Marks had some at 8 bucks a pop. Wal-Mart is hit or miss. Gone as fast as they come in. I refill also but dont run them through the buddy. I only use that when the wife comes out. I use my focus 3 or 5 and can run refills through that.
Got on the little pond behind the house tonight 3.5 inches on most of it but thiner by the tree the fish were at. This is a pond I need to weed out the dinks. Lots of fish just all small. Nice to bang the rust off.
I would try a large weight with a big treble hook or get a large magnet off amazon with a rope. I would get in the water and dive for you but am a few hours away and even with a wet suit its a little late in the year.
Fished out of Catawba Friday and Saturday. We stayed south of the large shove. I ce was good where we checked and I walked in front of the quad checking. No fish but had some lookers.
North of the shove was some really variable ice. Guys that were up there told me it would go to one inch in 30 yards.
If you do go through you will experience the 1/10/1 rule. 1 minute of uncontrolled breathing, 10 minutes of meaningful movement and 1 hour till unconscious.
Stay away from culverts, spillways, vegitation that sticks above the ice amd roadways. These areas have current, runoff or warm and erode the ice.