Ice Fishing PSA

[blackdog1101]

One word of advice. Don't grab the muffler on your auger. It burns.

That is all.

[NCLaker]

Hopefully you did not find out the hard way.

My son-in-law will be getting a new jacket thanks to use of my auger. He now knows that when using it to always point the muffler away from his body (lol).

[Deitz Dittrich]

Ouch!--- I have 3-4 old jackets with burn marks on them... They just help remind me not to touch!.. LOL

[blackdog1101]

I drilled some holes on Saturday, and the motor was down near the ice. I absent mindedly slipped my hand underneath to lift it out of the ice and put my hand on the muffler. Very quickly afterwards I was shoving my hand in the ice shavings. Overall not too bad though, I've got a blister about the size of a quarter on my palm.

[BigGrassBass]

Yeah, sure that blister came from your auger!

I've done almost the exact same thing once. That's all it takes!

[NCLaker]

Colman lanterns also are great at burning stuff. Touched it a few times ... luckly not long enough to do an real skin damage.

Every once in a while I get lazy and hold my glow jig up to the lantern to charge it up (instead of my tazer). If the fishing line touches it, a date with retying is guarenteed.

[slipperybob]

Ouch!!!

buddy of mine tried wiping the sludge from the hot muffler...

right after I told him not to touch it.

[jwhjr]

I've gotten a few holes in my jacket/pants before, but thankfully not me (yet...).

[jigging-matt]

Last summer, after I fired up the auger and let it run for a couple minutes I was resting it against the workbench in the garage and placed my forearm (usually covered by a jacket sleeve in winter) against the muffler. Sure leaves a nice blister.

[mr_jman]

Yep, I've retied more lines than I can care to count. Lost a few lures down the hole also. Burned through several pairs of gloves as well.

HERES A BIG DON'T AS WELL.

Never ever grab the auger shaft while its spinning. It's just not smart! I already knew this but yet my mind wasn't thinking or something. My auger wasn't running real well so I was testing it and wanted to give a little resistance to the auger bit because the auger seemed to die when it got over 4" into the ice. Needless to say, a hand on the auger does absolutely nothing to slow it down. I ripped the glove I was wearing at the seams and it flew off my hand. My wrist hurt pretty bad but I'm fortunate not to have hurt it any worse. JUST BE SMART AND KEEP YOU HANDS AND CLOTHING AWAY FROM THE AUGER WHEN ITS RUNNING! Also watch for strings on hooded sweatshirts. It's no fun to get one of those stuck in the top of the motor while it's running!

[ocf1]

And yet we are all still fishing...

[boatfixer]

I let my wife wear my columbia jacket out fishin' this winter, "Here, hang onto the auger a minute,honey" I said. Checked the flasher, moved a few feet, started to drill another hole when I noticed that "smell". I couldnt stay mad for very long though because- Hot muffler+nylon jacket=new Artic Armor suit for me

[mr walleye]

A guy that i fished with got his hood string caught, and now has a nice new set of front teeth to show for it.

happened so fast that I didn't think it really happened when I saw it.

[StrongBow]

My buddy's first time ice fishing this season started cutting holes with the muffler towards himself , he leaned against it and poof a perfect square hole melted through his goose down vest , he was molting the rest of the day.

[NCLaker]

Big ouch! I'll have to start thinking about removing the draw strings from all my hoodies I use for ice fishing. That explains why the draw strings don't hank loose on my Vexilar ice fishing jacket.

[Deitz Dittrich]

cringe----- knocking teeth out with an auger.. .that has to hurt!

[Iambjm]

SM has a muffler guard you can buy, I am definitely going to get one. Burned a whole in my old ratty fishing jacket, then got a great deal on a SM hardwater wear jacket so I certainly don't want to burn a hole in that.

[Kyle Sandberg]

Another PSA you may want to do... Always bring a pair of gloves. As I headed out to the lake I thought it was gonna be warm enough so I wouldn't need gloves. I was rights, for a little while. Then the sun started setting and it got cold and the walk in stunked.