Adventures In Sailing: A Tale Of The Shelter That Lost A Battle With Mr. Wind.

[Guest]

TELL US YOUR SAILING/FISHING MISHAPS.

[jighead]

For a birthday present I received a nice Old Timer pocket knife with my name engraved on the blade. I was ice fishing one afternoon and during the process of switching lures, I dropped my prized knife down the ice hole! I'll let you folks fill in the choice words that were flowing out of my trap at that moment!

[rmrakt]

Last year in our Mille Lacs shack. Fishing was kinda slow and my son was playing his new X-mas Gameboy when his rattle reel spun.....he jumped off the bunk, tripped over his boot, Gameboy went flying thru the air.....hit the bunk, bounced off the furnace, hit the rattle reel (still spinning) then ......plunk......the Mario Bros gasped a few last times before settling softly to the mucky bottom. My kid was crushed. Took the underwater camera and saw he had his best game going too. Worst part about the whole ordeal was he missed the dang fish.

[Guest]

Just the other day I was heading out to the lake with my shelter full of gear.I figured with all the stuff in the shelter it would be heavy enough not to strap down.I had a tarp over it to keep the road spray off and thought thhat would also prevent the wind from catching the canvas.The road cleared through the trees and out into an open field at the top of a hill then I heard a WHOOSH.I looked into the my side mirror to see my shak 20 feet in the air and land upside down with a very loud THUD.I was stunned thinking about all my gear samshed to bits inside the tarped shak including my brand new Vex FL18.Well the gear all made through with a few scratches but no real harm done and the shak is still useable but the skiding down the road ate some of the canvas.I am going to need to learn how to sew!

[fishinphyl]

Last summer we were fishing and it had been kind of slow. My daughter cast her line out (which was on her new - gift from husband - first expensive rod and real combination she had ever had) and reached over to get a coke. At that time something struck her line and you guessed it off it went into the lake. The fish carried it on the top of the water for about 20 feet and the look on her face was absolutely hilarious. She was definitely thinking about jumping in after that rod! I still wish I would have had my camera handy. Of course I have taken one with me ever since but she has not duplicated this trick. - thank goodness!!!

We felt really sorry for the poor fish but it did really add a laugh and a good fish story to our lives.

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Phyl

[Cyberfish]

One day about ten years ago me and some friends were crossing a lake in my little car in serch of some bluegill. it was about fifty degrees out, and the snow had just melted and the ice was glossy smooth. The wind was blowing about 30 mph. All of a sudden I heard a loud thud. I asked "What was that?" A friend said it was a fish house.
I said "way! I didn't see any fishhouses closer than a mile away."
We got out to look, and sure enough a fishhouse broke loose and blew across the lake right into my car!

[Cyberfish]

Fishing on Odowd lake long ago. I had one of those ugly rapala plastic ice jiggr poles with the big reel on it. I set that one on the ice near the hole. the ice was newly formed, clear and smooth. Well, I hooked a shiner and lowered it down, then went off in search of some panfish.
Well, you can guess what happend next I bet! I heard the sound of plastic scraping ice. I ran toward it fast as I could but it plopped down the hole just as I got there. Then I noticed this red spot moving around under the ice. I soon reallized it was my pole moving around under the ice. I followed it around until it stopped. I started chopping a hole with my chisle then stuck my arm down and grabbed the rod, then proceded to reel in the rod thief, a pike all tired out from draggin' that rod around!

[SpikeRoberts]

Cyberfish,
I had nearly an identical experience except I was only using a fixed line jig stick. We actually chased the rod along the ice for 50 or 60 yards before the little bugger wore out and we could chip a hole to fish the rod and fish out. Fortunately the ice was clear and there was little snow so we could follow along without losing sight for too long.

[MnSportsman]

2 years ago I was setting up my one man sled/shack in a fairly decent wind.[At least strong enough that I wanted to get out of it!]
I had been warned that this particular model had a "high-profile" & might be a hassle in the wind. So, after tieing it to my power auger with the draw cord, I commenced to load the shack/sled with my gear to get started fishing. First the seat & cushion,[wind blowing...],next the rods & tackle box [wind blowing still...], next the fishfinder & the minnow bucket, and as I turned & stooped to get the ice scoop...The wind Gusted... & flipped my shack over!!!! Now, you can see that most of the stuff I had put in there wasn't damaged, but the stuff was COLD! & we all know what happens to things that are Cold & come in contact with Water, Not to mention Minnows... Yes, folks, I had a "wonderful" time cleaning up that mess, & it didn't make the trip a long "enjoyable" one. But.... It was memorable! That mistake will "never" be made again!

BTW, CyberFish, I still have & use on of those old reels!
[see ya out there!]

------------------
Good Luck & Watch your bobber!
MnSportsman
Proud to be a member in good standing, of the
"Church of the Divine Wilderness"!

[Guest]

Last year I was fishing in my lightweight 5x7 portable and as the night approached a strong west/NW wind developed. I was in the process of packing up the truck and unloaded all my gear from the inside of the house, except for the lantern that was tied to the roof and still glowing. I made one final step out of the house and WOOOSH!!! the house was flying across the lake. Both zippered doors were wide open and all you could see was the house spinning uncontrollably and the lantern burning bright. You could see the house go across this huge lake until it disappeared into the darkness. I tried to chase it, but it was moving way too fast. In a panic I tried to find someone with an ATV/snowmobile to chase down the house, but nothing around. A couple hours later, and a lot of hiking along undeveloped shoreline, we recovered the house unharmed. Our wives still do not believe the story why we were so late that night. They still think we decided to stop at the bar and have a few beers.

I'm sure glad this didn't happen to me on a lake like LOW! I would had to kiss that house goodbye!

[Guest]

Great stories. LOL->CD.
mike

[Melon]

I was fishing out of my ice house and had a tip up out for pike. The flag went up so run out and set the hook. I got the fish out of the hole to discover someone elses hook in it's mouth along with mine. I proceeded to pull the line that was attached to the hook and out came a nice ice rod and reel. Hmmm, I thought to myself, this looks just like my rod? Sure enough, that pike swooped on my tip up and then headed for my jig and minnow below my icehouse.

[Dave]

LOL@Melon, ah man, I'm wiping the tears from my eyes on that one. "Hmmmmm, this looks just like my rod".....lol
Ah, these are great stories.

[This message has been edited by Dave (edited 01-02-2002).]

[TUMBLEWEED]

AHHH I see these things DO happen to
others beside me. LOL man, Ha ha ha!!

When I was about sixteen, I had a couple
of uncles out in my gramps boat We had just
been tearing up the fish on a couple points
on the Whitefish Chain. As one of the uncles was putting the last Walter on a ten place
chain stringer, he gave out a string of
cuss words that woulda curled up my grandma's hair!! He had dropped the thing into the
lake,fish and all!! We tried to put a good
side of things to the situation,but couldn't quite put it out of mind. That, and the other uncle was really letting the other one have it!! We had gone back to the trolling,but the fish had pretty well shut 'er down.
On the final pass through the "sweet" spot the guy who dropped the stringer, hollers that he's got a big one on...................... Actually he had ten
big ones on,cuz by sheer luck, he had
snagged back the stringer he had lost an
hour ago!!! There was much rejoicing
when we got back to the cabin that day,
thats for sure.

[Guest]

A few years back my son went along for his first spearing expedition, at the ripe old age of 5 or so. It was a brutally cold day with a pretty stiff wind, so we walked a short distance out onto the lake, I set up the portable, and he waited inside out of the wind while I cut the hole.
Yep.
Next thing I know, there is a terrified shriek of "DAAAAADDDD!" and I turn to see the Instent about 30 feet away speeding back towards the shoreline. Dropped the chisel, caught up to the house, and was dragged for about 10 feet 'til my superior weight won the battle. Opened up the tent door, the little shaver pokes his head out and says "Cool, can we do that again?"

[Guest]

I had a canvas/ wood shack on Eagle Lake in Maple Grove 2 years ago. Although a portable, I kept it on the ice for about a week without much problem. I went out one day only to find it missing and assumed the wind carried it away somewhere. I drove around the small lake several times but still didn't see it. I then thought perhaps some kids had swiped it and caulked it up as a loss. Later that spring I received a citation from the DNR. The charge: Public Littering. Apparently a homeowner had found it floating in the water(my name and address clearly written on the door). A little disgruntled, I paid a small fine. Lessons learned.

[Guest]

I've got another. These darn fishhouses always seem to get the best of me...

Few years ago a buddy and I were on Big Stone Lake and the temps were in the 50's and a cold front/ 30-40 mph NW winds (on a 25 mile long lake that runs NW to SE) came up and froze everything. The lake was like a skating rink after dark.

We packed up all the gear and I pulled the house out of its nice foundation, and (here we go again) WOOSH. I am now hanging onto the house by a rope, jumping into the house, jumping out of the house, and dragging on my butt with my legs in front of me trying to grip onto something, in the meantime screaming for my buddy to help. By the time he figured out I was "missing" I was long gone into the darkness. I am guessing I slid on my a$$ for almost 1/2 mile before I saw my truck move towards me(luckily I didn't have the keys in my pocket). My friend could only imagine what the heck happened to me. I finally managed to stop sliding for a brief moment and he caught up, he jumped out of the truck and yelled for me. I screamed at the top of my lungs, almost balling for God to help me, and my friend drove close enough he could hear me screaming. The house was black, my coat was black and the ice was black. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. He finally located me and managed to drive the truck into the path of the runaway fishhouse and blocked it from going any farther. I had a terribly wet a$$, holes in the rear of my pants, and my body was really sore.

And to top it off....Big Stone had several large pockets of open water that day. I guess that lake has a lot of open water, and all I could think about was hoping I didn't slide into the water with the house. It was probably the scariest experience I have ever had, but a moment I love to look back on and get some gut busting laughs with my friends over that ordeal.

[Guest]

lol!
these stories are great!
keep 'em comin'!
thanx for a good laugh <<and a roll on the floor>>
mr fisherman

[Guest]

LOL@CD.

[This message has been edited by jacobm (edited 01-23-2002).]

[Sinker]

Two years ago,on the last weekend of the gamefish season,the snow had melted and it had rained so it wasn't wise to drive out on the river.I pulled my gear out on the sled and proceeded to set up and fish.It was really windy but I thought the shack would stay put.I stood up to look out the window to make sure the sled was still there and at that moment the wind gusted,the holes in the shack disappeared underneath me and away I went inside the shack across the ice.I probably rode inside a good 30 yards before I was able to get out and stop the shack but with no snow on the ice and water on top it was darn near impossible to get a grip.Thankfully there were three other dudes taking their permanent shack off that day and they really saved my tail.I looked for them last year to thank them again and bring them a 12 pack but every time I was there they weren't in their shack.I'll find them this year!

[Cyberfish]

BUMP!

I hope to see more ice fishin' stories

[huntnfish]

last year after fishing for about 4 hours in my friends house without a bite, I was giving him a little grief about the lack of production. I was also letting him know that he should open the bail on his reel in case something happened to bite. About that time something hit his bait and his rod went skidding accross the floor. Before he could reach it, bloop, it goes down the hole. He's cussing up and down about his new rod that he just got and how he's out the money. After I stopped laughing and rolling around on the floor, we both settled down for more sitting around and not catching anything. After about ten minutes, his bobber goes down again. He sets the hook and gets the fish into the house and there is another hook in its mouth. He pulls it up and there is his rod. Needless to say, he was a little happier when he went home that night.

[Guest]

Years ago while ice fishing we had some charcoal going. For whatever reason my cousins friend and i started to toss around the flaming charcaol, we got further and further apart playing catch ,when i missed and it landed in the opening of my jacket right on my throat. Needless to say that dropped me like a rock, onto my back. The charcoal burning what felt like a hole from front to the back of my neck. I could,nt roll over because of the deep snow,finally my cousin came running ,pounded on my throat and rolled me over. The bad part was when the broken charcoal went down my shirt and burnt the hell out of my chest.I ended up with a scare the size of a half dollar.Man that was dumb! Live and learn. gunny

[Dave]

Gunny, sounds like luck was with you thou, it could've went down the front of yours pants

[Guest]

I've got two:
1) I helpe build an 8x8x8 house ten years ago with two friends. It took us a couple weekends to build and we finished it on a Saturday night. My friend gets his brothers snowmobile sled and a comealong. After a half an hour we finally get the tank loaded up. This was our first experience with permanent house, so like the greenhorns we are we removed the comealong and left it at the house. We thought the weight of the 2 ton house would keep itself on the trailer with gravity, wrong, it ends up in the middle of road about a half mile from the lake. We couldn't push it off the side of the road because gravity decided to set in and keep it there. One guy went back to get the comealong while two of us played traffic cop until a real one showed up. The cop gets out of his car and says, "this can't be here, you're going to have to get it off the road." I felt like telling him that we've been there all day and we almost got out limit. Needless to say we got the house moved over with use of his front bumper until our friend got back with the comealong.

2) I never worry about the well being of my fish house after February 28th, especially after the snow melts. I store my house at my parents place because I'm currently renting now and we keep the house on the trailer next to the garage until spring, then it goes down in the back yard. Imagine the look on my face when I come home for Easter dinner, and when I round the corner to go to the back door, I see my fish house laying on it's side in the sloppy muddy garden. My Dad used his lawn mower to transport the house down there and even though the tractor was clear of the muddy garden, he forgot to factor in that the trailer has a wider wheel base. He said it got stuck and while trying to free it, the house fell over. Knowing that I got my temper and impatience from him, I think he pushed the SOB off the trailer so he could get the trailer out. It only took 3 of us to get it tipped upright and when the ground hardened he got the house out. It survived pretty good and just needed some minor repairs.