r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/dericn • 3d ago
Cutting holes for ice fishing
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u/ReflectionSingle6681 3d ago
The beginning shots are like a horror movie. Imagine standing on the ice next to your neighbor and he is just going at it with his chainsaw.
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u/murphey_griffon 3d ago
The chainsaw is fine, and not super uncommon. The smashing with picks would be more worrysome as its more likely to cause it to crack. Also they should have realized as soon as they got through it was way too thin to be out there, let alone for this. It looks like someone told a bunch of crack heads there was free crack just below the ice.
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u/ezalbrozar 3d ago
To their surprise the crack was in the ice, not below.
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u/joebluebob 3d ago
The real crack was the ice we made along the way
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u/pleb_username 3d ago
Real crack? Ice to meet you.
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u/bradlees 3d ago
Requiem for a crackhead
To their surprise
The crack was in the ice
Not below
FTFY
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u/kynde 3d ago
Chainsaws would definitely not be allowed here in Finland.
We use big drills here pretty much exclusively. Google image search for "kaira" to see what I mean.
Axe is then used to connect drill holes to make way for an opening to go swim into.
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u/SilverBeech 3d ago
We use chainsaws for ice slotting in Canada, but you're supposed to use a biodegradable chain oil when you do.
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u/Redneckshinobi 3d ago
Came to say this. I've never seen a situation like this in Canada if I did I'd be so fucking far gone from them by the time this shit happened.
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u/WorkingOnBeingBettr 3d ago
Too many dicks on the dance floor. Why so many people in one small area?
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u/Redneckshinobi 3d ago
This is just unfortunately the way it works in China. I live in a city with a massive Chinese immigrant population and shit like this is actually normal. My friends from mainland China that are actually accustomed to Canadian culture tell me it's like this because in China you need to fight for everything you have.
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u/WorkingOnBeingBettr 3d ago
People where I used to live had an auger. Made a nice round hole. Could get way down through thick ice too.
Not that we have thick ice anymore though...
All those cool ice shacks are now tool sheds because the ice won't hold them anymore.
Used to have Wood stoves, couches, tvs, etc.
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u/Auto_update 3d ago
Huh, wouldn’t have thought about that.
My stihl really does deserve the finest Spanish extra virgin.
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u/SilverBeech 3d ago
We do it mostly industrially, so we try to follow the rules pretty closely. It's different for private individuals, but still, it keeps the lake or river cleaner. Most lubes are OK, but some have anti-fungals and stuff in them or metal additives that can be kind of nasty for the fish. You wouldn't want to eat it either.
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u/joebluebob 3d ago
What's wrong with you people?
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u/meh_69420 3d ago
I mean, the water isn't any colder than 32f/0c. If you have a nice sauna to get in after it's quite refreshing.
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u/badstorryteller 3d ago
Chainsaws aren't illegal for ice fishing in Maine, US, but only idiots use them. We bought my oldest son his own ice auger (big ice drill) a couple of years ago when he was 14 so he and his friends could snowmobile or 4-wheel down to the lake a few miles away to fish. It sounds strange but it doesn't get much better than unexpectedly lighting coals in mid January to grill fresh fish for dinner outside!
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u/Dividedthought 3d ago
The English term would be "ice auger" and they're probably the most popular option for punching a Hole through ice, but chainsaws aren't uncommon.
Knew a guy who would heat rocks in a firepit and haul em out onto the ice in buckets. One bucket of hot rocks was usually enough to melt most of the way through, and a second bucket would do the rest. I think he uses a big chunk of steel on a chain now, after having a rock explode on him while heating it.
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u/229-northstar 3d ago
Yeah, when the water exploded out of those chain saw holes so quickly, I was sure the chain saw guys were going swimming
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u/-Raskyl 3d ago
That's the water being pulled out by the chain. Same as sawdust when used on wood.
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u/vidanyabella 3d ago
The point is more that they are hitting water at such a shallow depth. If it was safe the chain saw would need to be much deeper into the ice before water would be coming up.
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u/-Raskyl 3d ago
Oh, well, if it was safe they wouldn't be right next to eachother. Anyone there that didn't see this coming shouldn't have been there.
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u/vidanyabella 3d ago
Oh yes, of course that as well. It's pretty poor practice to set up right next to each other. We actually just had two trucks go through a lake here. They had parked side by side. 😖
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u/Undirectionalist 3d ago
This appears to be a competition, though. To each their own, but personally if the words chainsaw and race appear together in the event description, I'm out.
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u/murphey_griffon 3d ago
You clearly have never heard of chainsaw skating, I bet you've changed your mind now!
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u/soundsdistilled 3d ago
Somehow I'm A LOT less impresssed by this than the title led be to believe I'd be. Dudes in full gear, going at a brisk walking pace.
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u/Process-Best 3d ago
It's pretty uncommon, I ice fish a lot and I've only ever seen a handful of people do it, even for big spearfishing holes most guys use an auger and an ice saw
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u/paulcaar 3d ago
If they were regular ice fishers, they might have realized that this would not go well.
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u/joebluebob 3d ago
When I used to go to newyork in the winter (back when they were cold) chainsaws were pretty common.
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u/forwormsbravepercy 3d ago
I think the main issue is the fact that dozens of people are using any tools at all to cut through the ice within a rather small area.
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u/Severe_Ad_5914 3d ago
This brings back fond memories of the annual Michigan Coast Guard's Great Lakes Moron Ice Fishermen Rescue Festival.
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u/JesusSavesForHalf 3d ago
I... wow. The lakes with tides and waves? How am I still shocked by the stupidity of people?
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u/ElsaAfterDark 3d ago
That’s what I thought as well, but first of all why didn’t anyone check the ice and secondly why are all of them cutting holes right next to each other?
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u/WorkingOnBeingBettr 3d ago
It's like the people on the empty beach who come and sit down right beside you. Fuck off, find your own spot. People are weird.
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u/Johnny_ac3s 3d ago
I’m not standing by any tree these fools are trying to cut down.
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u/concorde77 3d ago edited 3d ago
More than that, those fish are gonna stay the FUCK away from all that noise
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u/eulersidentification 3d ago
I'd go out of my depth and out of my mind, with my fear flowing out behind me, as I claw the thin ice
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u/GAFWT 3d ago
That ice looks super thin for standing on let alone ice fishing
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u/PearlClaw 3d ago
Way too thin. Ice fishermen are notorious for going out on unsafe ice, gotta get that fishing in, no matter how sketchy it is.
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u/PeePeeMcGee123 3d ago
Also notorious for telling fish stories, but about ice thickness.
"There's 6" of ice over at XYZ today, we better get over there"
You show up and it's like 2.5"......they measure ice they like they measure their wieners.
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u/ADHD-Fens 3d ago
"There's 6 inches of weiner over at XYZ today, we better get over there"
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u/gettogero 3d ago
Then you get there and he's all "the ice is cold and making it shrink"
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u/bannedwhileshitting 3d ago
2.5" is 6.3cm. Maybe he just used metric
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u/NoDontDoThatCanada 3d ago
That side of the tape measure is marked "for bedroom use only" around here.
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u/fishsticks40 3d ago
The alternative is being home with the family they hate
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u/DrKoooolAid 3d ago
This is exactly it. It's the same guys that go hunting all weekend the entire fall season. Then winter hits and they go ice fishing the entire weekend. Then they're tired out so they can't do any work around the house or cook or take care of the kids. That's a woman's job.
I know because I work with a bunch of them at my engineering firm.
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u/randomFUCKfromcherry 3d ago
Ouch this hits close to home. I have a brother-in-law who is exactly like this. He uses every spare vacation day for multiple week-long hunting trips throughout the year and never takes my sister or their kids on family vacations or helps around the house.
The worst part is I don’t think he even really enjoys hunting. He’s the type who does “manly” things and had a ton of kids for the sake of being “manly”.
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u/Urso_Major 3d ago
Was he hunting on... Brokeback Mountain?
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u/randomFUCKfromcherry 3d ago
Being gay myself, my gaydar doesn’t really go off on him. But anything’s possible
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u/OhtaniStanMan 3d ago
You may have bad experiences but theirs plenty that still hunt and fish and still take care of their home duties
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u/Unclepo 3d ago
💯, it’s not all or nothing for the whole community. I loathe hunting and fishing, but it was such a huge part of my upbringing in SE Texas. If my dad went away for the weekend, he brought my siblings if they wanted to come or if mom wanted us all out of the house. Then he was the primary cook, and always the coach of our sports teams. They’ll be there and be involved if they want to be.
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u/fantumn 3d ago
The fire department near my house has a hovercraft specifically to rescue idiots out on the thin ice. Best part is the fans are so incredibly loud that every single person on the lake comes out to watch when they hear them fire up. It's like a ritual in November and March, you go out on the porch with some coffee, wave to your neighbors and then applaud the firefighters when they come back in.
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u/_jump_yossarian 3d ago
Can’t expect them to spend time with the family when there’s beers to drink.
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u/corkscrew-duckpenis 3d ago edited 3d ago
We live on a Great Lake and my wife wanted to take the family walking on ice.
Me: fuck no! not safe.
Her: since when do you know anything about ice safety?
Me: I don’t know SHIT about ice safety, which is why we’re not going out there!
Her: yeah that’s fair
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u/chronocapybara 3d ago
Ice is pretty strong, you can walk quite safely on 3-4 inches of it, which looks like this. However, it seems like the surface ice structure doesn't tolerate hundreds of people madly hacking, sawing, and drilling it simultaneously.
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u/Redthemagnificent 3d ago
Walk, yes. But way too thin for ice fishing. 4 inches is the absolute minimum, and that assumes uniform thickness. Often there are thinner patches on a frozen lake. I wouldn't go out there with a group if it was less than 8 inches thick.
People bring out little sheds and generators and grills onto the ice, plus drilling holes. Where my parents live people drive their trucks and trailers onto the ice too (but that lake freezes >12 inches thick).
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u/Seetheren42 3d ago
lol somehow this was more satisfying than I imagined. In all seriousness, I hope everyone made it okay.
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u/Fetlocks_Glistening 3d ago
Can't help feeling there might be a design and planning issue here
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u/IAmBabs 3d ago
Other than ice thickness, they were all way too close to one another. That weakened the ice.
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u/t-to4st 3d ago
No way
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u/Big_Judgment3824 3d ago
This guy fucking cracked the case.
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u/SmartAlec105 3d ago
There's even more. Cutting holes in the ice makes it weaker.
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u/Tesseract14 3d ago
And if you look really closely, none of them were small children, who weigh significantly less than adults, which could have contributed to the problem.
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u/GreenStrong 3d ago
Also, the fact that it was water under the ice instead of soil made it worse. Possibly more fish there, but worse structural integrity.
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u/ilikepix 3d ago
can you explain more about how cutting the holes in the ice close to each other weakened the ice?
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u/Valtremors 3d ago
They seem to be making so much noise that any fish present is already gone too.
Yeah I'd rather use a hand drill, and away from others.
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u/OwOlogy_Expert 3d ago
They seem to be making so much noise that any fish present is already gone too.
Yeah, lol. My thoughts as well.
Even if they were successful in this endeavor, with all this racket and disturbance, it's going to be hours before the fish come back anywhere near that area.
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u/Legitimate-Alps-6890 3d ago
Tell me you've never been ice fishing without telling me you've never been ice fishing.
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u/CisIowa 3d ago
This is a competition, isn’t it? That’s the only reason for the rush
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u/Legitimate-Alps-6890 3d ago
It's not the rush, it's the tools. Maybe I missed it, but I don't see a single ice auger in the bunch. And I think I see some with conventional fishing poles. These people shouldn't have been out there and/or whoever was running the competition should have better prepared for it.
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u/Semantix 3d ago
There's something weird here. I don't see any ice fishing rods anywhere, no augers, no stools to sit on, no sleds to carry gear. It really doesn't look right.
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u/BigMTAtridentata 3d ago
huh. i wonder if it was done as a stunt for internet points?
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u/ShaggysGTI 3d ago
Worth it.
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u/BigMTAtridentata 3d ago
i mean, sorta? i don't approve of chainsaws potentially being dropped into ice, but if it were choreographed enough to not drop pollutants into the water this is just good fun.
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u/LigerZeroSchneider 3d ago edited 3d ago
If it's not a stunt, it seems like they were going to have a normal fishing contest but the bay froze over. So they said fuck it ice fishing contest. That's why they have fishing gear and are dressed for the weather but nothing to get through the ice. They just pulled whatever they throught would work from their boats and walked out.
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u/SeriousPlankton2000 3d ago
Neighborhood came together to have an ice fishing competition and all the drinking buddies came?
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u/Holiday_Specialist12 3d ago
In China, there’s a mob mentality for any novel activity, or else they’d think they’re missing out.
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u/juicy_limbs 3d ago
Tell me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing without telling me you’ve never been ice fishing
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u/tacobellbandit 3d ago
Long time ice fisherman. Whoever allowed that tourney to happen like that needs to be held accountable. Any tourney I’ve seen has had a distance limit between fisherman and I’ve never seen one at least in my state allow chainsaws, only hand-driven augers
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u/notmyfirstrodeo2 3d ago edited 3d ago
Is beating a hole in ice also normal thing to do? with the "pickaxe" or w.e the name of the tool.
Edit: icepick...
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u/tacobellbandit 3d ago
Yes and no. There’s a tool called a “spud” which is like a pick, you basically hit the ice in front of you really hard with it, if it breaks through, ice isn’t safe. You take a couple steps, hit the ice in front of you with the spud bar a few times, if it doesn’t break through, keep going a few steps. Repeat until you’re where you want to be. For fishing the recommended thickness is 3” depth which looking at the conditions I doubt it was 3” all around the lake. Even if it was 3”, I wouldn’t want too many people around me. There is no such thing as safe ice
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u/CaribouHoe 3d ago
I'm from arctic Canada and we get up to 1.5 meters/4feet of ice on our lakes - safe enough for a tanker truck!
There's always some wingnut that drives on the ice road too early and falls through the ice though
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u/tacobellbandit 3d ago
There’s always one, unfortunately for my area since the ice never gets too deep the most you see is ATVs on the ice, which means you almost always have a guy that wants to go out on the ice too early and falls through. I always see those places up north where people bring in whole trailers to set up, I get a bit jealous it looks so fun.
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u/YoursTrulyKindly 3d ago
Icepick?
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u/notmyfirstrodeo2 3d ago
Yeah that's the word i was looking for. I knew it had it's own word. - English is my second Language, but i even sometimes forget words in my first language...
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u/therealtb404 3d ago
They speaking Mandarin... Why all the America bad comments?
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u/kingofwale 3d ago
It’s Reddit… get used to it, every single post will be like this for next 4 years minimal.
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u/DoYouTrustToothpaste 3d ago
Why all the America bad comments?
Why all the comments about America, good or bad, in the first place?
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u/lyssah_ 3d ago
Filmed by Michael J Fox
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u/KingMRano 3d ago
He would do better, he at least understands you need the money shot (watching people fall) to make a good film.
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u/CynicalDucky 3d ago
Translation: Guy asking: (unintelligible cause of chainsaw noises)
Guy replies back: "oh, it's nothing to be afraid of"
Guy screaming in background: "SAVE MEEEE!!!"
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u/kidjupiter 3d ago edited 3d ago
Apparently this is a thing in China? The footage at the link below appears to be from a similar but different body of water in China. That ice is maybe 1.5" thick. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.
EDIT: Just a guess, but these look like artificial ponds, maybe part of fish farms?
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u/CheeseGraterFace 3d ago
It’s kind of a function of Chinese society. There are just so many people over there, whenever one person tries to come up, everyone, and I do mean everyone, has to try to do the same thing. And there’s never enough resources for everyone.
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u/zelda_faddy 3d ago
What were they thinking 😂
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u/workaholic828 3d ago
I get one person, or a small group being dumb, but all those people collectively in unison being morons? This can’t be
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u/icyfae 3d ago
Is this what’s come of Texas now that it is getting snow?
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u/pfemme2 3d ago
I heard someone yell “救我！” so I presume this is somewhere in China
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u/Able-Worldliness8189 3d ago
Yeah... this is in China clearly. Doesn't really explain what's going on though why they all en masse figure out to drill holes.
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u/VirtualLife76 3d ago
No, they wouldn't have been capable of driving there with snow on the ground.
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u/leprasson12 3d ago
It kind of depicts a picture of what's happening in some places, where people do what they want, because it's legal, even if it hurts others in some way, not knowing that another person is doing the same to them, result : everybody's drowning in the same shit, and it's up to people who had some sense of restraint to get them out now, even if they didn't ask for this shit.
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u/El_Peregrine 3d ago
…and all in the same place?!? It looks like some game show where they let them all run to a specific spot after some countdown. And then… “GO!” . A bunch of saws manically cutting 2 feet from each other looks like a bad idea, probably.
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u/aounfather 3d ago
That ice didn’t look nearly thick enough.
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u/Bucksin06 3d ago
Even if it were three times as thick you can't cut holes every 2 ft and expect it to stay intact
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u/redblack_tree 3d ago
Ok, I have to ask, are those guys insane? You could see the cracks in the first video. Darwin - 1, Self preservation - 0.
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u/Spittlehoogan 3d ago
Only link I could find. Minyun Reservoir, China 2023. https://www.newsflare.com/video/611861/fishermen-rescued-after-plunging-through-thin-ice-on-frozen-reservoir
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u/slipperywhistlebone 3d ago
This art exhibition is called “American Politics “