Ice Fishing Is Not For Dummies

by Rick Verbanick as told to Tom Klocek
October 2011

My friend Rick and his buddies, Bill and Danny, arranged to go ice fishing one late February day. Danny, owning a four wheel drive Chevy Blazer, volunteered to drive in the event that they encountered snow covered roads.

After arriving at the lake they scouted an area to fish. Being novice ice fishermen and not being too familiar with the particular lake they planned to fish, they decided to look for other people fishing and head toward the fishermen. After patrolling the shoreline awhile, they saw a few people fishing about three hundred yards off shore. They parked Danny's Blazer and gathered their gear.

Danny, ice auger and tip-ups in hand, started toward the fishermen, Rick and Bill following twenty yards behind. After walking about fifty yards, Rick felt something give beneath his weight. Realizing that they were on thin ice he threw up his arm against Bill and yelled to Danny, "Stop where you're at!".

Rick then instructed Danny to use the auger to check the depth of the ice. After only three revolutions of the auger it plunged through the ice. Danny, now realizing that he was in a precarious position on thin ice, yelled in a panic to Rick and Bill, "What should I do now?" Bill yelled back to Danny, "Throw me the keys for the Blazer."