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Fisher says 'scary' ice on Great Slave Hay River's Shawn Buckley warns of hazardous conditionsPaul Bickford Northern News Services Published Monday, January 16, 2012
Shawn Buckley said wind and earlier warm temperatures have created a situation on the lake in which ice pans move around.
"You've got pieces that are just pieced together," he said. "So that's what you've really got to watch. You've got to look at ice and the way it looks. It's stressful in a way because you have to keep constantly watching what you're driving on."
Buckley said "for sure" the ice is more hazardous than in previous years.
The fisher explained wind blows the pans of ice back and forth, meaning the panned ice might be a foot thick but the ice between the pans is not as thick.
"It's ice that's broken up and beaten up all over the place and pushed in," he explained. "So we're driving on one-month-old ice, which is about 12-16 inches, and there's new ice, which is probably about four to six inches, or eight inches, thick."
Buckley drove his Bombardier snow machine 12 miles out onto the lake on Jan. 11, the furthest he has ventured out so far this season to set nets under the ice to catch trout and deep-water whitefish.
"And even there, if you look to the east of where we are, it looks like maybe it broke up again, but we can't just go scouting all over," he said. "We're out far enough now."
On Jan. 11, he also noted fresh cracks in the ice, which he said will be filled in when the wind blows and moves the ice.
"So you don't know what you're driving on sometimes," he said. "You got to really keep your eyes open."
Before taking out his Bombardier, he checked out the ice on a snowmobile.
"I'm always cautious, that's for sure," Buckley said. "To be scared is not such a bad thing. It always keeps you aware and on your toes."
The fisher wouldn't advise anyone else to take a Bombardier out onto the lake, and also encouraged caution by snowmobilers.
"They'd have to heed my warning. You have to constantly check the ice conditions," he said.
Buckley noted rough ice is seen every so often, like in 1989 when there were huge amounts of rough ice west of Hay River.
"It's not only a bad freeze-up from the winds blowing the ice and breaking the ice up, but for the weather," he said. "It's not freezing it properly. That's what's scary."
Buckley, one of several commercial ice fishers in Hay River, said he can't say what ice conditions are like further into the lake beyond 12 miles.
"I know I seen steam out there about four days ago," he said on Jan. 11. "So I don't know what that means. It could mean there was a big crack there."
Buckley said the rule of thumb for commercial fishers is to make a road on the ice and snow, and follow it. "Because you're looking at something solid that somebody went on already. So we always follow our own tracks. That's one of the main rules with fishing or just being in a Bombardier or Ski-Doo."
Buckley noted fairly mild temperatures in the early fall also affected the ice and there was not enough wind at that time to mix warm and cold water together to get the best type of solid ice.
Plus, he said early snow acted like a blanket on top of the ice and kept it from freezing as normal.
With all factors combine, Buckley said the commercial ice fishing season is 10 days to two weeks behind schedule.
"Usually we could get out by the end of December or early January," he said. "The beginning of January, you can usually go out across the lake or whatever, but this year has been very unpredictable."
Buckley has actually been fishing since mid-November, but that was close to shore.
Jack Kruger, the search and rescue co-ordinator for RCMP's G Division, deferred to fishers for information about ice conditions on Great Slave Lake.
"What I've seen is very little snow and a lot of uncovered ice," Kruger said. "It would be difficult for a snow machine or something such as that."
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