Ahhh, Good question! The lake I tried this on is shallow enough that I could use the push pole to shove the boat up onto the ice. Or get up a head of steam with the sailing rig - yikes. Think the push pole is a better bet. Actually when i started out on the trial run the ice was thin and I was breaking it like, well like an ice breaker. I knew the water there was shallow so I finally edged out of the boat onto the ice, did I mention taking ski poles for grip?, and hauled it up onto the ice, whereupon I proceeded to drag the boat and decoys a mile out and back. I knew the depth of the water all the way because I'd hunted and banged bottom here many times before.
On another occasion I rescued a guy in a canoe from the lake for whom the shelf ice might have meant death. It was cold and windy and I thought I was the only one out there. The lake is roughtly 2 miles by 2 miles square. It was almost dark and I was loading up. Over the wind I could barely hear hellllp, hellp, hellp. I could barely see a dim outline of a canoe out on the lake. I yelled out and he answered help. So I put my canoe back in the water, reattached the electric motor and headed out toward him. He'd canoed down the river, feeding the lake, deer hunting and exhausted himself trying to paddle his canoe against the wind back to shore. The wind was pushing him down the lake toward thin shelf ice extending a half mile from shore. It was almost to dark to see. We were the only ones out there. I reached him with the canoe OK, brought it up along side him, he hung on to my canoe and the little 37 pound thrust electric motor brought us both back safely to the take out. If no one had been there he probably would have blown to the shelf ice and died of exhaustion and exposure there that night.
A month later I got a post card from his wife thanking me for saving her husband's life. The fool had told her! Number one rule never tell your wife about any accidents or near death experiences hunting or fishing. She'll worry about you and fuss about letting you go. Never told my wife about any of them. But she'd hear about them from my partner's wife. He couldn't keep his mouth shut either. Jus' learn from 'em and keep quiet. Someday I'm gonna write a book titled "It'll be OK." full of such experiences. Probably ask the forum for their stories. I have a few buddies that will get several chapters. One of them said a follow up title could be "Hey Watch This ---"