Coldest day of the year so far

[Dirtyb25]

So it's the coldest day of the year so far, and this is the day I've chosen to go out on LOW. Wish me luck, I hope to have my limit as soon as possible so I can spend the day warming up with a hot brandy somewhere.<P>We haven't decided where we're going to go yet, either springsteel, long point, or arnesons. I'll have a report back for you when we get back tonight.

[Guest]

Good luck, I will be up thursday thru saturday. Hoping this weather turns by then. Can't wait to here the report. Going to fill extra propane tanks tonight!

[Dirtyb25]

The day in a nutshell.<P>I start my car at 4:15 to let it warm up, so it's nice and toasty when I get in it at 5 a.m., I slide into the driver's seat and it's ice cold. Something is frozen somewhere, luckily the thermostat is still circulating coolant to the engine. The electric thermometer on the car's dash says -30, so I know it's at least 20 below in the car. Thankfully it's so cold in the car that my air freezes as soon as it leaves my nose and freezes on my face, instead of fogging up my windows.<P>I drive 20 miserable miles to my buddy Meat's house where we're supposed to meet up, and we switch vehicles into his fathers trusty 4 x 4. We load up the 6-holer Clam house into the box, along with the drill and the rest of the equipment. The latch's on the tailgate are froze open so we can't shut it. One ratchet strap later, that problem is solved.<P>We head up to badger and meet up with an old friend from highschool, who has a surefire hotspot that he's been killing em at for his last 6 outings. He has to nest into a pile of our coveralls we have stacked between the two bucket seats of the pick-up.<P>We arrive at his secret spot,which is a mile and a half off of Gull rock. The nearest stationary house is at least 200 yards away from us. They are our only neighbors until you make it to the cluster by Gull Rock. Anyhow, we get out of the pick-up and almost instantly eyelashes, nosehairs, and beards turn into white frosty messes. <BR>We pull out the clam, and while they're struggling to put the poles togethor I shovel clear a spot, and start hooking up the heaters. We throw the canvas top over the steel supports, and the plastic window on the windiest side of the house breaks apart, leaving an 8 inch by 8 inch wind tunnel which will serve as a refreshing reminder of the chilly weather for the entirety of our day.<P>The Auger which is a 2 year old and well cared for Jiffy doesn't start. We throw it in the cab of the pickup while we sit outside and freeze. After standing outside for about 10 minutes we take it out, and it fires after about 20 pulls. Meat climbs into the house to mark the holes but has no luck, the auger although running, isn't turning. We try to get it going by spinning it while applying the throttle, but no luck. Once again though, fortune is with us, as the buddy from badger had the same thing happen to him fairly recently. The spring that controls the throttle is frozen, he pushes something in on the engine somewhere that I can't see, and the auger roars into life full throttle spinning like mad, with no way to slow it down. We drill the holes without much incident and get the house situated. Now the propane in the heaters is frozen, and we can only get 1/2 of one burner going on the big double header. The rest is a sickly blue. We take in the other heater to warm up the other propane tank with what little heat we have. Slowly the the 1/2 a burner turns into a full burner, and we get the second burner lit. The other tank thaws out enough to start up our second sunflower heater and it finally starts to get bearable in the house. <P>We get lines in the water, and nothing for 20 minutes. Then, they start. It is a thing of beauty, for 25 minutes I can't keep a line in the water, and my two friends are getting scattered bites to keep them busy. It's like this all day, with the action going from person to person, so nobody is left out, and not a one of us has dead holes. We limit out by 2:30 with a bunch of nice eaters, plus 1 burbet and 1 perch.<P>Great friends that I haven't seen for a long time, and good action. Made this a perfect minnesota ice fishing outing.<P>

[boener]

DirtyB!<BR>Wow what a trip! You and your friends will remember that one forever. Your d*** lucky you made it home alive! I must say that you can really tell a story...I laughed all the way through!! I think you should be a writer or author or something. Thats by far the best report I've seen all year..<P>You musta had a few "hot ones" out there to keep you go'n?!?! <P>

[Piker]

That was a pretty awesome post, while I was reading it I felt like I was there trying to put those poles together with frozen fingers. It's too bad our football team sucks, or we could just sleep in and then watch the game indoors. Cool story.

[Dirtyb25]

Thanks, sometimes when a guy's writing stuff out he just gets inspired, ya know?<P>The runs were really great, but getting to hang out with my friends that I hadn't seen for a long time really made it worthwhile. This is probably going to be my only trip up to LOW this year, so they really wanted to make it worth while for me and they did. It didn't even bother me when I got back to Meat's house and my car wouldn't start. It maybe would have bothered me had I known that there were wind chill advisories out on the lake for -60+ temperature ratings. But, once we got set up, and the propane starting to flow instead of ooze it wasn't all that bad.<p>[This message has been edited by Dirtyb25 (edited 01-05-2004).]

[ChapstickCharlie]

Nice post! Great reading, we are all envious of your time, although I had to go turn the heat up just reading.

[mpotter21]

Great writing. I felt like I was there trying to get that auger started! <P>Mike