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

[ozzie]

oh the stories that have been coming up in my mind from crazy conditions while ice fishing.

one year we got a full rainstorm on Mille Lacs in January and melted all the snow and with the wind created waves on top of the ice. Made it interesting going from one house to the other!!!

The year the Giants beat the Patriots in super bowl we had a nice storm out on Red Lake that made it for a long exit off the lake after the game. The roads kept drifting and was flooded and we had 3 trucks and houses to get off the lake and they all kept getting stuck. Took 2.5 hours to get maybe a quarter mile to the main road.

Then there was the time my buddy and I were fishing Red with a mr buddy cooker in between us and the rest of the house was full of frost. the only parts of us that were warm were the sides next to the heater. The windchill when we got off the ice and back to blackduck where we stayed was -65!!!

I have a few other bad ones but they will have to wait for another time. All I can say is that you can never overprepare or pack for a weekend on the ice as you never know what or how the weekend weather may turn.

[TruthWalleyes]

I'll expand my short story from above since it's Friday afternoon...

One weekend on Mille Lacs winter 2013.

Friday night i fished out of my QF3 through saturday morning about 10am when i checked the wind forecast which was expected to be sustained 50mph winds. I dredfully packed up and began my 1hr trip off the lake. As i got closer to shore i kept checking the NOAA site hoping it was going to change for the better. By the time i hit shore the forecast changed to 40mph winds with 50mph gusts. Well, i've been out in those conditions before, and i figured the forecast was going to be on the high side, so i filled up my two 20# propane tanks and headed back onto the lake. Out to 7 mile i went.

Left the coat in the bonneville when i got out there. Setup the QF3 with anchors in each corner and each side preparing for heavy wind, heater, grabbed 2 beers and started jigging. Within about an hour it went from a light breeze to a full on hurricane. WInd picked up to 50mph and sustained for several hours. It was so windy the corners of my hub house looked like they were going to shatter. At this point i opened the door on the hub house to go get some more beer, a coat, and tighten all anchor ropes...But, as soon as i cracked the zipper on the door, the roof on the house slammed down on my head. I zipped the door back up and the wind was blowing hard enough that it was continuing to push the roof down. So, i opened up a windward side window so the wind could blow into the house and 'pressurize' or 'inflate' the hub house. This worked great, counteracting the force of the wind on the outside of the house from the inside....But, it was cold, my sunflower couldn't keep up. I was out of beer, and the forecast showed no improvement till about 7pm. Snow flying into the house via the open window. That was what it took to keep the house from snapping like a twig.

I enjoyed the amazing weather we were getting. Watching PILES of snow fly by the house. Come 7pm it had let off enough that i could get out of the house and go get a coat, some beer, and a can of soup. Throughout the night the wind roared but was darn near calm at sunrise. What a pretty sight that was.

Having not marked a fish and just endured the craziest ice fishing day i decided to head back to shore sunday morning. Met Paul from appledorns, help pull a few vehicles out of the snow.

Wettschreck was out there that weekend staying in a perm, with an extra bunk...If only i would have known, i'd of been there in a heartbeat. He's got some good stories from that day as well.

[Black_Bay]

Geeze I may just sell all my ice fishing gear and take up bowling after reading these stories.

My worst, as many guys have been, was a full on blizzard. One of those ones where it snows in every direction possible, including up. I was fishing with my dad on Forest Lake just off Willow Point. We knew old Bud Kraehling was calling for a snow storm but they didn't expect the weather we got. By the time we decided to leave at about 9:00 pm we couldn't see 20 feet because of the blowing snow. Luckily back in the day the old bar that was there had a flashing yellow light. Even though we were only maybe a quarter mile from the place it was almost impossible to see. Driving home was a fun ride too. The next day we heard that a couple teachers from my high school spent the night out there, not on purpose, because they couldn't find their way back in. If I remember right they couldn't get their truck started either.

Not too exciting but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We ran out of beer one time too. That was pretty traumatic. I still cringe when I think about it.

[NoWiser]

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!

Sounds like your friend is a complete jerk

I've been out in so many bad storms and blizzards it's hard to keep track of them all. The worst was probably in 1996 or 1997 when Governor Carlson cancelled school statewide because of the temps and windchill. I was about 11 or 12 years old and my uncle called the house and said "perfect, let's head up to Mille Lacs and go fishing." My dad was already on the lake. We got up there in the afternoon and took off on the snowmobile. Pretty soon we were in a whiteout and had no clue which way was which. It was so cold it's almost hard to describe it. We could only get about a minute on the GPS at a time before it would quit from the cold. Not that GPS units were all that helpful back then. I have no idea how, but we did manage to make it to shore relatively close to the truck after about 2 hours of being lost on the lake, and found a hotel. In the morning my water glass next to my bed, in the hotel, was frozen. We did finally find my dad that day, although not after my uncle suffered some serious frost bite. It's a story we still don't laugh about. I was too young to realize how serious it was at the time, but my uncle said at the time he didn't think the two of us were going to make it off the lake alive. We were no stranger to severe cold and Mille Lacs, so for him to say that it must have been really, really bad. I don't know that I've ever felt cold like that since, and I spend a lot of time in Canada where the real temps are -30 or colder.

[deerminator]

Good lesson on being prepared and just staying put with your vehicle if you aren't sure of your surroundings. Someone will find you if they haven't heard from you. Seems like most survival stories that turn out well are because people didn't try to find their way out.

[Eric Wettschreck]

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:)

My wife and I were on the big pond that same weekend. We were toasty warm in one of Paul's sleepers. It was somewhat interesting watching people try and pull wheel houses. Almost every one of them either went sideways, jack knifed, or started whippin cat butts. One guy got smart and just dropped it down and spent the night. We also tried to identify various things as they flew by the sleeper. Some were obvious........minnow bucket, garbage bags, someone's portable. Other things made me ask, "what the heck was that????"

[harvey lee]

5 years or so ago, myself and 4 other HSOer's went to Woody's on Rainy lake for 3 days of fishing.

I never really looked at the forecast but when we got there, the next 3 days were -34 or colder every morning. Then there was the wind.

Woody, Fishmeister and the other 4 left each morning about 7am and fished all day.

I believe it was myself, Northlander, Boilerguy, Woody, Fishmeister, Craig and another 1 or 2 I cannot remember.

Augers were a bit tough to start but other than that, it went good except for the bite but at the end of each day, we hit a spot Woody knew and iced some eyes every day.

It was darned cold.

I remember one year at the Slabfest on Upper red a bunch of us had to drive 15 miles or so to the cabin we were staying at. It was a ride to remember as it took 4-5 times longer to get back than it did when we left in the morning.

Frank Deluca, Borch and about 5 others were on that run. Had a great time but what a storm.Can't remember the amount of snow but it sure blew hard.

[FISHINGURU]

-50 degrees and hella wind, good Ol'Rainy Lake. I caught an 18lb pike on a tip up that day and my hand was numb for over an hour because it got wet and slimy from touching that beast, I actually went back into my shack and stuck my hand in my jigging hole to make it feel better. Buddy also caught an 8lb eye right at dark when we were about ready to rap it up, we did well that day surprisingly.

The last day we were there got up to like -10 felt like a heat wave, I was out hole hopping with no gloves after getting used to the few days of the -40/-50 degree weather.

Craziest part of all is there was still ALOT of slush, strange how that snow can insulate even in them temps. We'd bust right through in sleds spitting up water then on the way back it was frozen mounds.

Couple weeks later we went back up, on the first day it was so windy our shacks were blowing over, there wasn't any snow so you'd have to sit there the whole time and try to brace the shacks. So we decided to take snowmobile nd go try to hide on the back side of an Island, got back behind one jumped off the sleds, started walking with the H20 to find a decent spot, I hear a splash, I look behind me and my buddy fell through the ice lol. He had on Arctic Armor and I grabbed him out right away so he was fine, we called it a day and headed back to the Thunderbird.

[pikerliker]

Got a couple for ya. Fished in -47 degree (actual temp not wind chill)weather on Lake of the Woods when my boys were younger. 1st time I took them in a sleeper house. My wife was not in favor of me going when she heard the weather forcast! I felt confident that the resort would take care of us. Well middle of the night the heat goes out. I had to call the resort and they came out at zero dark 30 and fixed the problem but then accidentally locked us in the house! So I had to call them again but at least they knocked quite a bit off of our bill.

2nd was a fishing contest at Park Rapids where the rules were no shelters allowed and there was a -35 wind chill that day. I layered up, turned my back to the wind and stuck out the whole 3 hours of the contest. No prizes though. Kept warm by repeatedly chiseling open my hole which would freeze shut about every 10 minutes. My favorite memory is of calling the JCs who were putting on the contest to ask if it was still on. They answered the phone "yes the fishing contest is still on " Must have had a couple calls that morning.

[pikerliker]

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.

I had something like this happen too when my daughter was about 7 or 8? We were out at night in my flip over portable. I was seeing flashes of light that at 1st I thought were vehicle headlights. Nope it was lightning! So here I am pulling my daughter off the frozen lake with about 3/4 of a mile to go (I walked out) and lightning flashing all over the freeking place! I did my best "aint nothin but a thing" pretend I'm not scared face and pulled her off the lake. Never thought in a million years I would have to worry about getting struck by lightning in Minnesota in January! Made it off the lake OK and a good story to tell.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Geez I'm starting to think I"m bad luck.

I was on Mille Lacs during the big blow Truth Walleyes was talking aboot. I was with HL during the arctic freeze on Rainey. I was also with on URL the night of the big snow.

Auger overhaul in a cabin after a couple of beers was kinda fun, tho.