# Two firsts today...



## undericeking (Dec 31, 2008)

Played "sick" from work today to start setting my beaver snare line and a couple of interesting things happened today. While I was on the river and chopping away, I heard and FELT the river crack down the middle for about 100 yards on both sides of me then believe it or not I watched the ^&%$ing ice sink about four inches to the middle of the river. No water came up and after cleaning out my overalls I made my way back to the vehicle. I've been on frozen water my whole life and actually like the sound of ice cracking in a fish house but I've never seen ice "sink" like that especially with me on it. I moved on to my third stop of the day, a long marsh, and while I was checking with the ice chipper, I punched through the ice and for close to 30 seconds gas was literally whistling out of the hole before water started bubbling up through the hole. This happened two more times with the same duration of escaping gas. It wasn't the type of air bubbles you get when you chip on top of a beaver run but sounded like a blowtorch without the flame. The ice was only about two inches thick on the entire marsh but it held me up. Anyways the moral of the story is be careful on the ice, especially when you're messing around rivers and marshes and I'm sure there is an easier hobby than underice beaver snaring...


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