Dumbest thing you've done on the ice

[holehopper]

Well.  A bit of a confession to make here boys.  I've been ice fishing a long time, but this past winter, I hit a low point.  Here's the story.....I'm up at a buddy's cabin one weekend with a group of guys catching jumbo perch.  We are in about 30 feet of water and the lake is really clear, so we are doing a lot of fishing with cameras.  I get up early one morning and decide that I'm going to get out on the ice early.  I load up on my snowmobile and head out.  I get to the hot-spot and start to set up.  Now, I tend to sometimes overdo it on my ice-fishing gadgets and this might be where things started to go wrong for me.  You see, I had bought one of those "quick-couplers" so I could detach my power head from the auger bit.  Well, what the package didn't say is if you aren't careful, your bit can detach from the powerhead and become permanent lake structure.  Well, guess what happened.  Yep, drilled my first hole and there went my $100 Lazer bit.  Right to the bottom of the lake.  I had no choice but to fish in shame out of that same hole until the rest of the boys got out there with another auger.  Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there.  It gets worse (or funnier depending on your point of view).  So, I decided that I was going to get that bit back.  I marked the spot I lost it on my GPS since I knew I'd be back the next weekend.  I spent the whole week planning how I would get that bit back.  I showed up the next weekend with an industrial magnet, some rope, my GPS and my camera.  That morning we headed out to fish the jumbos again.  We fished hard until about 11:00 and the fishing started to slow down.  I decided it was now or never to get that bit.  I borrowed a buddy's auger (brand new Jiffy STX Pro...$500 auger) and headed over to the spot.  I drilled my first hole to drop my camera down and look for my bit.  No problem.  Dropped the camera down and couldn't see my bit.  Decided I would move about 15 feet over and try again.  Drilled the 2nd hole.  It was late February so there was lots of ice.  I had to run the auger all the way down to the ice and when I hit water, I could see some steam coming off the powerhead.  Those of you who have done this yourselves probably can see already where this story is going.  Dropped the camera back down.  No bit.  Decided to move again.  I grabbed my camera and the monitor and dragged it over to the next spot I was going to drill.  Started up the auger but I couldn't get it to throttle up.  I quickly determined that the throttle linkage must have frozen.  Next mistake.  I took off my glove and stuck my finger into the linkage to free it up (with the auger running).  Well, the auger throttled-up alright.....wide open and stuck wide open!!  Now anybody that uses a jiffy auger knows they spin at about 3,000 rpm or so it seemed to me.  That auger took off like a mechanical bull.  Since I was only holding on with one hand, it flew out of my grip, went about 6 feet in the air and guess where it landed......yep.....right on the 30 feet of camera cord that I had drug over with me but was too lazy to coil back on the carrier.  I can tell you from first hand experience that a wide open auger makes quick work of wrapping up your camera cord for you.  It peeled off all 60 feet of camera cord in about 2 seconds flat.  Then, it proceeded to cartwheel my camera itself about 20 times.  By the time I got the auger shut off, I had covered a 10 x 10 area in bits of small black plastic and the tracks in the snow made it look like someone got attacked by a group of angry garden hoses.  No kidding I had camera parts a good 20 feet apart.  The battery went one direction, the monitor went another.  Well, after sitting there for a minute, I figured I probably should pick up the pieces and head back to fishing.  I picked up most all of the scraps of plastic and camera parts I could and then grabbed the auger.  Next problem.  The handle was loose.  As I mentioned, this was a borrowed, brand new, $500 auger.  I looked a little closer and quickly figured out that the auger gear-case had cracked on impact.  So there I stood, still hadn't recovered my $100 bit (with the $20 quick coupler on it), destroyed my Aqua-vu camera and broke the new Jiffy...oh, and had the $40 magnet in hand which I still hadn't had a chance to use.  I then did the "ride of shame" on the snowmobile back over to where my buddy (who owned the auger) was fishing with the rest of the guys in our group.  He was in his shack and hadn't heard or seen a thing.  I had to break the news to him.  Needless to say, not much was said on the ice the rest of that day.  Well, things turned out ok.  I was able to "fix" my aqua-vu (yes, unbelievably, it still works).  It looks like frankenstein, but it is a good story when someone asks what happened to the camera.  Usually it starts with "What the he!! happened to your camera???"  "How much time do you have?" is my typical response.  I returned the unused magnet and Jiffy covered the broken auger under warranty.  All in all, I was just out the bit.  So, here is my advice to all of you....don't buy a quick coupler.  However, don't hesitate to buy an aqua-vu or a Jiffy.  You won't be disappointed in either one.  So, if you are ever having a tough day on the ice, you can think of this story and know that there is someone out there having a worse day than you.  What they say is true.....you just can't fix stupid. 

[bigred1974]

one word, wow!!!!

if we go fishing together, you might wanna stay clear 50 feet of anyone so as not to invite a lawsuit, lol

I guess my dumbest thing was not checking my auger blade screws to see if they were tight, and broke a blade after 2 holes. we fished them and did ok, so not all was horrible

[PIKEKILLER1]

lol

[sawblade]

I'm sorry. But thats the funniest thing I have read in a long time.
 

[mr.clean]

Holehopper thank you for the story and laughs . I here are a couple of my goof's ,I arranged to go fishing with a friend we get to the lake and go to drill the first hole and my hand auger just spins and will not bite into the ice. I had recently changed blades and put the replacement set on wrong luckily my friend had a socket set in his truck and we were able to correct the problem.
   Back during the winter of 1994 when I was still new to ice fishing and did not own a set of creepers and still used a spud (ice chisel ) to cut holes , I was cutting a hole when i slipped and fell losing my grip on the spud only to watch it sink down the just cut hole. Lesson learned I purchased a set of creepers and bought my first hand auger. This turned out to be a wise move the winter of 94 was usually cold for my area week of minus zero Fahrenheit temperatures for low -highs in single digits. A week or more later I'm fishing with a friend who introduced me to this great sport. He was still using a spud to cut holes the frigid weather allowed lakes to build up twenty plus inches of ice ,so it was a major chore for him to cut a hole. After watching me cut one hole-start a second while he is still struggling to cut his first hole, he exclaims holy crappie they sure have made improvements over the spoon auger i used to own, you're cutting the holes today.

 Steve

[mobey3]

GREAT story Holehopper!!  It just kept getting better and better. 

[piker1]

lmao good one , only thing ever happened to me , fishing a hole with pole for pike had pole stuck in snow poured some water to freeze in in went to next hole pike hit taking pole and all well 20 min. later guy 200 yrds from me yelled i got your pole and fish you take fish i'll keep pole lol well he gave me my pole back and put fish back .....

[FISHFORPIKE]

    That's such a bad day that all you can do is laugh about it.
I've done a couple of stupid things but I ain't tell'n! 

[henrychinaski]

I have one good one my buddy will never let me live down.  So I have fished with 4 wheelers a lot, ran trailers of all sorts, been dragged behind sleds and quads on a rope and a inner tube in the winter months, I had some bad first hand experiences growing up, the law of inertia is an unforgiving one.  Most of the people I have fished with who ran quads all had tow bars, I was used to hooking up and running top speed out to the fishing hole.  Well this past season, my buddy and I decided to get out one last time before I went to training to go over seas.  We decided get a room at Hells Bay, Fort Peck and a quad for the weekend.  The first morning we drive my truck down to the lake and unload my sled loaded with all sorts of gear and goodies..Since I usually pull my sled it has a rope, I hooked up it and didn't think twice, I figure a gradual slowing down into the fishing will do just fine when the time comes.  It being early morning there was plenty of other fisherman a few steps ahead of us taking off.  Being new to the area I wanted to get a general idea of what bays most people were fishing and decided to head out to the main body after them and see what direction they are heading.  My buddy says take is slow, I say yeah, yeah.  I take off and am quickly losing site of everyone heading off in random directions, I hear buddy tell me to slow down,  I ignore him and speed up a little.  I had been checking behind me every other second until then, I was focused on the quads I could barely see, then  I hear a loud yell and a punch to the back simultaneously. I immediatly let off the throttle, making matters worse,  I turned my head just in time to see the sled spill over.  Dozens of minnows all over the ice, a bent auger, broken cooler, smashed heater and many broken beers spread out over a 50 foot area by the time I made it to a stop.  I got the auger to fire up, punched a hole and managed to save most of the minnows and many of the beers.  After words the handles needed some straightening but it worked okay.  The cooler was a loss.  After scrambling around cleaning up the rest of my mess and a few choice curse words, my buddy told me that he didn't think I could hear his early warnings to slow down and smacked and yelled at me to get my attention so I would know the sled was dog tailing at that speed.

[beeverfishing]

    Thank you for sharing that !! 

[dkfry]

Too lazy to put my cleats on and falling on my arse numerous times in a row.

[esox13]

Hilarious guys!! This is why I like ice fisherman - not much can phase us -  we sit on a bucket on a frozen lake at temps that make bears stay inside and call it a great time. Wish I could add to the wonderful mishaps of you fellas, but apparently I am doing something wrong. I promise I will try harder this winter so I can come back with a zinger for you.

Tight lines and for goodness sakes be careful out there!

[tippin2back]

putting my leg into a hole up to the knee...and trying to act like nothing happend...

[pikeking]

Answer the phone when your wife calls! Don't do it guys, I have, and it made the rest of my time out there he!!.

[GotEmHooked]

wow...................id feel dumb for months

[Sledgod]

That would have really gotten spendy if you had to replace the friends auger, your bit AND the aqua view...I thought that kind of freak thing only happened to me!  here is just a sample of my idiocy

I went on a trip to Lake Winnibigoshish last winter and it was just one set of errors after another!  The first morning we leave from the hotel to get bait and head to the lake, we'll we get up there and realize the minnow bucket had fallen over and all the minnows were frozen to the bed of the truck (brand new Ford too), thankfully some others in the group lent some minnows to my fishing partner and I so we at least had something.  So being the efficient fisherman I am I chiseled some frozen minnows out of the truck and put them in a coffee cup to thaw out in front of the Mr Heater (I could still use the heads for bait) that worked until the coffee cup melted in half being next the heater(I didn't realize coffee cups COULD melt).  The next day both of us had our lines melted in half by the heater (see a trend here?) along with putting a nice burn spot on my new $200 coat (ouch!).  Not to be fazed we decided to try a different spot but as we were packing up to leave the guy I was fishing with let the shanty flap fall onto the heater and it promptly melted the nylon zipper in the middle and started the shanty on fire...thankfully I was right there and was able to douse the flames with my bare hands...fun stuff.  Somehow we were still able to make the shanty flap zip closed but there was about an 8" gap from the fire that was too melted to zip  .  Soooo the next day (the last mercifully) we headed out again and were setting up camp when I realized I had left the hose to the propane tank back at the lodge...DOH!  Luckily it was a balmy 10 degrees and windy .  Someone in our group took pity on us and lent us a couple of 1lbers to make it through the day 

Moral of the story: buy a Buddy heater and NOT the sunflower type Mr Heater especially if you have the luck(or stupidity) that I do!

[holehopper]

I think John Wayne said it best when it comes to my story.....

''Life's tough......it's even tougher if you're stupid.''

[prchslyr]

I'd shun them all together sledgod before your clothes end up on fire. I have a bad habit of checking mine to see if it lit the first time. With my bare hand.

[CrappieBuster]

Catching my carharts with the blade of my strikemaster and d**n near spinning my leg around.  Coulda been way bad

Burning a hole in my shack with the heater.

Drinking all my beer and being to drunk to fish "effectivly"

Many many more......

[andercee]

These stories are hilarious.  The best part is anyone one who doesn't ice fish wouldn't understand it at all. Last winter I was going fishing and had my bucket of minnows on the floor on the passenger side.  I don't remember what happened exactly but I had to hit the brakes a little too hard and water and minnows went everywhere on the passenger side.  I pulled over and picked up all the minnows and there were few casualties and the bucket had enough water to support life until I got to the lake.  However, a couple months later I was cleaning out my truck and when I moved the floor mat there was a strange mold growing everywhere underneath the mat.

Another story, when I was much younger I was fishing in my uncle's new fish house and I had a pot of warm water on the stove to keep the holes open.  Some how I ended up putting the pot of hot water on the carpet, when I went to pick it up the pot had fused to the carpet, and when I finally pried it up it was a perfect black melted carpet circle.  Man I thought he was going to kill me.