Down the hole

[mnvikingsfreak]

I was at big winnie on vacation 2 yrs ago and I was taking pics of me and my friend and I go to hand him the digital camera to see the pics and spalsh down it goes $500.00 camera a $100.00 memory card full of 100's of pictures of the past year weddings, and etc.. the funny thing we were in 8 feet of water spearing and I almost got it but the mud covered it best buy covers spear holes in a camera right? future reference bring a disposable camera and download your pics to your computer dont be lazy! this could happen to you that ruined my day

[_Brad_]

- Zippo's

- Beer

- Lots of tackle

- Gaff

Was with a buddy who dropped his new phone down the hole; took a nice bounce off the floor and landed right in the hole! He was [PoorWordUsage]ed at first then laughed it off.

[NewbieFish]

The group that I go with goes to LOW every January also, with a number of stories coming back. While it may not be considered down the hole, it is pretty funny...

One year it was pretty warm, so there was a lot of water around the holes. Just as one guy walks through the door, he slips up and puts his foot by the hole, soaking his foot. So, for the rest of the day, his sock is sitting on top of the heater drying out, while his glove is on his foot to keep it warm. He is paying close attention to it, flipping it over every once in a while getting it to the perfect dryness. It gets towards the end of the day and the sock is nearly dry, but he needs to refill his beverage, so out the door he goes. Just as the door slams, the rest of the shack members watch as the sock falls back into the hole!!

[Capt. H (Ret.)]

A couple of years ago, my son and I were fishing on LOW when I caught a nice (6 lbs.)walleye. My son was using a couple of rods that I had borrowed from a friend. On the way to the hole, the walleye must have made a couple of passes around the hole because as my son grabbed the fish we both heard the sound of a splash and sure enough one of his rods went down the hole. When he grabbed the fish there was a lot of line wrapped around it and when we pulled it all in he had the rod that was lost!!! The kid lands on his feet most of the time!!!!!!!!

[Random guy]

Keys for the Toyota while way out of Springsteal on LOTW. I now know how to hotwire a Toyota with a leatherman.

[icehousebob]

Reading all this has brought two things to mind. Everyone who takes keys onto the ice should have a giant riverbobber attached to the keyring. And two, a guy could get rich inventing a waterproof floating cell phone.

[Troublehook]

Whats a leatherman?

[icehousebob]

Troublehook, A Leatherman is a multipurpose tool with knife blade, plier, screwdrivers,can opener,turnip twaddler,and other assorted fun things in one handy folding belt-sheathed tool. It was invented by an engineer from Portland, Oregon whose last name is Leatherman. I don't feel dressed in the morning without one. That's probably more than you wanted to know. One of mine is in the bottom of a tiny lake in the western section of northeastern South Dakota.

[Troublehook]

thanx ihb

[cpuncher]

I was on a trip to Upper Red Lake and we had a goup setup in portables fishing crappies at night, and everyone except this one, newer guy was hanging out at one portable.. so the rookie calls from the other portable and says, "Guys, we got a problem, help!" So we all go running and he's in there, in the dark, no light, smoking a cigarette. So, shining a flashlight on him, we said, "Where's the lantern?" That was when we smelled the propane and saw the bubbles coming out of his hole! No kidding, he dropped the lantern straight down the hole, and the gas was still coming out, straight up the hole! Amazing he didn't blow up! We yelled to put of the cigarrette and ran! We ended up fishing the lantern back out with a snagging hook, and after a replacement mantel it worked just fine.

[dsludge]

I've dropped a chisel, two ice scoops, a flashlight, some terminal tackle, and a half-dozen clip-on depth weights through the ice. I almost lost my "lucky rig" once too.

Five years ago I bought an Otter w/ portable. I had set my tackle box on top of the base of one of those wire rod holders so it wouldn't tip over while I went to visit a buddy fishing nearby. In the rod holder was my "lucky rig", an old 16 inch piece of broom handle with three eye screws - on one end is my first ever spool of multi-colored ice fishing line and on the other end two other eye screws placed to fit the rod holder. I went to check my tip-up and then visit my friend....

...When I returned to my portable I found my tackle box was ON FIRE! It had tipped over onto a candle by the hole and ignited. My lucky home-made rig was nowhere to be found, DOWN THE HOLE. I extinguished the fire, sat down, and thought how lucky I was that my new portable had not burned down. $&!t happens and I quickly dropped another line and checked out the damage to the tackle box. Later my buddy comes over and says, "Your flag's up and the spool's spinning! What's that smell?" I said, "Never mind", and we went to check the flag.

I set the hook and the line cut through my hand. It was a good fight and I iced a big northern. I usually don't keep big fish - but the hookset was fatal. After the fish was on the ice it was still flopping and wrapping itself in the line, green multi-colored line...this fish had pulled my "lucky rig" down the hole, took my tip-up bait, destroyed a tackle box, and almost burned down my new portable!

Luckily, I was able to retrieve my home made fishing rig through the tip-up hole.

Now I always blow out the candle when outside the portable.

dsludge

[hoggs222]

No, it actually was him. He can't hold onto anything to save his life!

[Glockwinger]

Well, there was the swiss army knife my son dropped down then hole, my father-in-law dropped an expensive filet knife down the hole, dice, misc other things. Had a buddy in annother house loose a wedding ring down the hole...and recovered it! They got a section of pvc pipe and the guy laid on the floor of the house and held that pvc pipe while another guy worked the line with a trebble hook while looking at the under water camera. Froze his arm, but after about an hour they got that ring! Couldn't belive it. I am ultra parinoid about the cell phone going down the hole, usually have a death grip on it while in the sleeper.

[Cooter]

Vexilar battery in 33' of water on LOTW out of a Walleye Retreat sleeper

[dirtking]

One of the more memorable was when a tip up outside sprang and we caught a 2 lb northern or so - and walked back into the fish house and one of the giggle sticks was gone! Walked back out side to put the tip up back down and there was a small hook on the ice? Picked it up and realized it was the one I was using in the house - Pulled on the line and sure enough here comes up the giggle stick. Many Many Many more stories of things dropped in! None with the same outcome

[FOOT]

Many years ago I remember reading a story in Outdoor Life or other such national hunting/fishing mag. The story was about a guy who was spearing big northern and had decided to take his black lab with him that weekend. The first norhtern that came slidding up to the spearing decoy sent the lab into a fury of barking and jumping around. The northern got spooky and decided to leave. Just then the lab decided to retreive that northern by making a head first dive into the hole. Since spearing holes are fairly large it had no problem getting in but couldn't find the same hole to get out. The guy was heart broken for loosing his dog.

Just then there is a heck of a commtion coming from another spearing shack close by. Sure enough the lab had found another spear hole in the shack and came up scaring the h--- out of the spearers in that shack.

I can't vouch for the truthfullness of this story but I did read it in one of the mags. Funny if it really did happen.

[efgh]

I don;t think there is a fisherperson alive that hasn;t either donated something to the hole gods or had some goofy think happen to them while ice fishing. I have lost a lot of thing to the hole gods over the years. The one thing that hurt the most was a 30.00 new buck folding knife, I forgot my clippers, wanted to change hooks, opened my new, never used knife, layed it on my leg, tied on the new hook reached for the knife, knocked it down the hole.Next day I took a big magnet to the lake let it down, the bottom was all mud, pulled the mag. up and down for a 1/2 hour, keep shaking the mud off by the hole, never did find the knife. Moved over about 50 ft. and went back fishing, a C.O. and a ride along came by, they stoped by the hole with all the mud by it, the C.O. explained to the ride along how muskrats will find a open hole , and pile mud aroud on the ice, I never said a thing when they checked me.

[outdoor ran]

I've lost keys, scoops, and tackle. But the one that I regret is when I lost a really old ice fishing rod that belonged to my grandfather. I thought it would be cool to catch some fish on the old thing. A fish pulled it threw the hole while I was chasing a tip up. I decide to fish that lake one time during the summer and I get to the boat launch and theres a guy fishing off of shore and he caught my old pole. I gave him the story of the pole and how I wish I still had it. He just gave me a dirty look and and stuck it in his car and left. Thing was worthless to anyone but me. Lesson learned, hang on to the things you cherish.

[Woollman99]

Two events that are forever etched in my mind.....first event, the heater was on high and things were getting nice and toasty in my portable. I stood up and began to take off my large winter coat. While struggling to get off one of the coat sleeves, my hood string caught one of the elbows of my eye glasses. Next thing I know, my glasses go flying off my face, bounce off the wall of the portable and sploosh, down one of the ice holes. My vision is terrible, so imagine a blind person squinting at a Marcum for a couple of hours fishing for crappies. Needless to say, driving home was a complete challenge/adventure.

Second event, a bunch of us at the office chipped in and bought our boss a nice ice fishing rod/reel combo as an X-mas gift. He was elated on receiving such gift and could hardly wait to break it in. Two of us took him out ice fishing the following week. Sure enough, while sitting out on his bucket, he simply lays down the rod on the ice and walks over to his 12pk of beer laying 20 feet away. While walking back to his hole he notices his bobber gone and before he could grab the rod, bloop, his brand new pole went straight down the hole. We all laughed and giggled the rest of the afternoon about his laziness. Exactly two months later, my buddy and I are ice fishing in the general area again. My buddy notices his bobber go down and starts to reel up hard on what he thinks is a decent sunfish. Yes, there was a small sunnie on his line, but the sunnie had wrapped itself around some other fishing line. My buddy begins to pull up on the free line. Lo and behold, out emerges our bosses rig, boober, pole and reel. We gave it back to him a month later as a birthday gift - though he still doubts our story.

[FullTilt]

This one's not ice fishing but I think it relates well to the topic. My wife and I were fishing last spring on Big Stone lake for the opener. The fishing was slow in the morning and as most openers go, it was really cold. We decided to pull the boat around by a point to get out of the wind for awhile and have something to eat. I had this really slick propane grill that fits in a rod holder and hangs off the edge of the boat. I put on a pot of coffee and we were enjoying our breakfast. The next thing I know I hear a huge splash. I'm looking around and I can tell something isn't right. The rod holder broke and the entire grill and coffee pot went in the drink. We were anchored so I sat down to reflect on my loss. About 5 minutes later my wife yells, "hey, what the heck is that?" I looked over and could see a ton of bubbles coming up from the bottom. The propane was wide open on the grill and the bubbles were making quite the display coming up from the bottom. We were only in about 8' of water so I tied on the biggest Dare Devil I had in the box. After a few tries I managed to hook the grill by the cable that connected the lid to the grill. Thanks to 10 Lb. Fireline I still have my grill, now I just need a heftier rod holder.

[icehousebob]

When my boys were young, they always competed on who could catch the most fish. Josh, five years old, wandered away and his jiggle stick started heading toward the hole. His ten year old brother, Travis, saw it and took off running to it from about 10 yards away. He threw himself forward as the rod went down the hole, slid the last three yards on his stomach, put his whole arm down the hole and grabbed the rod. When he brought it out, there was a nice Crappie on it. Josh walked over and announced,"Since that"s my rod, that fish belongs to me." He didn't even thank Travis for saving his rod.

[tunrevir]

I have to admit it is really a pretty good chuckle when someone else in your group loses something down the hole but when it happens to us(people that know better) it can be down right frustrating. My brother in law lost a cell phone down the spear hole and he swears that the light actually attracted more fish to the hole. He got it out eventually but it was worthless after drying out. I have lost 2 ice scoops, 1/2 dozen darts, a lantern(got it out and still use it!) but probably the worst one was this year. I had a Mag lite that I was going to use for light within my portable 2 Saturdays ago. Got set up was outside screwing the ice skirt to the lake and the house starts to blow over. I caught the house but the contents inside had a major shift. Got the house screwed down and everything situated and started to fish. As the light faded, I looked for the mag lite which I usually leave on the floor of the shack. Gone! I saw it lying on the floor when I got out to my intended destination but it was nowhere to be found. Luckily, I had my headlamp along for illumination. Bummer.

Tunrevir~

[Seeker of Clayface]

My brother had a double whammy a few years back. He accidently kicked his lantern into the hole, and as he lunged for it, his cell phone slipped out of his coat pocket and took a dive as well.

[Gus]

The usual. A few ice scoops, jiggle sticks, pliers, maglight, and between my buddies and I we have 3 two-way radios gone. We are usually set up about 25-50 yards apart and just chat back and forth all night. We have gotten to know the sudden silence on the other end all too well.

[jig n' jerk]

Well to start I lost my cell phone last year on ottertail lake. The best part was is that I got to watch it go the whole way down , since when it dropped the display poped open and made it easily visible all the way down. About two months later I was fishing at night in Bush Lake in Blooming ton at 8:30 p.m. My bobber went down so I stood up to grab the rod and out of my pocket fell my car keys(I was Driving). So to make things short I Convinced my girlfriend to go to menards and bring me out the strongest magnet they had. I made swiss cheese out of the ice in a 8' radius and repeatedly dropped the magnet to fish out my keys. No luck. I could feel the magnet pick them up but the weeds on the bottom kept knocking them off. Needless to say at about 4 a.m. my truck and gear were off the ice after riding home and back to get the spare key. (to this day I still do not have all of my keys replaced from that night so I had to cut off a few locks and buy new ones.)