Went duck hunting a few years back on Lake Russell, SC. Had everything you need to sucessfully get the ducks; decoys, dog ( a good one), calls which I had mastered, waders (very important) good gun and steel shot ammo. Oh yes, a 14 ft wide bottom jon boat with a 20 hp merc. Left landing about 5 am used Qbeam to see the way. Noticed a little ice had formed a ring around certain parts of the lake. Didn't pay it any attention. (big mistake!) Had been traveling about 15 minutes at top speed (about 20 mph) Had friend who didn't really know what he was looking for holding spot light (big mistake) I had told him to look for stumps, land, or booyes. (big mistake) We had just turned the corner to go into the pot hole ( a small body of water connected to the lake by a small canal; this one was about 200yards across (perfect place to hunt, which I had used for years) We had gotten all the way to the end of the canal and I was thinking this is going to be a great day when all of a sudden WHAM! Then there was this sound; it sounded like we were sliding on asphalt we were still moving even though the engine was a lot louder and out of the water. That's when my buddy who was scared ****less put the light out the side of the boat. ICE! and a whole ****load of it well after about 75 yard of sliding everything stopped. No use using the engine: cut it off. I asked him if he saw the ice he said yes. I asked him why he didin't tell me; he said that was not one of the thing I had asked him to look for. So now we are sitting there trying to figure out how to get off the Ice. It was to thin to hold our weight standing on it (remember we are in a wide bottom jon boat). So my smart idea was to throw the anchor as far as we could hoping it would go through the ice and we could pull ourselves out of the ice (another big mistake) Threw the anchor(mushroom type) about 30 ft out. Yep, good news it went right through the ice, bad news, there was a crack comming from the hole to our boat and it was folowing the gouge left by the foot of the motor. Have you ever seen the cartoon where the ice breaks up around someone and the fall in? That was us except worse. The back of the boat started to go through the ice. Well that wasn't any good because I was back there and water started comming in so I leaped to the front and when I did so the front finally broke through. So, there we are 75 yard away from the edge of the ice sitting in water stuck with Ice all around us. It took us most of the day to break the ice so we could get out. Oh and buy the way the only thing we had besides the anchor which sucked was our guns which we used ( the but end)to break up the ice. So two busted up stocks and 6 hrs later we made it out and home and into bed (which was a good idea!) 