Miltona access trouble- it was me

[bigbucks]

Ever have one of those days, where it just wasn't your day?

Saturday was mine, sorry for the length, but the people at work found this pretty humorous. I had to laugh myself, what else could I do?

I bought a new/used wheel house last week, naturally I had to get out & try it last weekend. My son & I stayed out in it on a small lake near home on Friday night, without much luck. Had trouble getting the furnace going, it was just a learning the new equipment kind of thing. Had some trouble cranking it up, as we decided not to leave it there, again first time out stuff.

Both my kids wanted to try the new house out Saturday night, not to stay over, just to fish for the evening. I decided to go to Miltona. I knew there were heaves at the access, but the house is built to skid if it bottoms out, so thought I'd give it a look. We went to the NE access. The heave at the landing was bad, but it didn't look horrible. (Rose colored glasses maybe?) So we went for it. Well we didn't make it. 45-60 minutes later with probably 8-10 people helping me with chisels, jacks, 4 X 4 timbers under the fish house wheels, & another truck pulling me we were on the lake. If any of you that helped are FMer's or friends of FM'ers thanks again. I'd have never gotten out myself. Boy did I feel like an (Contact Us Please) blocking the access for all that time.

Obviously my problems are not over as I can't turn around & go back off now or we're in the same predicament trying to go up hill. It's about 5:30, so it'll be dark soon, not a great time to go look for a better access. I decided we'd go fishing, leave the house out, & figure it out in the daylight on Sunday. That was a good plan, nothing wrong with that logic.

We got to the spot I wanted to fish, dropped the house down, got setup & started fishing. We had some luck, my son was having a ball pulling up small walleyes on the rattle reels/wheels & subsequently getting them into knotted messes on the floor, but that was okay, he was fishing & having fun. We started with four lines down, when we decided it was getting late & time to go I'd already retied at least two of them & we only had one line down, the other three were currently looking like great bedding places for rats...

Did I mention while we were pulling up the first fish my daughter stepped in one of the other holes up to her hip? Fortunately she could wear an extra pair of her brother's jeans that were still in there from the sleep over the night before.

We started to load our gear into the truck & I decided I better figure out what I have to do to disconnect it while it's down. Those of you who have drop tongue wheel houses already know I screwed up. If you're going to leave it on the lake you need to unhook the house before you drop it down, Duh!! So I cranked it up mostly, but couldn't get the locking pins in place, finally I realized there was ice in the way, so dropped them back down, chiselled that out, cranked them back up, & got everything set. At this point I am tired & not wanting to leave a bunch of fishing gear, sleeping bags, etc. on the ice for the vandals. I thought this is too much work to move all this stuff, the house is up, lets go find a good access & take it home. I knew where the South access point was & thought that it looked pretty manageable a couple of weeks ago, so decided to head for that. I got there, the shoreline is pushed up, but it's not near as bad as the other access, so I decided to go for it, we almost made it, but not quite. I was able to backup on to the lake again, so tried it a 2nd & then a 3rd time. Each time I got farther, but the 3rd time I was there. I chiselled & shovelled & had it a lot looser, but I still couldn't move, it didn't even sound like I was spinning any more. Oh nice! I have no more tranny! My truck's old, so not a total surprise, but rotten timing. It's about 9:30 now & I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with two kids who should be home in bed, fortunately one had crashed by that time.

I called my wife, who called my Dad, & I called my cousin with the one ton truck too. They all were home & could come right away, so I waited about half an hour, fortunately kid #2 passed out by then as well. They got me out & everything got home safe. Now I'm truck shopping...

We were never in any danger, but it was very frustrating. I believe there's a saying about God taking care of fools & little children, which he certainly did that night. I prayed that the Lord would help get us out of that situation & he certainly answered the prayers.

[ChuckN]

Glad I'm not the only one....

My shack flooded on me with water surrounding the shack up to 12" deep and over the boots kinda wet. One hole that was drilled flowed like a geyser and flooded the entire area. Swell.

I was forced to move the house off the lake at that point with the high winds forecasted yesterday and the cold weather (10 degrees this morning). I move the house, but in the process of battling the high winds the ATV and house are getting blown all over with no snow and glare ice on the lake.

In the process of trying to pull the shack to the nearest access, the wind pressure and everything snapped the tongue in half. The tongue was weak to begin with, but I didn't think it would fail at that point.

So, now sits a shack on the lake with a busted tongue and I need to get this sucker off the lake with the storm that is rolling in. Time to figure something out, quick.

[bigbucks]

Chuck, I feel your pain. I forgot to add that we decided to go out fishing again on Monday night & found the other North access to be very navigable. You could have driven a Cadillac out there no problem, so I definitely went the wrong way on Saturday.

I bought a newer truck today though, so that's kind of a bonus.

[ghotierman]

ChuckN,

there is a guy who does mobile welding. i think it's 'mikes mobile welding' check the yellow pages...

might be of help.

[ChuckN]

I did an on-the-ice-fix last evening. A big chunk of angle iron bolted onto the tongue did the trick to get it off the lake. Big sigh of relief..

Thanks

[fisherking01]

All right, here goes my 07 tough day story. Got to get to a hot lake quick, hook up my shack and take off. forgot my hitch lock, so I put a clip in the hitch, and we're off. flat tire, get fixed and we're off again, hit some bumps and there goes the house, all I hear is thump when the safety chain breaks. In the ditch, luckily it didn't tip, no broken windows, off to get chain to pull it out. pull it on road, (township no traffic) hook it up and head to lake quarter mile away. Pulling on lake, it comes unhooked and sticks hitch into tailgate, old truck, no big deal, get it hooked up and on the ice. Where to fish? got on ice and went about 100 yards and it fell off again, all right what is up with that. on inspection the hitch is still attached to my truck, the house is not. looks like we're fishing here kids. We did ok in spite of the unexpected. There are those times when you just gotta walk away and look forward to tomorrow!

Glad to hear you got a new truck out of the deal!

Watched a fella pull his house off a lake yesterday, over a heave. He made it over and then what do you know, hitch didn't. It makes me wonder how you get a large buick over the heave and on the lake, sitting fishing and here comes a car??? I guess he fared better than the guy with the 4x4 and house!

[Cottco]

My fish house is made from wood - has three holes, four if we have company. Weighs in at 255 lbs including battery, wood stove, wood for stove and gear. Daddy (that's me) gets to: load the house onto the trailer, push the house onto the lake, push the house out to the honey hole, scribe the ice with a screwdriver marking the center of each hole, use the 1981 Magnum III auger, clean the slush, scoop the snow, move the house in place, block the house, pile snow around the edges, start the fire, hook up the camera, hook up the Vex, find the fish, bait the hooks, untie the knots, prepare lunch, unhook the fish, listen to the whining, try to figure out how 3 cans of pop got empty and how 4 sandwiches got et, and how a bag of Cheeto's went missing, all before the chisel hit the bottom of the lake having slid through the honey hole by an unsuspecting youngster.

Did I mention that my fish house is made from wood and weighs 255 lbs fully loaded?

I pray to Jesus on a regular basis - asking Him to forgive my sins, protect my family and strengthen my lion heart. I am blessed in many ways with one such blessing being a fish house made from wood that weighs 255 lbs fully loaded.

COME HEAVE OR HIGH WATER - we're going fishing!