I was thinking of this post and mentioned it to a childhood friend who stopped by last nite.He reminded me of a situation we had been in years ago....

When I was a teen(Why do all my craziest tales start this way? Its amazing what young men do fueled on hormones and lack of common sense)living in northern NB the Atlantic Smelt run in mid December was a much anticipated event.Not a huge fish but huge numbers would be caught on every tide.Catches of 250 fish on a hand rod in 5 hours isnt uncommon.The ice was late that year and hadnt come yet to tidal river estuary we normally put our ice huts on.We managed to find a narrow bay that had iced over.We ran down over the roadside bank and checked the thickness...4" of ice, more than enough to support us.
We drilled holes with an old hand powered auger, and fished for nearly an hour before another car stopped along the road.4 fishermen had saw us sitting on buckets and went home got their gear and returned.
These for guys drilled about 16 holes and were trying to fish them all at once , running full tilt from hole to hole, well under the 4" of ice was less than 6' of water and the fishing quickly shut down due to the ruckes they made.Having caught enough fish for a meal each, we packed our gear waved goodbye to the others and headed the 70 yard walk back to shore.When we got there we discovered that there was 20feet of water between the ice edge and the shore.We didnt worry because we knew when the tide rises it sometimes pushes water up and over the ice shelf.When the tide drops the water would recede.Not wanting to wait on the tide we walked the edge and luckly spotted a slab of ice large enough to float us and our gear across , using the auger as a makeshift paddle.We shouted a warning to the 4 left out on the sheet that they might want to get off now or were gonna have to stay til low tide but they waved it off.Car loaded, we left heading for home.
Maybe 1 hour passed when Firetrucks with sirens blazing flew passed my home, heading towards the bay we had left.Seems the wind picked up, pushing the sheet of ice out into the Chanel.When the Coastguards Search and Rescue found the 4 fishermen they were on a 10x10 piece of ice as the sheet had broke up in the wind and current.
All were ok, just cold,wet and scared.Luckily they had been spotted by helicopter at the edge of dusk. They had drifted out into the bay and where a few short miles from heading into the North Atlantic.
I never again set foot on ice that wasnt locked in all the way across.

Yeah I was prefishing for a salmon tournament by myself ina 17' center counsel.. It was foggy and I was by myself in the middle of the straits of mackinac where two shipping channels and a two ferry routes meet. I was going slowly watching the fishfinder. Suddenly the fog clears.I see the top of a ferry screaming towards me a couple hundred yards away. I high tail it out of there to get out of the ferry lane and within site of shore. It was the only time the whole morning the fog lifted at all. Decided maybe I could have waited until afternoon or evening to scout.

I was in California this summer fly fishing the Sierras with my boys and fellow blogger TenkaraUSA. We headed up into the mountains to a place I had never been before but had heard great stories of 18in browns in small water. After a short walk from the road we ran into a shear rock face falling down to the water at least 300 feet below. Against the little voice in my head we began to descend. It was not as bad as it looked and we made it to the water just fine. Being the gracious host I was I agreed to let my youngest and TenkaraUSA work upstream. My oldest and myself worked down stream. It turned out that down stream was where all the fun was. The stream pinched between two high rock faces and fell about 20 feet to the next hole. We had to climb back up the face and swing back over to the other side of the pinch point. It looked easy but over 1 hour later, my fingers sore from grabbing rock, my rod stuck in the back of my pants to free up my other hand and nerves shaken from balancing on the narrow ledges high above the water we made it to the next hole. My son and I sat down for a moment and after only a couple cast I began to worry that my youngest would try to follow not knowing the danger. He is 14 years old. The age when you will try anything. I decided to go back to head him off. He was nowhere to be found. TenkaraUSA had a whistle but he never responded. It was difficult to hear over the rush of the water. Fearful he took a plunge I climbed out of the canyon for a third time see if I could spot him. Nothing. By this time I was flying over the rocks like a billy goat paying no heed to the height of the ledges. About 30 frantic minutes later I spot him on the opposite side of canyon sliding down a rock face on his butt to get to a hole. Relieved only a little I was able to get his attention and with hand signals motioned him back to the rally point. He climbed back over to where we all met. After close to 5 hours of "fishing" I made only a few cast. I said lets get the hell out of here. All caught fish but me. Go figure. I have attached a photo of the canyon.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s280/jkreager/cr436andCA094-1.jpg

Pretty spot. As a rule I don't fish where I can't get out of any situation I might get into, nor where the fish could eat me.

Wow! That canyon looks like something I'd stay away from. Good stories everyone, tfs.