It was a beautiful day to go fishing, so my brother, sister, my dad, and I hopped into the truck and went on the lake. There had been a snowstorm a few days before, so the main road on the lake was blown shut. The day before we went fishing, a person plowed open the “super highway.” All the snow from the road was pushed on the side where our fish house was, and it melted so you could not tell there was slush. We did not know that before we went onto the lake.
“Kids roll down your windows, just in case we fall in,” dad said as he drove onto the lake.
“Oh that is real reassuring,” I said under my breath.
As dad drove us onto the lake, we took his advice and rolled down our windows. We also unbuckled our seatbelts just in case we would go under, so we would not have to worry about trying to unbuckle while under water. Driving on the ice was a bit scary because you never knew how tall the snow drifts were or when you would hit a slush spot. Usually, if locked in four-wheel drive while on the plowed paths, a vehicle would not get stuck. Dad was not one of those people who put their fish house right off the plowed path. He put his fish house about three miles off shore, which was a bit insane. I prefer to be closer to shore in case something were to happen, like falling through the ice. Dad preferred walleye fishing, while I preferred sonnies and crappies.
We were driving off the beaten path on the lake when all of a sudden the truck tires started spinning. Little did we know the truck was in a huge patch of slush. My dad hit the gas and tried turning the steering wheel to get some traction; the truck just went deeper into what we thought was snow. My siblings and I got out of the truck to try to put snow under the tires and were instantly knee deep in slush. Turned out, there was a thin coat of snow over inches of slush. My dad looked like he just saw a monster when he saw us knee deep in slush.
“Ok, kids get back in the truck and I’m going to call Tom to see if he can come and pull us out,” dad said.
We got back into the truck and waited for Tom to come and rescue us. I did not have a good feeling about this, but my siblings never took me seriously because I never had a good feeling about going onto the lake. Several minutes later, Tom arrived and hooked on. I decided to wait on the ice just in case the truck was to go under. He hit the gas and our truck jerked to the left into even more slush. This was not good because our truck started pulling Tom’s truck in the slush too. After a couple of more attempts, both trucks were officially stuck.
“Kids wait on the ice until the truck gets pulled out,” dad instructed.
Tom and dad decided to call another friend, Tim, to see if he could get both of their trucks out of the slush. Tim came and hooked on to Tom’s truck and was only pulled back. Dad’s and Tom’s trucks were both pulled even farther back into the water. All of a sudden, we heard glug, glug, glug, and dad’s and Tom’s trucks started filling with water. I, for sure, thought they were goners, but miraculously they stopped sinking just as the water reached up over the hood.
By this time, there was a crowd forming close by to watch what was going on. A couple of the people with bigger trucks came over and offered to hook on. One of the men suggested getting a big spool from the power company to help lift the back of the truck out of the water so they could then pull out the truck. They would have liked to lift the front end out because it would be easier to hook on to but it was too dangerous to walk in front of the truck because a big hole of water opened up in the front of the truck. Someone brought a big spool from one of the local power companies and towropes were passed around to those who were going to help pull the trucks out of the water.
The spool was rolled in front of Tom’s truck and a towrope was wrapped around the spool and then attached to his truck. Seven trucks hooked onto the two in the water, so they were now in a line. Once all of the trucks had been hooked on, all the men got in their trucks. A guy stood in front of the line of trucks and signaled to the men to start moving forward. There was so much energy from the trucks pulling out the two that were stuck, Tom’s went right over the spool and smashed onto the ice. The cab was destroyed and dads started rising up over the spool but the front guy stopped just in the nick of time.
Tom’s truck flipped back onto its wheels, and both trucks were pulled to the safety of the plowed road. The doors to dad’s truck opened, and it was like Niagara Falls as the water gushed out. Tom’s truck was opened the best they could so the water could gush out. The trucks were pulled to my dad’s shop, which was not even a quarter mile down the road. We had to ride with other people because of the wet cab, and the engine was ruined so it would no longer start; not that dad was willing to take the chance of starting it.
After all the commotion of pulling out the trucks, five hours had passed. There was a big gathering at the shop and a celebration of a safe rescue were in progress when someone brought up telling my mom what had happened. During the catastrophe, nobody had bothered to called my mom and inform her of what had happened. My dad dreaded making the call because he knew she would be very angry. He not only totaled his truck, but she got a new vehicle two months before, and dad had just gotten a new truck the year before. He has two trucks and the one that was totaled was the “older one.” They really did not need another vehicle payment. Dad made that dreadful call, and you did not need it on speakerphone to hear what she had to say. Everyone stood there in stunned silence while mom chewed dad out. She was so loud that dad held the phone away from his hear and started making faces at the phone (she does not know he does that sometimes) while the rest of us tried to stifle our laughter.
Two days later, a brand new silver Chevy pulled into the driveway. Dad had been looking at trucks for a while before the incident happened, so he was able to go check out some of the better trucks. The insurance money helped to cover some of the cost of the new truck. Dad is very daring because a week later he took out his other truck (not the new one) to get his fish house off the lake. Mom forbade him to drive his trucks onto the lake, but dad still does sometimes. Usually he drives one of the four wheelers on the lake.
The anglers who were there that day are more cautious about going onto the lake. There was many rumors made up about what we were doing on the lake and how the trucks fell through, but none of them was close to the real reason. Rumors can get very out of hand. Take our advice and know the local snowfall amounts, and the location of the slush.
Ice Fishing Safety Paper
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