Diving Virgin Holes,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Terry]

                  I was out yesterday on White Bear Lake with Steve, Dave and Joe, and once again I learned another good  lesson on diving. The first guys in the hole get all the good stuff, Joe and Dave first in the first hole and they get the anchors, Steve and I second we get nothing, well other then my cool muskie lure. Next dive Steve and I are in first and we score. That proves it,,,,its only virgin holes for me, maybe next winter I'll feel different, and I dont care if I've got to carve the whole lake up into a huge cooler, I'm cutting a new hole, each time I'm going in!      TRINITY 

[rcojr]

Terry
So what happened with that Tuesday night dive out of that guys spear fishing house?
Bob

[Terry]

                  I liked it, no score for a virgin hole, so its not like a mathmatical law that first in get all the stuff, :-\ bottom was too soft, just muck. Its a little funky icing at night but is was a good time. I brought a little heater for the tenders in the shack and a coleman lantern for light. Did see lots of fish by comparison to icing during the day, least for WBLake. 175' is plenty of line for icing, at night. I did think it would be kind of cool to bring my 5KW Honda generator and a 6 pack of 400 watt metal arcs directed into the ice to illuminate it up around the parameter of the hole probably 75' out. Maybe next time,,, see you Sat. Robert    TRINITY

[doug67]

I disagree Terry, I found three anchors on my 2nd dive and I was the last in the hole. Doesn't matter if its a virgin hole just that you know what your doing once you get in the hole. ;D

[Terry]

                    Hey dude!
                            Welcome, welcome back! You do make me smile. Hey you in on Sun with Joe, Steve and me, either WBLake or Bald Eagle, or has the blue water made you soft?        TRINITY

[doug67]

Sounds good. I'm ready to go now that the airline got my dive stuff back.

[Terry]

              Glad to here it Doug! You must of been flying TACA (,,,, Take another chance airways :-\) when it comes to luggage.
              Speaking of airlines, I'd like to high-jack my own blog and see what everyone (who dove with me),,,, Steve, Joe, Dave Torry, Matt,  Doug, Carl, Tullie, Bob, Robert, (and those who'd like to respond) thoughts of icing this winter with me and my gear, to get set up for next winter. Lets hear your thoughts on 175' twisted poly lines, (too short, too long?) two divers one line, mostly pulling blocks up, (almost) everyone running pony's, beyond the tender, locking biners to my Silverado, ( I mean they did go belly-up). It seemed all and all a relatively funtional system, through - out the winter, except,,,, when I locked my keys in my truck on Minnetonka, and again two weeks later on Bald Eagle Lake, AND couldn't bust thru the slider with a 12 pound spud, but could slit open my drysuit, crawling thru the opening, letting me choose Bald Eagle to begin with, continuing to dive with my free-flowing reg for half the winter, ya lets forget all that stuff, but if you did make a run or two, lets hear your thoughts for next winter.      THANKS!      Terry

[mattd]

Well, my ice experience is limited to 5 dives and you were at all of them, so take this for what its worth......

I thought it worked really well to chain the lines to the truck.  You might want to add a longer line and a slip on your spud so you can clip that to the truck too - don't want to set any more of them free.

[Hydro]

i think the setups were good, we had decent weather so being out on the lake above the ice was comfortable.

sand was really the thing that was kind of more hassle than it was worth.

keeping the correct tension in the line is always kind of an art, its easy when divers are going out, but when they start to circle and come back you can generate some slack or too much tension... i've played with the idea of a hand held tensioning device to keep it tight enough, but thats just me bored at work

ice screws always come in handy, and i gotta start planning those ice saws... i think the chainsaw to cut 98% of the hole, then the auger and the hand saw to clean it up worked the best for not wedging the wedge.

we need a double wide trailer house with a hole in the living room floor for next year.

we also need to get a spud that won't bend... would pipe with a wedge welded on work better than rebar (the other idea for a cheap spud) a good ice axe for pulling ice chunks would have been handy, arcflash's was decent enough tho.

[tullibee]

You should have mentioned the ice axe earlier Joe - I think I've still got one in the back of the truck somewhee!  >  (just one of those things you buy from Sportsmans Guide when they're on sale!)