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I was out on what Is in my opinion “safe ice” last Monday on a southern Ontario lake.  There will be some safe ice in many areas of many lakes all across Ontario now.  But not all areas of all lakes.  The trick is that you or someone you have faith in needs to know what’s up.  That’s experience gained only by getting out there and doing it.  No one can tell you that Ice is absolutely safe, especially as a lot of larger waterbodies just started freeze up in the last week.

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1 hour ago, Eserf said:

What methods do you use to flood? Just spray water or do you have a makeshift zamboni system?

i drill a hole with an auger and drop down a sump pump, attach to a small length of hose , and fill a big clam sled full of water , drag it across and dump it ,.. it’s a lot of work .. my pump is not strong enough to hook a long hose and spray ...

my friend picked up a gas powered pump and fire hose ... that is the way to go .. done in 2 minutes .. always do in the evening so night temps really set up the ice ... it’s still a learning process , i hope to have a better method next winter .. are you also doing a rink ?

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1 hour ago, Jds63 said:

i drill a hole with an auger and drop down a sump pump, attach to a small length of hose , and fill a big clam sled full of water , drag it across and dump it ,.. it’s a lot of work .. my pump is not strong enough to hook a long hose and spray ...

my friend picked up a gas powered pump and fire hose ... that is the way to go .. done in 2 minutes .. always do in the evening so night temps really set up the ice ... it’s still a learning process , i hope to have a better method next winter .. are you also doing a rink ?

We make a rink every year for the last three years. We rent as a group once per winter for four days. We have a big group of guys so we make quick work of clearing the snow. Then we start a flood by using the auger to draw up water from the whole. This year i have a pump that uses the power from the drill to spin the turbine. Hope that doesnt freeze up but worth a shot. 

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Every time I’ve used a sump pump I end up getting shale ice...any ideas? Maybe it’s just too cold when I’ve tried it causing the ice to not freeze nicely? My solution has been the extremely labour intense process of hauling buckets of hot water down to the lake and pre filling in the cracks that form with snow. Then running around with a puck and packing slush into the ruts. It at least patched up the bad areas and cracks but I’ve never had luck straight up flooding the ice? Maybe I need more/less water? 
 

any ideal temperature? Tips? I plan on making a rink on Thursday 

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Ice was great over Christmas even saw a couple snowmobiles out. Did catch anything but still tried. We also made a really nice rink. I got up to 8" in some spots. It got warm Over the last two days with some rain so a decent amount of melt but before that was nice

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