[Back Beach]

Take heed everyone. I was out with my son on Saturday in the Franklin area.We walked a short way out and drilled though 10-12" of snow covered black ice, but water started gushing up through the hole and we had 3-4" of water around the hole pretty quickly.

I drilled another hole close by and found only 4"-5" of snow ice not far from the 10-12" of good ice. Needless to say we packed up everything and left without any incident, but it was a bit unnerving. There were many people out fishing that day, but I got a bad vibe just hitting that thinner spot amidst all the thick ice. Will try it again early next week after the 3-4 day deep freeze.

I've read 2-3" of clear ice is all that's needed to support an average size person, but that's really questionable, IMO. I would say at least 6-8" is my safe starting point. Its extra scary when there's snow cover because you don't know what's really underneath.

I'm simply afraid of ice even when there's two feet of it...I fell through once about 20 years ago and never forgot the terror of thinking I wasn't going to get out.