First Ice Fishing Trip

This is about my first ice fishing experience I had in Vermont. I had just gotten out of the Marines and married for about 9 months when my father-in-law invited us to go ice fishing with his family in Vermont. Now he had taught me most of what I had know about fishing over the years and thought this would be a great experience. It was an experience, just not great at first.

On the day in question we all met at my wives uncle near Lake Champlain. I met for the first time most of the relatives and wanted to make sure I put my best foot forward even though I was getting a little shaky about going out on the ice. Now someone said to pile into the van and I got pushed in and we headed to the boat ramp. The closer we got I noticed that we weren't slowing down any as we approached the ramp. The van hit the ramp and we were on the ice going about 50 mph. I started worrying and counted 13 of us in the van and I was one whole seat and 5 people away from the nearest door. Being raised near Phila. I had no idea that the ice would hold a car yet alone a van with 13 of us in it. We drove out a couple miles out and stopped, thank god my prayers were answered. All I wanted was to get out of the van.

I think everyone noticed my anticipation about the ice and told me everything was fine and enjoy the fishing. It didn't help any. They cut me a hole and showed me how to fish for the perch. I started to relax after catching a few fish, not noticing that everyone was moving off in there own directions. I did notice that cars and trucks were driving all around us going to there own special spots. One truck came a little closer to us then the others and I heard a loud "CRACK". I looked on the ice and I saw a crack heading toward me. I looked around and saw an island about a mile away and started running for it knowing that I was going swimming and I can't swim. I got about 50 yds and turned around to see if anybody needed any help and noticed that no one else was behind me. I could just hear laughter in the distance. I later found out it was just a tension crack and nothing to worry about. The ice was over 3' thick. I later saw a small oil truck heading toward the island to deliver oil to a house.

Later that night as we were all sitting around the table eating fresh fried perch there was a lot of talk about how fast I could run. Its been over 25 years now and I still get asked if I can run as fast .

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