Back in the early seventies my dad would set me on an old wooden box on a toboggan with a 20 foot rope made for ice fishing and drag me a crossed the bay from St Williams to The Crack. The instructions where if something bad happened I was to roll off and keep rolling away from danger if he broke through. He even faked it a couple times to see what I'd do. I can still picture him yelling for me to stop rolling "For Christ Sakes, I was only testing you!" Wasn't too long after that he found a slightly froze over snow covered "spud cut" hole with 1 footstep. I friggin jumped and started rolling for dear life. I stopped hearing "Has stady ava low!" With those words that I still don't know the meaning of I knew he was ok, wet and pissed right off.
Please, Don't Ever Tie Anyone down to get out on the bay. I grew up with a healthy respect for all ice spending time on area creeks and the bay with my dad. Fishing with him was always a learning experience that would prove useful in every day life to this day.
Pay for a hut if you want to take your kids out and teach them what ice fishing is all about. We rarely used one back in the day but I can still remember sitting on the back end of 1 of Freddy Howe's cutters catching a ride while everyone else was huddled up front behind the windbreak trying to keep warm. Dad explained that we where a lot safer at the back if the ski doo broke through and we had to jump. The ice may be thick but gas wells, springs and soft spots from former hut locations ARE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS!
