Roll call!

Come on people.  Be smart out there.  I get the "don't want to wear life vest" drownings each year, because wearing those can suck.  But this one is senseless.  Nobody could have thought that ice was okay this early.  That's a shame.  Thoughts for the lost angler and his family.  

I've never fished on the ice, and don't ever see that changing.  Really sad to see this, especially a week before Christmas.  
 
 
From the Butler Eagle:
 
FRANKLIN TWP — Emergency crews have recovered the body of a fisherman who fell through the ice on Lake Arthur near the Route 528 boat launch at Moraine State Park Monday morning.
Pierre C. Niesen Jr., 71, from the Pittsburgh area died of drowning and hypothermia, said William Young III, Butler County coroner, Monday night.
 
A park visitor called 911 about 10 a.m. after reportedly seeing someone in distress in the lake about 60 yards from an access road.
“The caller just saw an arm waving,” Park Manager Dustin Drew said.
Park officials got there and found fishing gear near a hole in the water. There was no sign of the man.
Drew estimate the water depth at the site to be 8 feet and the temperature about 32 degrees.
 
 
 

I'm no ice fisherman, but we've all made some bad or somewhat risky decisions while outdoors over the years , this was way over the common sense limit. Just too much thin black ice on all our local lakes yet. It's too bad he made a dangerous bad decision that cost him his life. Too bad the ice didn't break apart on his first step or two. Condolences to his family and friends. 
 
 

Bigfoot here, still high and dry.

Such a shame, ive fished on some pretty thin ice but i wasnt 71, dude prob thought "1st guy out, yes!" Sad, very sad for his family