I just came from Chassell Bay. The wind is creating havoc with the shanties that are still on the ice. If you have one out there, here is what I saw. First, my shanty, which weighs 400 pounds, was blown 20 feet from where I left it. I saw a green soft-side tent blowing across the ice and noticed it got blown right out of the bay and onto the Portage and out of sight. Behind it was a trail of fishing gear, chairs, etc. There is a hard-side red shanty that was blown over on its side and about 300 feet from where it was last, which was close to mine. There were several other hard-side shanties blowing loose across the ice on the far side of the bay, out to the left. There is stuff strewn all over the ice. The wind was blowing so hard as I was towing my shanty to shore, it actually pulled me backwards several times, the shanty acting like a sail and pulling my tracked Argo backward with it. It took me about 15 minutes to pull my shanty from the far side of the bay to the shore, because the surface of the ice is all ice (like a skating rink) and the wind was blowing toward me, again using my shanty as a sail. I would have to wait for the wind gusts to stop so I could get traction and inch forward. So, if you are one of the dozen or so that had shanties on the ice this morning, just wanted to give you a heads up as to what the wind was doing to them. The soft-side that I saw blow away will probably never be found. On the flip side of all this, the weather is going to get very cold for a week, so fishing will go on. Also, I did drill a few holes, as my original intention was to fish today and the ice is still very solid. The wind quickly changed that idea.
