Ice fishing

D

Dave Mellor NJ

Well-known member
Brrr
 

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I grew up in southern California and now I live in the south east so I am ignorant of northern weather. Are there still lakes that freeze solid enough to drive a car on or is this a thing of the past?
 
Guys here would race on the ice sometimes.Old Volvos were popular for that,until somebody discovered the VW Rabbit.Cars were sideways 100% of the time.I used to plow the pond with a Scout.Nothing organized,just a half dozen fools getting together on a Saturday afternoon and having fun.Nobody made us stop,the guys just aged out as they started having families to spend time with instead of their buddies.
 
Back when I was a teenager me and a good friend drove his mother's car around the local lake.

We always used to race on the lake, but this time it was too late in the season to be doing this. The car broke through the ice and the only thing stopping the car from going through was that we had both doors open, therefore supporting the weight of the car on the remaining ice.

We got a bunch of friends with snowmobiles and trucks and pulled the car out.

His mother never knew how close her car came to being a submarine.
 
A dear friend now passed had a hilarious story about ice fishing. He lived for a time during his youth in Michigan. He and a friend one day strapped an OS Max model engine on a homemade ice racer of a thing and took it out on the frozen lake during winter to run it. They somehow attached it to a pivot in the ice with a long string so it would run in a circle. At some point either the string broke or the pivot came loose and a screaming model engine turning around 30,000 rpm went running out of control across the lake and ended up flying straight into the tent of some poor unsuspecting fisherman. To his dying day he laughed uncontrollably about the screaming and cussing from the fisherman. lol
 
rich40701 said:
A dear friend now passed had a hilarious story about ice fishing. He lived for a time during his youth in Michigan. He and a friend one day strapped an OS Max model engine on a homemade ice racer of a thing and took it out on the frozen lake during winter to run it. They somehow attached it to a pivot in the ice with a long string so it would run in a circle. At some point either the string broke or the pivot came loose and a screaming model engine turning around 30,000 rpm went running out of control across the lake and ended up flying straight into the tent of some poor unsuspecting fisherman. To his dying day he laughed uncontrollably about the screaming and cussing from the fisherman. lol
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I've never seen a frozen lake (lakes are rare enough here anyway) but that made my day. Thank you.
 
I was on the ice a couple of weeks ago fishing.
Not much ice left now though.
 

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My uncle had a millpond that had logs dumped on all winter long,and then he would saw them all summer.Until the mill burned in November of 1950,my father said he had never seen bare ice there.He built a little tether car with a model airplane engine,and took it out on that pond.There were iron spikes sticking up out of the ice that had been used for the log booms.He would tie it off to one of those stakes and stand back when it went around.I think he had to figure how to rig it so it always wanted to run away from the string,and not try to turn and run across the circle.He said it had a three blade prop,and I think he called it a shrike.
 
When I lived in Chicagoland in the early 60's, I had a Volvo 544, every winter we would have ice races on one of the frozen lakes north of the city. What fun, one car at a time.
Many times, walking around on the lakes you would see the outline of a car that broke through the ice and the ice froze over. Never saw a car go through.
 
I didn't notice if the smelt shacks have been hauled off of Great Bay or not.I just drove over it too,going out to eat.The smelt shacks have to have a brass tag affixed to them,so if they aren't hauled off the ice by a certain date,they know who to charge for doing it.Also,if they do go through the ice,they know who to notify,and of course,charge for the removal.Years ago I drank a lot of beer sitting in those things.
 
Lake Phalen in St. Paul, Minnesota froze solid enough for racing teams to drive 18 wheelers out on the ice to service their racing cars. Every Fall the newspapers and tv stations talked about ice safety, emphasizing to wait until the ice was thick enough before driving on it. And every year there were pictures of pickup trucks and SUVs being winched out of a lake.
I saw with my own eyes a Jeep Cherokee being yanked out on a cable at a boat ramp, with police cars with flashing lights keeping people away from the taut cable. And a guy trying to drive his truck around the police cars so he could get out on the ice! You’d think the gene pool would have been cleansed by now.
Back on frozen Lake Phalen, I rode a friend’s ice racing bicycle that had studded tires. It cornered much faster and harder than any regular bike I’d ever ridden on dry land. There are pictures online from Eastern Europe of ice racing speedway-style motorcycles with metal guards surrounding the studded tires to keep legs and feet away. But I’d hate to see what happens if someone falls and is run over by the bikes following.
 
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They used to race motorcycles on the ice at Crystal Lake here in Manchester N.H.They were still doing it in the early 70's,because I drove there,and I got my license in 72.It's about 20 miles from me.The studs they used were just carriage bolts,short enough so the nuts were really the studs.At the start of the race the rooster tails were pretty spectacular,but after a couple of laps the riders really showed their skills.Then they were riding in the ruts,it looked like they were riding on giant corduroy.All six bikes handlebars were in a constant hard shimmy.They looked like speedway racers,they were sideways all the time,with the front and rear wheels facing two different directions.The races were round,no straightaways,just a circle.
 
Y'all obviously haven't heard of The ICE: The International Concourse of Elegance, St. Moritz (https://theicestmoritz.ch) where some of the rarest and most expensive cars in the world race on the frozen mountain lake in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

That event is described as follows:

"Every year, in the Engadine (high Alpine valley in Switzerland), a miracle of water and ice occurs.

When the season reaches its peak, the spell of winter transforms Lake St. Moritz into the sparkling white backdrop of the most incredible of motor racing stages. A phenomenon that only lasts for a limited period: it is in this fleeting window of time that the world’s coolest concours of elegance on wheels comes to life. The I.C.E. St. Moritz.

The I.C.E. St. Moritz breaks out of the comfort zone of such events, proving that there is a new dimension for a car show outside the familiar settings, one which challenges the rigors of winter with all the warmth of a passion that fears neither the grip of frost nor the passage of time: the passion for the rarest, most elegant and iconic classic cars."

[url]https://youtu.be/UsbHdn9fd-M[/URL]

Brad in Maryland
 
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