whats the coldest weather you have fished

[robert1965]

a couple years ago, in baudette we camped out of my clam 6800. the trip was planned, so we went ahead knowing it was to get cold. my big buddy hooked up to a twenty pound tank was are heat source. for some reason we could not get both sides to fire up, with wind chill it was past thirty below. we had cots, sleeping bags, still not a fun night. the next day we rented a sleeper hut, anyway whats the coldest you have been out or similar storey

[evinrude19]

i have went out in -65 wind chill i forgot what the real temp was but i love being in the cold and i was afraid to pull over the auger cause the rope was rock hard lol!

[SP180]

I have fished in -25 with a windchill of -40 in a portable with the little buddy catching 6inch perch. And i went out the next day:)

[robert1965]

the problem was the 6800 being large. the buddy with only one side heating, and high wind made it interesting. once cold its hard to get warm again, I woke up at three in the morning and jumped in my truck.

[redtrucks]

LOW -42 below without wind chill factor.

[Hotspotter]

A few years ago now, windchills (with old measurement system) were around -75, Arne Carlson declared everything closed. Being out of school then, naturally we went ice fishing.

Back then it was a 6" blue mora hand auger, my trusty Lowrance 2330 modified flasher, and my two brothers carrying the rest of the gear on the long hike into our favorite fishing hole. The panfish were going crazy, and whatever we couldn't get off the hook and down the hole fast enough was dinner. If it hit the ice, forget about it. Frozen in a matter of seconds. A solid cube of fish in minutes.

When we got cold, we ran in a circle or drilled more holes. We went home when we were tired of drilling/running, not from being cold.

Funny how much warmer you can be when you don't pay attention to the funny little details the weatherman talks about .

Joel

[DTro]

Cold enough for the sled not to start when you get there. Then cold enough for the auger gear case oil to gel up. Then finally after nothing worked of course the truck won't start when you decide to give up and go home.

[Bobb-o]

-55 without the windchill on Lake Bemidji. went out for a couple hours to catch perch just to say i did it.

[polarsusd81]

Last year going up to Lake of the Woods. When we left to go out on the lake, the truck temp said -42. There was about a 30 mph wind on top of that so go ahead and figure it out. Cold enough to keep the beer drinking to a minimum just so I wouldn't have to go out to pee. It was way cold that day.

The best feeling in the world though is when your eye lashes start to freeze the second you step outside. Well maybe not the best feeling, but it is pretty good.

[DTro]

Cold enough for the sled not to start when you get there. Then cold enough for the auger gear case oil to gel up. Then finally after nothing worked of course the truck won't start when you decide to give up and go home.

Check this out:

http://www.wfn.tv/reelroadtrip/videogallery.php

From the block of videos, second row from the left and the bottom video "Mille Lacs", and then the first row and 5 down "ice fishing catfish"

man that was cold......

[harvey lee]

Yes Darren, that was a miserable trip. I will never fish in a blizzard and cold front like that again.

[zamboni]

I can't remember the exact temp, but when I was a little boy (7 or so) my dad, grandparents and I fished on buckets out in the wind. This was 25+ years ago, before icehouses were the thing. I do remember it was very cold, though, probably around the 0 mark before windchill. We caught a ton of perch, I do remember that.

[Powerstroke]

3 years ago at URL slabfest it was -27 ait temp overnight plus a very wicked windchill. The holes closed a full inch overnight in the sleeper shack.

Otherwise I've fished at -15 in a portable with the heater blazing.

[Quetico]

People give my tons of [PoorWordUsage] because I always go out in the portable when its in the teens below zero. But I usually do pretty well.

I once won a small scout troop tournament because I decide to fish from the portable when the air temps at midnight were around -30. Awesome night of fishing. No one else on the lake and slabs were hungry.

[dan z]

-17 without windchill, sometimes I hate loking at the temp because it makes me not go. when its 20 degrees or colder I think the temp gauge should just say COLD so it would not deter me from leaving the house. COLD dont scare me. -25 does.

[Down Deep]

Woke up to 38 below on Crow Lake in Jan. 2005. Then we took a 25 mile snowmobile ride to Rowan. When I got there I drilled one hole, set up my tent, turned on the heat and waited for the trout to swim to me. There was no moving around on this day. About 1:00 pm the temp was still minus 20 and the wind started blowing. We packed up and had to ride the 25 miles back to Crow where the cabin was. I didn't warm up for hours after we arrived. The next morning it was at least 30 below and 20 mph winds so we decided to truck it out to LOW for some crappies. Stayed cold for the next two days which kept us on Crow Lake and close to the resort

Severe cold is nothing to fool around with as one of our guys had an air leak in his helmet and suffered some very frostbite on his cheeks and eyelids. There is just no margin for error if something goes wrong. I would never do it again.

[icehousebob]

My older brother and I were on Devil's Lake a few years ago. It was unusual in that there was no wind and the sun was shining, so as long as we were moving we felt okay. I had a pint of schnaps in my outer coat pocket and when I pulled it out, it had turned to slush. I don't know what the temp was but at that point we decided to set up the portable.

[Iambjm]

Went out on a small lake in Siren one day, drilled holes and set out tipups. Sat there all day shivering wearing 3 pair of sweat pants, polar fleece shirt, jacket, and my sorrels. Went in at suppertime to find out it was -26 that morning and -18 most of the day. Caught virtually nothing.......man do I need to have my head examined, I hate the cold.

[upnorth]

-26 on Vermilion and - 27 on LOW. Both times it was cold enough we had to put the augers in the truck with the heater running to get them to start. No run and gun on days like that fish either come to me or not.

[Grant]

-20 something with a good healthy wind... the kind of cold where the nose freezes up almost instantly. that got a little chilly, was able to determine exactly where _ALL_ of the holes in the canvas were that day.

[SSSTaxidermy]

Lake of the Woods a couple years ago on Presidents Weekend. It was -45 - 50 below in Warroad that morning. We stayed at the Sup8 Hotel there, and there was a group of construction guys also staying there, that were from down south someplace. They were up doing some type of construction project. But they were wondering why their diesel truck wouldn't start?

While on the ice, we had plenty of heaters to keep us warm in our home made portables. Setting up was frigid Like someone mentioned, eyelids freeze, the beard gets some moisture on it and you can't move your face, you had to be careful with everything or you were in jeopordy of snapping or breaking it.

We managed to do pretty decent fishing too...

Would I fish in those conditions again on LOW? In a heart beat. I think your OK if your prepared for it

[Jeremy airjer W]

-15 on Minnetonka, 2007. That was the first day of using the thermal blankets as insulation on the ceiling of the portable!

-13 on the St. Criox, 2008. Its funny how cold temps bring solitude!

[WallEYES]

-59 below in Ely on Snowbank lake out of Smitty's Snowbank Resort back in 1994? We were fishing out of Ron's houses by center island, frostbite around the ears and nose

[dkf]

0 Degrees 40-45mph gusts and snowing like crazy. Pretty cold for my neck of the woods.

[ChuckN]

WallEYES, that's correct, January '94 if I recall. I was in Ely on that lovely cold event. Tower hit -62 or so. I was not fishing however...

My "coldest" event was Lake of the Woods about 4 years ago. -20 for the high temp that wonderful day with 25mph winds out of the NW. -42 at night. I broke the auger recoil, blew a piston in the snowmobile, and frostbite on my face where air leaked into my helmet. We managed to get enough holes drilled to fish. I didn't dare take off my helmet until the heater fired up. Spent the rest of the weekend fishing in the sleeper..