Cody Williams
Well-known member
Hey guys, I'm posting this story so hopefully everyone can learn from the mistakes I made a few night ago and not do the same. Funny that this story happens just a few days after Jim G's story of almost losing his dog but that's the way it happened. I love hunting in the late season but it definitely brings its own dangers and things to be aware of. I hunt the ice holes in the local marshes a lot in the late season but I'm really careful about how I go about it. My main rules are to hunt only spots that I know the bottom contours of really well, always make sure I know the water depth under the ice I'm on and not hunt anything I can't climb out of, and to not put my dog in a position where a retrieve could put her in danger.
The spot I hunted is on a river channel that has wide shelves on either side, the shelves are wadeable but the channel drops off really quickly-it goes from 4 feet to 8+ in the width of a step. When I got to my spot I kicked about 20 mallards off it and could see that geese had been around too. There was about a 25 foot width of ice between the shore and the hole, I knew that I could break the ice from shore out to the hole and be safe depth-wise. I used my decoy pole to break a path out to the main hole, sure enough the hole was over the deep channel but I thought it was safe enough to set decoys, so I got set up.
This particular hole was about 75 yards long by 25 wide. On the far side there was about 300 yards of ice to the far shore, and upstream and downstream is all ice. I could see where the deep channel was from the color of the ice, I could tell that the shelves were thick enough to walk on whereas the ice over the channel wasn't and even had little spots of open water here or there. I went through my mental checklist of potential problems-what happens if a bird falls on the far side? My solution-don't shoot at birds that will fall over there, keep them over the hole and all will be well. Simple enough right?
About 20 minutes in I had 4 geese come by at about 300 yards, I gave them a few honks but they kept on trucking. 15 minutes later I can hear geese off behind me, sure enough those same 4 are coming back and they are headed right for my spot. I gave them a few clucks and let them come. They circled the hole once, and on the next pass they cupped up and started dropping in fast-I shot and missed my first 2 shots somehow, then on the third connected and dropped one. Problem is-their swing around the hole has carried them just past the edge and sure enough this one drops on the ice at the far side of the channel.
My dog Cedar, who is usually pretty steady, decides that this is too much for her to handle-as soon as the bird hits the ice she's off. She goes flying across the ice and as soon as she hits the ice over the channel she breaks through. The water is too deep for her to get up on the ice so she's now stuck in a hole in the middle of the channel and I can't really get to her. I ran and got my sled and started pushing it across the ice, with the idea that I'd go as far out towards her as possible and then use the sled as a lifeboat and push and break ice until I can reach her. (My sled is big enough to safely float in, I designed and built it specifically to be able to be paddled around.)
Meanwhile the goose has gotten up and is running off across the ice. I break through and it's just up above my waist but I know where she is is over my head. I start jumping off the bottom and using my weight to break ice ahead of me, at this point I'm only about 15 yards from her and she's still struggling to get back up on the ice. Finally she's close enough that I can hook her collar with my decoy pole and drag her to me. I'm so lucky in this that it's unbelievable-so many things could have gone just a little differently and I would have had to stand there and watch her struggle until she drowned. We both ended up soaked but safe. I didn't have my gloves on and my hands were numb but I got them back into my gloves and warmed up quickly.
So many mistakes were made on my part, I feel really foolish. That goose is going to starve to death with a broken wing, or hopefully get ambushed by a coyote or fox. I feel horrible about that but nothing I can do right now. I think the channel will open up a bit in the next few days so I'm going to take my canoe and look for it. Long shot but I've found wounded birds 2 days later before.
Lessons learned-
1.Tie my dog up when hunting the ice. She's usually steady but in a situation like this one time breaking could be all it takes.
2.I should have let those geese work around again. They were coming in and would have likely landed on their next pass, and I could have 3 dead geese in the hole rather than lose one wounded one on the ice.
3.Don't hunt an ice spot without a quick and safe way to get to the other side if needed. Most of the late season spots I have are wadeable from one side to another, this one wasn't. That can make for a bad situation.
4. I might have jumped the gun on the ice this year, it's really only frozen up in the last 3 days so it isn't really safe yet. Patience will pay off.
Hopefully there's some useful information in this post, everyone please be careful and don't take any unnecessary risks with the ice. I can't imagine coming home and having to tell my wife and daughters that our dog is dead because of my mistakes. As I said I've been hunting the ice for many years safely but danger is always out there this time of year. Hope everyone has a good late season, no bird is worth risking yourself or your dog.
The spot I hunted is on a river channel that has wide shelves on either side, the shelves are wadeable but the channel drops off really quickly-it goes from 4 feet to 8+ in the width of a step. When I got to my spot I kicked about 20 mallards off it and could see that geese had been around too. There was about a 25 foot width of ice between the shore and the hole, I knew that I could break the ice from shore out to the hole and be safe depth-wise. I used my decoy pole to break a path out to the main hole, sure enough the hole was over the deep channel but I thought it was safe enough to set decoys, so I got set up.
This particular hole was about 75 yards long by 25 wide. On the far side there was about 300 yards of ice to the far shore, and upstream and downstream is all ice. I could see where the deep channel was from the color of the ice, I could tell that the shelves were thick enough to walk on whereas the ice over the channel wasn't and even had little spots of open water here or there. I went through my mental checklist of potential problems-what happens if a bird falls on the far side? My solution-don't shoot at birds that will fall over there, keep them over the hole and all will be well. Simple enough right?
About 20 minutes in I had 4 geese come by at about 300 yards, I gave them a few honks but they kept on trucking. 15 minutes later I can hear geese off behind me, sure enough those same 4 are coming back and they are headed right for my spot. I gave them a few clucks and let them come. They circled the hole once, and on the next pass they cupped up and started dropping in fast-I shot and missed my first 2 shots somehow, then on the third connected and dropped one. Problem is-their swing around the hole has carried them just past the edge and sure enough this one drops on the ice at the far side of the channel.
My dog Cedar, who is usually pretty steady, decides that this is too much for her to handle-as soon as the bird hits the ice she's off. She goes flying across the ice and as soon as she hits the ice over the channel she breaks through. The water is too deep for her to get up on the ice so she's now stuck in a hole in the middle of the channel and I can't really get to her. I ran and got my sled and started pushing it across the ice, with the idea that I'd go as far out towards her as possible and then use the sled as a lifeboat and push and break ice until I can reach her. (My sled is big enough to safely float in, I designed and built it specifically to be able to be paddled around.)
Meanwhile the goose has gotten up and is running off across the ice. I break through and it's just up above my waist but I know where she is is over my head. I start jumping off the bottom and using my weight to break ice ahead of me, at this point I'm only about 15 yards from her and she's still struggling to get back up on the ice. Finally she's close enough that I can hook her collar with my decoy pole and drag her to me. I'm so lucky in this that it's unbelievable-so many things could have gone just a little differently and I would have had to stand there and watch her struggle until she drowned. We both ended up soaked but safe. I didn't have my gloves on and my hands were numb but I got them back into my gloves and warmed up quickly.
So many mistakes were made on my part, I feel really foolish. That goose is going to starve to death with a broken wing, or hopefully get ambushed by a coyote or fox. I feel horrible about that but nothing I can do right now. I think the channel will open up a bit in the next few days so I'm going to take my canoe and look for it. Long shot but I've found wounded birds 2 days later before.
Lessons learned-
1.Tie my dog up when hunting the ice. She's usually steady but in a situation like this one time breaking could be all it takes.
2.I should have let those geese work around again. They were coming in and would have likely landed on their next pass, and I could have 3 dead geese in the hole rather than lose one wounded one on the ice.
3.Don't hunt an ice spot without a quick and safe way to get to the other side if needed. Most of the late season spots I have are wadeable from one side to another, this one wasn't. That can make for a bad situation.
4. I might have jumped the gun on the ice this year, it's really only frozen up in the last 3 days so it isn't really safe yet. Patience will pay off.
Hopefully there's some useful information in this post, everyone please be careful and don't take any unnecessary risks with the ice. I can't imagine coming home and having to tell my wife and daughters that our dog is dead because of my mistakes. As I said I've been hunting the ice for many years safely but danger is always out there this time of year. Hope everyone has a good late season, no bird is worth risking yourself or your dog.
