Travis McIntosh had snagged some leftover minnows from the ice fisherman minutes earlier than he fell via the ice
Travis McIntosh (left) used the bag for his ice-fishing tent to drag the angler out of the water and onto the ice. {Photograph} courtesy Travis McIntosh
The kindness of strangers got here full circle in Nebraska final month when a very good Samaritan rescued a fellow fisherman who crashed via the ice. The unknown angler had simply shared some minnows together with his neighbor, Travis McIntosh, when the person broke via the ice. McIntosh hauled the angler from the frigid water utilizing the tent bag for his ice-fishing shelter. After saving the angler’s life, McIntosh additionally helped recuperate the costly fish finder he dropped when he fell in. Snippets from the rescue had been captured on video by McIntosh’s pals, who had been with him that day.
The incident befell close to Plattsmouth on Buccaneer Bay, a small sandpit lake off the Platte River. McIntosh, 32, explains that he’s lived on the shore of the non-public lake since he was 11. He’s ice fished each winter since then however says it’s been an particularly poor hardwater 12 months in Nebraska.
“We have already got open water proper now on a lot of the lakes,” McIntosh tells Outside Life. “Particularly the lake we had been on. It opened up inside two weeks of that accident occurring.”
He says the circumstances had been already a bit sketchy the morning of Jan. 28, when he went out on the lake together with his girlfriend and two different pals. After establishing their tent on ice that was 5 to six inches thick, they caught a number of first rate bass. By mid-morning, nevertheless, McIntosh seen water pooling on the floor the place the solar was hitting the ice. So, the group moved their tent to a thicker spot and began catching crappies.
“We’d had a reasonably good day by round midday, so I made a decision to order a pizza,” he says. “There have been two youthful gents who’d been fishing on the alternative facet of the lake for about an hour, and I used to be prepared to go away and go get the pizza after they yelled at us, ‘We’re leaving! Do you guys need some minnows?’”
After thanking the 2 males, who turned out to be brothers, McIntosh and his pals used the minnows to catch a number of extra crappies. Minutes later, he regarded throughout the lake to see the youthful brother strolling throughout a thinner part of ice close to the boat ramp. McIntosh went again to jigging stay minnows, and when he regarded up once more, the angler had fallen via the ice. All he may see was two fingers waving simply above the icy floor.
“His older brother began operating in the direction of him, and my buddy Jake began operating in the direction of him. However I ran in the direction of the bag for my ice-fishing tent as an alternative,” McIntosh says. “I used to be like, Properly, I don’t have a rope with me, but when somebody had been to fall in I can all the time seize that bag. I’d mentioned that to myself [earlier] that morning. I remembered that thought and grabbed the tent bag earlier than I went out on the center of the ice.”
By the point McIntosh acquired there, the angler had already dropped the Panoptix fish finder he was carrying when he fell via. He additionally had a tenting chair in a bag that was wrapped round his neck.
With the older brother holding McIntosh’s hand, they fashioned a two-man chain whereas McIntosh threw the roughly 7-foot-long tent bag towards the opening within the ice. The angler grabbed ahold of the bag, and so they slowly pulled till he may crawl throughout the lake’s floor. McIntosh yelled at him to maintain crawling, however the man didn’t pay attention (or didn’t hear him) and stood up as an alternative.
Learn Subsequent: The Greatest Fish Finders of 2024
“He actually fell via the place I used to be kneeling to drag him out the primary time,” McIntosh says. “So I gave the bag to his brother, and now we’re sort of reversed. I helped pull, and by the point we lastly get [the guy] out of the water [again], he’s shivering.”
McIntosh discovered that the 2 brothers (whose names he by no means caught) had gotten permission to fish the non-public lake from a landowner there. After calling the landowner, McIntosh went again for his ATV and drove the shivering angler to the landowner’s home, the place he took a heat bathe. Then McIntosh ran house to pay the pizza supply one that’d been ready at his door.
“I went again out on the ice and dropped off the pizza, and we acquired a pair items in us as a result of we had been ravenous. However then I went to assist the older brother, as a result of me and him had seen the Panoptix nonetheless floating in the midst of the lake,” McIntosh says. “That’s like $2,600 for that little fish finder.”
Not eager to threat one other fall, McIntosh got here up with a intelligent option to recuperate the fish finder. He borrowed a neighbor’s kayak and grabbed two straight-claw hammers from his storage. The older brother then hopped into the boat to distribute his weight throughout the ice, clawed his manner throughout the lake utilizing the hammers as ice picks, and retrieved the fish finder from the open gap within the water. In the meantime, McIntosh says the youthful brother who’d fallen within the lake made a full restoration. He wasn’t exhibiting indicators of hypothermia or frostbite, and the 2 brothers drove house to Lincoln that afternoon.
Learn Subsequent: The Greatest Ice Fishing Shelters of 2024
“I talked to him later that day and he mentioned [the fish finder] turned on. It nonetheless labored.”
