Cold-water Immersion/Dunk Experiences

[Mike33]

Was reading an article in the Jan-Feb issue of Ontario out of Doors on falling through the ice and thought it would be interesting to start a topic on everyone’s personal experiences. They mention a “1-10-1” rule in the article meaning you have:

1 minute to regain/regulate your breathing

10 minutes of meaningful movement following immersion

1 hour before you become unconscious due to symptoms of hypothermia

I personally have not fallen through the ice, my only cold-water experience was flipping on a kayak in mid November on a back lake near my family cottage. I was able to paddle back and warm up but I’ve always thought back on that experience and what if I had been in a more remote location.

[Fishnhunt]

We trout fish right after ice out and take all our kids so it’s always been a concern for me as well. The water temps are usually in the low forties so we are super careful. I will have to read that article. Thanks for the heads up.

[Mike33]

An older article they have up online but has some interesting information on temperature in relation to ice formation and degradation: https://oodmag.com/solid-water-safety/

[Icemanjay]

I’m happy to say I’ve never had a breakthrough experience as I usually try to wait till I know 100% we’re good. I have a rule that I’ll usually go out once the ice is safe enough for a machine. I’m a walker but someone could pull up on a machine to ask how the fishing is. Nothing against guys on machines btw, I’m thinking of getting one myself. Having said that anything can happen at any time so you need to take all the precautions. Like Mike Tyson said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. I fish on Lake Ontario regularly and am very cautious that I’m prepared incase something were to go wrong. It would be a bad situation falling off the boat but even a breakdown and being out there for a night at the right time of year would be disastrous.

[sabmgb]

I went through once when I was a very young guy. It was in about 10ft of water in a wide creek, had to break ice and swim to shore about 10ft. Lucky for me that it was early spring or late winter and temps were pretty warm and I walked home and got changed and went back to school. There is a really good video out there that some professor has done on the timings of what happens, he even jumps in a hole in ice to show what happens, has spotters. Can't remember his name, I'm sure it will be on youtube somewhere.