray ice and 'snow' ice.

My thoughts exactly!! Any less than 4 inches and i'm out.

[Chrisper4694]

you would want a consistent 5-6in at least before this amount of snow fall I'd say to consider checking it again after the snow cover. thin ice or open water will start a chain reaction with the snow pushing down on it. There will be places to ice fish still but the sloppy walk is really annoying on top of the snow hiding dangers....

best case scenario is the warm weather melts/compacts the snow on top and then we get a deep freeze again to solidify it before we lose the black ice thinner than 4in or so.

[Bruce Litton]

I think we were fortunate we got 4 inches or better of freeze before the heavy snow fell. I got out only once, with as much as 4 1/2, on the Wed. before the snow hit the Mon after. Now we need this cold weather to fuse the mess, but I will proceed very carefully, if all goes as planned & we get out on Sun. on a lake we haven't scouted. I saw on that Wednesday how parts of L. Musconnetcong were 4 inches, while whole swaths were open whitecaps. Don't want to cross into a section that hasn't frozen well underneath.

[Bruce Litton]

I don't know. Those salmon lake photos look like they're of a good ice condition. Maybe mine was a stupid answer, lol. Hope so, so I'm pleasantly surprised on Sun.

[crewchief2]

Again guys, thanks for all the tips and direction. I was finally able to get out yesterday, had 2-3 inches of snow, then mostly, 2 of ice, then 1-2 or water, then 4-6 of ice under that. Did hit one spot that only had 2-3 of ice. But for the most part, it was all pretty solid. Unfortunately right after i got set up, Sun came out, and with my limited experience, i have never done well under bright sun. But felt good to finally get out.

[Chrisper4694]

I don't know. Those salmon lake photos look like they're of a good ice condition. Maybe mine was a stupid answer, lol. Hope so, so I'm pleasantly surprised on Sun.

I'm very surprised how LITTLE new ice has formed under the now mostly frozen slush... I would proceed very cautiously onto new ice or ice that wasn't thick before the snow. Places that were locked tight with 4-5 inches or more seem mostly ok, but i'd obviously still be cautious with that too.

[Bruce Litton]

I'm very surprised how LITTLE new ice has formed under the now mostly frozen slush... I would proceed very cautiously onto new ice or ice that wasn't thick before the snow. Places that were locked tight with 4-5 inches or more seem mostly ok, but i'd obviously still be cautious with that too.

Get this. I finally got back out Sunday. (I was hoping to go tomorrow, but have to get my power auger running & my buddy backed out. He's younger & would whack holes.) So I step out on the ice, I'm thinking it's been 12 degrees here so many nights, might as well proceed, but of course not. I'm cautious. So I whack with the splitting bar and I'm through real quick. I get my hand and fingers in the whole to find what's holding me. It was 6 or 7 inches of snow ice, a 2-inch layer of slush (I was surprised it wasn't just water) and a HALF INCH of hard ice, obviously it had thinned. So I'm nervous, and Brian is nervous in turn. But our buddies up lake just walk straight out and don't go through, so we follow. And out there, there was about three inches of hard ice under it. But it was weird. I've been on all sorts of ice with water inbetween, but never that little of original ice....I was a little surprised that snow ice held us. The splitting bar got through it so easily. BTW Loads of pickerel. A couple of 12, 13 inch perch. A bass.