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The new year brings that time of season when many hardwater anglers find themselves dealing with marginal ice conditions. The anticipation of a fresh bucket of fish is often the persuasion that leads to serious problems as anglers venture further onto the ice encountering unsafe conditions. Knowing where you’re going, hazards that may arise, and leaving specifics with family or friends, can mean the difference between an enjoyable day in the outdoors and serious risk.

Growing up in an area that was renowned for it’s icefishing brought many anglers from miles away to try their luck. It also brought an onslaught of regionally uneducated fishermen who often walked a fine line across a watery grave without even realizing the situation. With that very harsh statement of truth let’s take a look at safety and ice conditions as well as the factors that can make stable ice and ice travel unsafe. If you’re expecting a sweet little lecture on the subject then throw away those expectations. I’ve seen vehicles, teams of sled dogs, snowmobiles, atv’s, and people walking on foot fall through the ice. Some of them never made it back to the surface.

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For those who have followed our site update we have reached the plateau where all relevant material has been added back to the site. As we mentioned at the beginning of the update, to finalize the changes here at Water and Woods, we have published the latest issue of Water and Woods Online Magazine. Although our format is quite different, the quality and interaction of this project has reached new heights. You, as viewers and readers, now have the ability to interact with articles by leaving your comments. No registration is required. Our system is set to automatically purge comments with links so keep this in mind when commenting. You can also quickly find your favorite author’s material by visiting their online bio. Consequently you can also plug your favorite authors feed into a feed reader and receive notice each time they add a new article. With that said, we welcome you to the November issue of our online magazine.

Another change that comes to Water and Woods during this update is the addition of another network website that offers our visitors the opportunity to listen to our podcast show. The podcast is being served from Todays Wilderness where a familar name to many of you, Kevin Gardner, is the host of the show. Each podcast will focus on the outdoors and we will offer each show here at Water and Woods and across several of our network websites.

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I think my neighbors think I’m a crazy man. I am quite certain my wife Sandy does, but I think she just lacks the ability to appreciate certain things the way I do. At the ripe old age of 41 my senses have matured, enhanced, refined if you will, much further than her 26 year old senses. My ears hear differently and the things that excite me are a bit foreign to her.

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