I do. You take two large nails or icepicks, and take a length of cord, and tie on a nail/pick at each end of the cord and run it through your sleeves like parents do for kids with their mittens. This keeps you from dropping them, especially from the shock of cold water. Then you can use them to claw your way out if you fall through. I've gone through ice...not fun.

Another tip that can be combined with this one is to carry a long staff (your height or longer) horizontal in your hands as you cross ice. If you break through, it can catch you from falling all the way in. Then you can use the nails/picks to claw out.

I had a experience where I fell through the ice. I was muskrat trapping about 6 years ago. I was On the edge of a frozen pond when the bank gave away. I fell into about 10 ft. of freezing water with hip boots on. I was lucky that there was a spot on the bank where i was able to get my grip and get up out of there. It was not fun.

I pored the water out of one of my hip boots, but left it in the other because I had such a hard time getting the one back on. The foot that was in the boot without the water started to freeze while the other stayed relatively warm. The water in the one boot must of acted like a insulation.

I fell through ice before.
its was a frozen lake (if you could've guessed!) about four feet deep from the shore, because there was like a concrete wall going into it cause there was a small ramp nearby.

anyways there was a decent layer of ice and i wanted to walk on it, (I did stand on it next to the floating dock for a second) I was only about 9 and thought I should be safe first and make sure the ice could hold me, so I found this old broomstick and pushed on the ice with it, I wanted to push harder, so I backed my feet up so if it broke I wouldn't fall in. (I remember this specifically)
The rest is kind of a blur...I pushed as hard as I could and saw the ice break, the next thing I rememeber I was calling for help from some nearby people to hlep me over the little wall, but they didn't hear me...
after a minute or two I just climbed over the wall myself and ran inside to tell my parents what happened.
I got some dry clothes (and surisingly i wasn't that cold) and was fine.

idk why i shared that story, I just felt like it. =]
I think having a knife or two on you would help if you didn't have ice picks. =]

I was at the deleware river when it froze last year and where I was there was a shallow slant toward the river covered in ice, like the ice thats so slipperey its like glass. well I fell and couldn't get up and started sliding toward the water and HUGE chunks of unstable ice, so I took out my little kershaw scallion and sabbed into the ice and pulled my self up until I could stand back up...

I would def. want to have a knife on me if I was on some ice.