Where has Common Sense gone?

[Hobie]

Yesterday it was well over 40 degrees, with strong winds from the SW (read: away from shore.) Still, 135 fisherman went out on Lake Erie to ice fish, having to first put down plywood to bridge the rotten ice near shore. Ice broke free and they floated away and had to be rescued. Sheesh.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090207/...floe_fishermen

Bargain prices on ATVs, snowmobiles, and fishing gear at bottom of Lake Erie!

[Oldbee]

Where has "Common Sense" gone?

Gone,.. gone with the,. 'lure of the fish".

"We get people out here who don't know how to read the ice,..Sheriff Bob Bratton said". Yup, I don't suppose there were too many,. 'Eskimos' out there who had acquired unwritten knowledge about snow,..ice,.and large bodies of water,.handed down from generation to generation. . Instead of ATV's they should have taken their,.kayaks. Fishing can get 'fishermen' in trouble any time, like not wearing a life jacket, staying out too long even though a storm is approaching; all kinds of stuff.

35 mile per hour winds can shift ice, even ice two feet thick, around on large bodies of water pretty quick I imagine. Could have been worse; glad only one person died.

[Sundance]

Not the brightest bunch that's for sure. Big water
ice is way too unpredictable, and to use pallets
to get on what is already a free floating slab in
that wind??????????

[Oldbee]

Just for comparison, I had to look up Lake Winnebago in WI.; our largest inland lake.

From Wiki: "It's not uncommon for 10,000 cars to be on the lake during ice fishing season". Not all in one place I presume. Spearing for Lake Sturgeon is popular, though the season doesn't last too long [quota limit]. The surface area is 137,000 acres, while Lake Erie is 9,900 square miles in size; with open water and strong swells I would think.

[sqkcrk]

Common sense and ice fishing? An interesting idea.

Most of what used to pass for common sense isn't very common anymore, or sensical for that matter.

[Sundance]

Common sense and ice fishing? An interesting idea.

Hey!! Easy now.......... don't be generalizing now. We
ice fisherman are a truly a common sense kinda crowd.

I don't head out much until mid Feb thru March due to
temperature. But inland lakes have nearly a 3 foot thick
ice pack.

Caution is always in order though and those guys were
just plain nuts.

[sqkcrk]

Okay Sun, I'll remember that. Nuts or not nuts depends on the thickness of the ice, not the density of the numbskulls who think they can walk on water.

What was your last catch?