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Trying to bounce some ideas off you guys to get some feedback to try and come up with something to make.

Last weekend I hit the water at 5:00 AM (when the refuge opens) and the ice was forming. I opened a hole for my decoys, and had to re-open it 4 times through out the morning until the sun was up enough to start heating everything. There was more ice on the pond when I left at noon than there was when I paddled out at 5. I've been trying to come up with ideas to keep the water open without having to push the kayak out as an ice plow to keep it open (I'm already at a disadvantage with not having a spinner). The thought turned to heating the water with a candle or something. My thought was to take a couple of coffee cans, weigh the bottoms so they sit down in the water some, and put a couple candles in them to heat it up hoping that if I put 3 or 4 of those thru the decoys it would keep the water open around them. Obviously, it would have to have some sort of lid to keep the light from shining up wards. This would be used only when I have opened up a hole, so there shouldn't be any big waves to knock them around to tip over.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Goldfish wrote:Trying to bounce some ideas off you guys to get some feedback to try and come up with something to make.

Last weekend I hit the water at 5:00 AM (when the refuge opens) and the ice was forming. I opened a hole for my decoys, and had to re-open it 4 times through out the morning until the sun was up enough to start heating everything. There was more ice on the pond when I left at noon than there was when I paddled out at 5. I've been trying to come up with ideas to keep the water open without having to push the kayak out as an ice plow to keep it open (I'm already at a disadvantage with not having a spinner). The thought turned to heating the water with a candle or something. My thought was to take a couple of coffee cans, weigh the bottoms so they sit down in the water some, and put a couple candles in them to heat it up hoping that if I put 3 or 4 of those thru the decoys it would keep the water open around them. Obviously, it would have to have some sort of lid to keep the light from shining up wards. This would be used only when I have opened up a hole, so there shouldn't be any big waves to knock them around to tip over.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

That would never work. A candle produces one BTU I believe. No way it would keep up. I use my mallard machine to keep ice off my hole.

Public land, and I'm thinking coffee can with 3 candles per can

sent from a phancy fone

It would be more expensive but coffee cans with hot hands in them with the lid on would float right there and wouldn't worry about extinguishing them.


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FlintRiverFowler wrote:It would be more expensive but coffee cans with hot hands in them with the lid on would float right there and wouldn't worry about extinguishing them.


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Hot hands need oxygen to activate the charcoal and stay warm....

You could try pouring your bong water in your honey hole?

is this a joke?

Take about 45 of these along. Lob four or five into the hole about every 20 minutes or so.

Goldfish wrote:Public land, and I'm thinking coffee can with 3 candles per can

sent from a phancy fone

You are talking about 33 degree water here. 10,000 candles wouldn't keep a hole in the ice from freezing. My mallard machine(homemade) will keep a 50 yard hole from freezing as long as it isnt extremely cold.

Yea i guess it's more about keeping the water moving than a warmth thing. I wouldn't know. I've never had this problem as it rarely even freezes here.


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Just to put it into perspective. It takes 1200 BTU's to turn 1 gallon of 32 degree ice into 1 gallon of 32 degree water...That's in a 32 degree controlled enviroment. Now if the air temp is below 32, which it almost definitely is, imagine what you need to keep just 1 gallon from freezing.

Eric Haynes wrote:

Goldfish wrote:Trying to bounce some ideas off you guys to get some feedback to try and come up with something to make.

Last weekend I hit the water at 5:00 AM (when the refuge opens) and the ice was forming. I opened a hole for my decoys, and had to re-open it 4 times through out the morning until the sun was up enough to start heating everything. There was more ice on the pond when I left at noon than there was when I paddled out at 5. I've been trying to come up with ideas to keep the water open without having to push the kayak out as an ice plow to keep it open (I'm already at a disadvantage with not having a spinner). The thought turned to heating the water with a candle or something. My thought was to take a couple of coffee cans, weigh the bottoms so they sit down in the water some, and put a couple candles in them to heat it up hoping that if I put 3 or 4 of those thru the decoys it would keep the water open around them. Obviously, it would have to have some sort of lid to keep the light from shining up wards. This would be used only when I have opened up a hole, so there shouldn't be any big waves to knock them around to tip over.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

That would never work. A candle produces one BTU I believe. No way it would keep up. I use my mallard machine to keep ice off my hole.

I would think that a jerk rig would keep the water moving enough to work better than a bunch of candles in coffee cans.

3legged_lab wrote:

Eric Haynes wrote:

Goldfish wrote:Trying to bounce some ideas off you guys to get some feedback to try and come up with something to make.

Last weekend I hit the water at 5:00 AM (when the refuge opens) and the ice was forming. I opened a hole for my decoys, and had to re-open it 4 times through out the morning until the sun was up enough to start heating everything. There was more ice on the pond when I left at noon than there was when I paddled out at 5. I've been trying to come up with ideas to keep the water open without having to push the kayak out as an ice plow to keep it open (I'm already at a disadvantage with not having a spinner). The thought turned to heating the water with a candle or something. My thought was to take a couple of coffee cans, weigh the bottoms so they sit down in the water some, and put a couple candles in them to heat it up hoping that if I put 3 or 4 of those thru the decoys it would keep the water open around them. Obviously, it would have to have some sort of lid to keep the light from shining up wards. This would be used only when I have opened up a hole, so there shouldn't be any big waves to knock them around to tip over.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

That would never work. A candle produces one BTU I believe. No way it would keep up. I use my mallard machine to keep ice off my hole.

I would think that a jerk rig would keep the water moving enough to work better than a bunch of candles in coffee cans.

Basically all a mallard machine does is act as a lazy man's jerk rig. Does a good job.

assateague wrote:Take about 45 of these along. Lob four or five into the hole about every 20 minutes or so.

Wtf are those?

No joke. Trying to come up with ideas that are out of the box. I don't have the funds to drop on mallard machines or ice eaters with generators. I've thought about a trolling motor, but then remembered that no motorized propulsion is allowed on the NWR and I don't want to have to fight to explain it's for keeping ice open and not getting around. Plus on the wmas around here, there is no motorized anythings allowed (no spinners, no quiver magnets, no motors).

And if I dumped the bong water, I'd have to fill it with swamp water for round 2. No thanks

sent from a phancy fone

Bath fizzers. My wife uses them all the time. Like alka-seltzers on steroids. Supposedly you can make your own. I was only kidding, but now that I think about it, if you could make one the size of a bowling ball for a couple bucks, you might be in business.