Tag Archives: Ice Safety

Starting to hear a few reports of folks venturing onto the ice in parts of Nebraska.  As I warned a few weeks ago, now it is time for my obligatory blog about ice safety. I pretty much will never tell you that the ice is safe, “no problem, go fish”.  Sure, there are times in the middle of the winter when we have plenty of ice, but even then I am not going to tell you it is safe.  You …

I will fish open water as late into the fall as possible.  Pretty sure I ain’t done yet.  But, with the relatively cold fall we have had, I cannot help but wonder, how long until we have ice?  How long until I can ice-fish? Found a local reservoir that was 75% covered with a skim of ice last week! Same reservoir was 100% open water this past weekend. So, it is going to be awhile yet. I found this posted …

Calendar says it is early February.  Most winters we would be about half-way through our ice-fishing season.  This winter has not been “most winters”. . . . Ice Conditions The best way to describe our ice conditions this winter has been highly variable!  That is especially true when you consider that Nebraska is a big state.  At one point or another this winter we have had good ice in some areas while others were unsafe, and then the situation has …

I am not going to pretend to know when we will have safe ice.  If I did know, I would still tell you that it is up to YOU to be sure that it is safe every time you walk on the ice.  I am not going to take someone else’s word for it and you should not either.  You have to make that call yourself. I will tell you that we are getting close to seeing safe ice, but …

One thing I will tell you blogging about outdoors “stuff” is it is seasonal and as the seasons repeat so do I.  Finally, I have enough confidence in the weather forecast to believe we have some ice-fishing just around the corner!  It’s about time!  So, you know what that means–my annual blog about ice safety, especially safety on first ice. Water temperatures across Nebraska have cooled to the point where we are ready to make ice.  Duh.  What I mean …

Just want to post up a few pictures from our ice-fishing clinic at Yanney Park in Kearney last Saturday.  We had a great time! The Kearney ice clinic is a little bit different in that we do a classroom session in the morning.  The Environmental Resource Center Building there right beside the pit makes a great setting for the classroom session and we had 60-some people packed in there.  Don Cox, Andrew Svoboda, Rob Greer and myself rambled about a …

We are nearing the middle of January, and I just realized I have not blogged about any of my ice-fishing adventures, yet. . . . Hmm, let me think, I have been on the ice nearing a dozen times now, have been on waters from the central and west-central parts of the state to the southeast.  I will not tell you that my partners and I have dried off any exceptional fish so far, and perhaps that is why I …

Friday, a couple of weeks before Christmas, lots of things bouncing around in my head.  First, most importantly. . . . We Have Ice! By the time you are reading this there will have been fish pulled through the ice on Nebraska waters!  YESSSSS!!!!!!  This weekend most of that ice-fishing is going to occur in northern and western parts of Nebraska, maybe on some small waters in other parts of the state.  First ice is some of the best fishing …

I do not own a snowmobile or ATV, have ridden on a few on the ice, but not a lot.  I do know this, a person needs to be even more careful when running an ATV or snowmobile on a frozen lake.  Four inches of clear, new ice is enough to walk on, but if you want to run some kind of ATV or snowmobile, you better have a lot more than that, preferably at least twice that much.  Unfortunately, …

Most years, I would have posted my obligatory reminder about ice safety by now.  With the mild weather we have had so far this late fall/early winter, I have not said anything yet, well, because we just ain’t got ice.  I will continue to drop farther into a foul mood each day I do not ice-fish at this point. Even now, I am not sure about the ice conditions throughout the state.  I have heard a few whispers of some hardcores …