Bill got the D.O. meter ready to go. You said you wanted some D.O. readings.

You ready to come over and make the holes? The blades in my auger are dull and there's probably 18 inches of ice.

If your auger is dull how do you know your ice is 18" thick. Mine under the snow is 11". I'm going out now to check some ice thickness in the area that I was aerating and in other areas that were just cleaned of snow. Just wear some snowshoes or skis and ease up to a hole. Get out your spud and sharpen it. You need some exercise.

Cecil, the ice on my pond is only 13" thick.

You just had to ruin it didn't ya. You guys are no fun!

Here's a report from a friend on a lake north of me in Lagrange or Steuben County. I guess I "assumed" my pond would be comparable.

Last night at Wall Lake I checked with my jigging rod and from the top of the snow/slush crust to the bottom of the ice is 24". There's about 6" or so of frozen slush on top so taking that away still leaves 16-18" of good solid ice. PLENTY, makes a guy glad for a power auger.

Ice above the aerator was 5" thick. Aerator was shut off 3 days ago before the last 7" snow. Ice in several other areas of the pond was a pretty uniform 11" thick.

Back on Jan 18 DO at 5ft to bottom was 2.0-2.3; water temp was 39F and 40F at bottom.

Aeration started and after 4 days DO increased to 6.3Surf, middle 4.5 and bottom 3.2-3.4 ppm. Water bottom temps 36.0-36.3F.

On Feb3 after aerating 16 days DO was 5.1 to 6.1 and water bottom temps dropped to 33.6-34.4F. Aeration was stopped since water had good DO although water temps were cold.

On Feb 11 with aerator still off DO at bottom in several areas was still good 3.6, 4.0, 4.6. Bottom temps warmed slightly to 34.4 to 35.1.

If I get time tomorrow I will time how long it takes me to spud through 11" of ice. We will see if CB1 can match my spud speed which as I recall correctly is about twice as slow as me with an hand auger.

Thanks Bill. Very informative. You did such an excellent job you need to come over here and check both of my ponds.

Heck I'll make it easy on you. I'll get Scott to make the holes, and you drop in the probe, while I stay in the house and keep a look out to make sure you two are safe. Be glad I blew snow of the pond so you two can get around easier! Jeeze what more do you want?

Read my spud challenge above. Do some good pond science for us on the Forum.

How about you driving over and I will loan you my auger.

Bill, I'll drill a hole in my pond and time myselfwith my Strike King hand Laser auger. Then Cecil can compare his time to mine after he picks up your auger.

I'm switching to thermite. It worked in the sci-fi classic "The Thing"

That's some scary sheet!

I used my ice spud to chop a 7"-8" dia hole in 12" of ice. I encountered a water layer at 4"-5" deep and then had to continue chopping ice in a slushy watery mix. It took 2.5 minutes to complete the ice hole. IMO a sharp spud can create a hole through the ice faster than a dull ice auger. In another thread Cecil mentioned that it took him 25 minutes to create a hole through 15" of ice.

Well my spud is probably dull too.

Is a round drilled hole less stress on a caught fish than a square spudded hole? I do know one looks like a wastebasket and the other resembles a small dumpster.

Study: is your answer to this question concordant or discordant with your views on square vs. round fish hauling totes?

Good one Bob!

Boco, I think it's discormorant but not positive. Thanks C man.