So with the early ice we’ve had, I had a discussion with a buddy recently about first ice etiquette and the fact that some want to fish the early ice while some want to bust up the ice and use the boat. I’m a musky fisherman and I’ve fished late season main lake with bays froze over and guys ice fishing. I had to break ice to launch and luckily there were no ice fisherman near the launch. But if there were guys on the ice near the launch, etiquette tells me to find another launch or lake. But end of the day it’s a boat launch and if it’s the only place to launch begs the question of who has right of way, so to speak. Last year I saw a video of a Green Bay guide filming a boat on the Fox River and calling this guy a number of names for flying up and down the river in his boat and ruining the first good ice that was formed.
I’m a boat fisherman first but respect that the ice season is short. With this mild weather streak we have coming up I’ll be launching somewhere and if I have to sacrifice some early ice so be it so long as no one is in harms way.
