What is the worst weather conditions you ever encountered while ice fishing?

[Down Deep]

Several years ago my buddy and I stopped by Red Lake on the way to LOW for some crappie fishing. We knew there was some snow in the forecast, but what happened was totally unexpected. When we drove out of West Wing the skies were cloudy, the temp was around 10 above and there was just a slight spit of snow blowing around in a 10 MPH wind. We set up and started fishing. Within the hour the wind picked up and the snow began to intensify. 2 hours later we were in a full on gale with a sustained estimated 40 MPH wind with gusts a lot stronger. The shoreline was totally obliterated and road was being slowly over blown. I moved the truck behind the tent in an attempt to get a wind break. Why we didn't pack up then, I don't know, just stupid I guess. The fishing wasn't even all that good.

As darkness set in we decided to head in. After we threw our gear in the back of the truck. I turned the headlights on and was looking into a total whiteout with no obvious road and no clue which way to go. We decided stay where we were. I had a full tank of gas, two full 20 pounders and both of us had winter gear on, so I was not worried about freezing to death. . We also had lots of food we had brought for the trip to LOW. I knew there was a sleeper out in the distance, but we decided to stay in place because of the whiteout thinking if we got lost we would be in real trouble.

The wind continued to pick up and the truck was rocking back and forth. We just hung out and talk'ed well into the early morning hours. We took turns checking the exhaust pipe. The next morning the storm had cleared, but the wind was still blowing at 30MPH and the temp had dropped below zero. The lake was all drifted in with a good 12 to 18 inches of fresh well blown snow. I figured it wouldn't be long before the plow would be opening a road and sure enough the big plow from West Wing showed up about 10 am and we were on our way after we gave the plow guy an extra $20. Well that's my story.

[Rick G]

Nastiest day I have ever been on a lake was last year at the Brainerd JC's fishing contest. Anybody that was there will remember that day for the rest of their lives

[20lbSloughShark]

The worst I remember was on a local lake. I grew up on the lake, so I knew it well. It was basically my only weekend off from work or school stuff, and the forecast predicted a blizzard. I decided to go out anyway, and spend the night at a spot close to shore, and try some crappie. I set up the hub well, knowing it would be windy. I was doing ok with crappie, but after the storm hit, not much was biting. I was prepared for the conditions, and simply set up my cot and put down 2 rattle reels. A few hours later, I hit one of the hottest walleye bites I've ever had. I probably got 20 of them in a few hours. It was after the walleye season closed, so I eventually just pulled in the lines and slept. In the morning the snow was blown all the way up to the window on one side. I just tore down and walked the short trip to shore.

I can't say I've ever been scared of the weather while ice fishing. In the boat is when weather gets really scary.

[Hobey]

I've been in really cold weather, blizzard conditions, etc, but the worst weather condition I have ever been in is really thick fog. I was fishing late ice perch and right before dark the fog rolled in. The fog was so thick I could barely see five feet in front of me. I had about a two mile drive on the ATV back to the boat launch where I was parked and had to cross an expansion crack twice on the way back. The expansion crack kept on getting wider and wider throughout the day due to warm temps. To make matters worse the batteries in my GPS died.

I decided to head straight in one direction and follow the shoreline back to the launch. I had to drive extremely slow so I could go over the crack at its narrowest spot. I now carry a compass in the little storage area on my atv.

[boXCar JiggY]

only one time Ive ever been scare on a lake. Once about 10 years ago a bunch of us were doing some late season icefishing on lake of the woods. it was the last weekend of the season an we were out on 16 mile reef BBQ an slaughtering fish. Its was beutiful out 40 pluse degrees an windy at about 25 mph, all the snow was gone an the ice was quickly honey combing an conditions werent the safest, an the auger would pretty much just sloop out the ice. after popping holes in the Am it wasnt long before the 8 inches were now 10 hole an getting biggger. as the wind started to increase, you could litteraly see the ice starting to fluctuate like waves with the gusts of wind. quickley we gatherd our stuff an jumped on the wheelers an drove a very nerve wracking ride back to arrnesons.

[eyeguy 54]

red lake a maybe 8 years ago. first trip there. drove 4 wheeler out. 25 below and we had a 4 x 6 portable. crazy windy. only saw one other vehicle. fished 3 hours and inside was white. hardly any snow on ice. pulling the thing back to shore the wind kept blowing it to the side. LOL we decided after that tip that we are as crazy as our wives think we are...

[BrandonJ]

You would have had to been there to believe it, but I was the only one on the lake.....

[Bureaucrat]

I can't say I have one epic story, but I have been in a number of blizzards where it was clearly not wise to try to get off the lake. Same places, Red and LOW.

Started fishing northeast SD last year. You almost always have to deal with epic winds. That'll toughen you up quickly. Mn has 10-20 mph winds. SD routinely has 20-40 mph winds. One season with MN clothes was enough to get this guy to upgrade to an ice armor suit.

Nonetheless, these are the times when a calm head, preparation, and survival gear go a long way. Folks that get in trouble are often the ones that panic.

[JeremyCampbell]

Good lesson

[Rikkus]

There have been some ugly weather stories over the years. Maybe it's just my luck. Last years on Red, 50 mph wind gusts and snow. We were in a Sleeper and you could feel the wind going through the house. The next morning we had to shovel our vehicles out.

Milacs a few years back, we started fishing on a Friday. I saw what could be possible and booked a room at the casino for Sat night. The snow came down, you could barely see the hood of the truck. No signs of where the road was, and 2 bridges to cross. That was a bit scary. We got 15 inches of snow.

One of the first visits to Winnie, fishing with a snowmobile & a portable. The morning started out beautiful, -25 with just a slight wind, -70 wind chill. The sky clouded-up. The next thing you know, we're putting the auger and coolers on the canvas to keep it down. Strong winds and blizzard. We were stranded on the ice until the sun came up the next morning,...

[TruthWalleyes]

I was 10 miles from shore, out on 7-mile reef last year. 50 mph wind. Air temp - Dunno, but it was COLD. Not another vehicle in sight. I was driving my Bonneville.

Oh yeah, i was in my QF3 hub house for the night and that entire weekend. Amazed that thing held up.

Ran into Paul from Appledorns the next morning and helped him pull out some cars. About all he had to say when i told him where i was "ANyone ever tell you your CRAZY!!" haha.

Winter 2013. One to remember:)

[stealth3350]

few years ago was heading low. for cast for extremly dangerous temps and advised against travel.. well we left at 9pm from the cities to any ways.. after getting near duluth made a wrong turn. ended up going through international falls and down the desolate canadian highway along the border..looked like a gohst town at 2am. cars broken down everywere. that was the year inf had the record low temp. our outside temp in the truck read something like 70 below zero. the brakes were very slow to respond and the drfrosters would only keep an are the size of a basketball open to look through. once we finally arived to my ice castle it just continued. all wknd propane and regulators froze. holes in the house kept freezing due to the extreme low temps..nothing worked. just insane how when its that cold how things just break or dont work.. learned my lesson

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

It must have been around 2003-2004. Went up to Red Lake with 2 other guys in a smaller'ish wheel house. When we got to the landing, one of the gals said something along the lines of "there isn't much visibility...I wouldn't advise going out there". Being the young fools we were (20), we thought nothing of it.

It was somewhere around -30, with a solid 30+ mph wind. It wasn't long, we started hammering the crappies, the walleyes (C&R only), and the Jim Beam. Somewhere along the way, I overindulged in the Jim Beam and went outside to puke a few times. We hit our limit of crappies and it was time for bed. I crawled up in the top bunk, and one of the guys said something along the lines of "if you puke on me I'm going to kill you". So, I did what any guy would do...I threw on all my winter gear, grabbed my sleeping bag, and slept in the truck!

The next morning everything was drifted in, the battery in the truck was dead, it was wicked cold, and I had a killer hangover. The most important lesson of the weekend....don't drink Jim Beam!

[Living_The_Dream]

About 7 years ago we were up on URL the wind was blewing about 30+mph and air temp out on the ice read -40 in the truck and I was beginning to wonder why we were going ice fishing. But once we got to the fish house and heat going, dad was in charge of the heat I think we were melting ice. Kept on asking dad if we could turn the heat down, I was running around the fish house in my underwear and t-shirt. Caught to many walleyes to count, just another great trip and more memories of fishing with my dad.

[pushbutton]

Similar but a little different to Lip Ripper, I was out on Mille Lacs with a huge storm coming. Knew I was going to be stuck, but had plenty of supplies, gear, gas, battery ect, so was not that concerned......but when I finally found out i didn't pack any libations...it was too late. Tried to get off the ice to get some but the roads were already blown shut. Moral of my story is to double, even triple check, maybe even write a list ..... or else you won't even have the chance to drink Jim Beam

[mwal]

In the 90's I can't remember the exact year I was at Mille Lacs with my 2 boys for a 3 day weekend we had brought enough food and water to last longer. A blizzard hit and the drifts were so bad that our suburban was completely covered as in I mean gone we could not even see it. I had to cut the kid's bunk bed apart to block the house a total of 3 foot off of the Ice to get out of the water. The resort had to utilize a world war II Duece and Half truck with a diesel snow blower to get to each house. The blizzard was on a Saturday night. The resort could not check on us with a snowmobile till Sunday night to see if we were ok. They did not get us snow blowed out until Tuesday AM. I had enough water and food plus I said to hell with rules and ate the fish we caught prior to the storm. We were unable to fish after the storm as we had to get all snow away from the house to allow the water to freeze it was like a wind tunnel under the house and the water was up to my knees. Thankfully I never park my vehicle close to a fish house as an old timer warned me about water coming up if drifts occurred. Thank You Ted. That ended our season it took over a week for the water to freeze enough for the resort to get close enough to snow blow a path to the house and tow it off. Even their V plows did not work. Always bring more food and water than you think you will need. Always have more wood blocks than you ever think you could use and never park close to your house. My kids still talk about that trip when we had to eat their fish before we got to take them home to show mom.

Mwal

[TruthWalleyes]

Always bring more food and water than you think you will need.

And Propane!!

[FishFindHer]

Man, those are some crazy stories! We were up on URL in a rental sleeper last year on president's day weekend. It was lightly snowing when we woke up...a couple hours later it was a howling mess. The resort guy came out & said he got his V-plow stuck two or three times & basically told us we should get going ASAP. We were packed up & heading out within the hour. The road was pretty much gone. Half the time we didn't even know if we were on it, we could just barely make out the banks on the side. I'd say we were driving in about a 12-18 inches of fresh blown snow...maybe more, it was really hard to say. We didn't have the best tries, didn't dare let off the gas for a second. I was certain we were going to get stuck any second and was making plans to walk. It's hard to describe how bad the visibility was...it was like someone was whipping garbage cans full of snow at the side of the vehicle. Somehow my little jeep liberty kept on churning her way along & we finally got to the "junction" for our last turn to the resort...with the wind at our back now we could actually kind of see for the last bit.

We may have been the last people to make it off the lake from that area--not sure how anyone would have made it much longer after us, but there were still some people out there when we left. Found out all of the resorts ended up closing their roads that day. I have a healthy respect for all large bodies of water, but it was kicked up a few notches after that. Worst blizzard conditions I've ever seen in my life. On, we got new tires for the jeep too

[ski_otter]

No ice on the lake so I was unable to go, seems like it happens every year somewhere between March and December

[38bill]

We were fishing a good sized local lake in the spring when a warm front rolled in creating dense fog. The kind you couldn't see the guy fishing next to you. Of course this was pre any GPS. I had walked out from shore but my buddy had driven out from town. He took off and got completely turned 180 deg around as he drove. He was completely lost. As he was driving along he saw something go past his drivers side door so he stopped. It was a open water warning sign. He had been driving right along the open channel going through the narrows and didn't know it. At least then he was able to figure out were he was and was able to get back on course. Lucky guy.

[Brad B]

the worst for me was last year. I had just got out and set up and all of a sudden I seen a flash then heard thunder. it started to snow and lightening at the same time. needless to say I took the house down and packed up and left. the good thing about this was it was a local lake that was only 10 miles from my place so it didn't take long to get home.

[Iambjm]

3 or 4 years ago, a bunch of us (all gals) headed to MilleLacs for a New Years Eve bash out of Hunters. We arrived to pouring rain, when we got to our shacks there was 5 inches of water on the ice. We had to shlep through ice cold water to unload all our gear, kept raining until the evening when a cold front slammed into us. Next morning all of our vehicles were either frozen shut or frozen to the ice, took all day to thaw them out> I even had to pour hot water on the passengers door to get it open so I could start the engine and thaw it out. We headed out to the flats the next day to fish, winds came up and finally blew us off the ice. 8 vehicles driving back in whiteout conditions and the lead vehicle did not have GPS. Temperatures dropped to -20 for the whole weekend, fishing stunk. but we had fun. There was about 25 of us.

[pheasantpete]

April 1 several years ago it got to 90 degrees. I had to go wading to get off the ice which was not to bad considering it was 90. The dog did not like the cold water much either but the fishing was good. Just had to toss bucket to shore and jump in 4 ft of cold water. Brrr It was only a little jump in the morning but by mid afternoon things opened up a bit from shore. Last day of ice fishing that year but I was out in the boat 2 weeks later.

[Scott O.]

The first year I started ice fishing hard, about 5 years ago, and I was on a South Dakota reservoir lake near the Black Hills....10 degrees with a 30-35 mph wind blowing. No shack and no wind break. Thankfully, I had just purchased the Clam Edge suit and, with a little layering, stayed out on the ice for a few hours, back to the wind, and caught some 'eyes. Showed me just how good the Edge suit was.

[Redlineracer12]

Nastiest day I have ever been on a lake was last year at the Brainerd JC's fishing contest. Anybody that was there will remember that day for the rest of their lives

That was a nasty day, I was fishing on a nearby lake in my wheelhouse thinking: "Wow I bet this really sucks for all those poor suckers standing out on the ice over there"