People in cold climates do weird things to survive the winter. Take for instance the Minnesota fishermen who don't let 14 inches (36cm) of ice on a frozen lake keep them from pulling lunkers up through an 8" hole. Some might say all ice fishermen do is sit around and get drunk. Well, we did our fair share of that last weekend, but we also brought my old Rat Ride 1x1 with studded tires, just for a little change of pace from the jig-n-swig.



After a two-hour drive up north, we drove straight onto the ice of Lake Mille Lacs 1.5 miles (2.4km) out from shore. For any warm climate folks out there, yes, you really can drive your car on a frozen lake. We dropped our stuff in the pre-warmed fish house, cracked a beer and dropped our lines in the pre-drilled holes.

It was a premo day, probably 20F (-7C) degrees and sunny. The grillmaster was cooking us something from all four meat groups. The ice was solid, but there were pressure ridges that create open water when the ice expands and cracks. I took a video while riding the Rat Ride and if you look closely, you'll see the crack with open water I rode across three times. Sketchy, but cool.



This party of grumpy old men only caught three perch and two eelpout, I contributed zero. Did I care? Hell no. I was outside with a bunch of my good buddies and all I had to worry about for the next 24 hours was not dropping my beer down the hole.



Brauer Power shows just how hard icefishing can be.