Who's lived in their shanty for a weekend? What did you do right? What could you have done better? How cold was it?
I suggest you update this yearly
BEST. TRIP. EVER.
Long post warning. I may find a different format for future reports. The IS proxy and my web server have a funny relationship sometimes. If images don’t display, just reload the page.
The ammondude and I took overnight trip #4 on December 30-31, 2019. High temp on day one: 10 deg F. Low temp overnight: About 0 deg F. High on day two: About 21 deg F.
Here are links to the previous trips:
2015:
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=325954.msg3440566#msg34405662016:
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=325954.msg3587572#msg35875722018:
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=325954.msg3921461#msg3921461And for the first time, here are links to my two prep checklists, in one document. I only claim that they are right for us. YMMV, and I hope they help someone.
(checklist link)In addition to our normal preparation and most of the identified adjustments from last year, we added two new things:
- A Strikemaster Lithium 40V 8-inch auger
- An Aqua-Vu Revolution 5.0 Pro.
Among the adjustments from last year: Add a (third) Jet Sled XL and cover. Here are pics of the Otter hitch install on the new Jet Sled XL (Shappell HD hitch also attached). I’m very pleased with it:
Ammondude’s primary goal was to catch a nice rainbow/cutthroat hybrid. As usual, I thought it would be nice to catch a giant one, but would be happy to take home and eat trout > 2 pounds.
Based on local ice conditions, we opted to return to Henry’s Lake, Idaho, where the ice was > 12 inches and fishing reports had been good. I figure it’s OK to mention the location as this place gets lots of press already and won’t hot-spot due to my report. I was disappointed that prospector couldn’t join us, nor could some other friends from home. Once again, it was just the two of us. But that’s OK, we’re good company!
Folks had been getting trucks stuck at our usual parking area, so we passed on that and formulated a plan with three, prioritized, alternate parking spots. The trip across the ice from alternate site 1 would be a little longer to our intended camping spot, probably about 2.5 miles, but we figured that shouldn’t be a problem. There were videos online of folks buzzing around on snowmobiles.
A reasonable, mid-morning departure had us parking at alternate site 1 about 1:40 p.m., nearly 2 hours later than last year. By 2:30 or so, we were loaded and ready for our trek across the lake before an expected sunset at 5:00.
Zoom! Sunny and calm day, about 8 degrees F, cruising across the ice with our train of cargo, life was good. Nothing falling off sleds, no problems, just peachy, blissful progress.
Then it happened. The snowmobile slowed and sank—SLUSH! Aaargh! Like 10 inches deep! I almost got stuck, and the ammondude almost got stuck behind me, and after some tense moments crawling along at full throttle, we got back onto solid ice. What to do? Let’s stick closer to shore. OK. But before we could get closer to shore – SLUSH AGAIN! AARGH! An even bigger patch. This time I made it out and ammondude didn’t. A stuck snowmobile on the flat, on our beautiful day!! I post holed back through the slush and snow, we unhooked his cargo sleds, and I mounted his snowmobile. Two or three sessions of him pulling on a ski and me rocking the snowmobile while throttling up, and we got the beast back to some solid frozen water. Then we had to go back and manually pull the cargo sleds to solid “ground,” one each. Those things are work to pull when the surface is not solid! Here is Ammondude pulling the second cargo sled. You can see his coat back at the stuck spot, my tracks on the right, and his stuck/unstuck tracks in the middle.
Now it’s after 3:00 p.m. We need to get shelter set up, preferably before dark. And please, no more slush today. In the meantime, gotta strip off layers and evaporate some sweat. Hey, I will call prospector. He was here like last week. Were there any slush pockets when you were here? Yes, but they were no problem as I was not towing large amounts of cargo. Ergh.
Then came the good decision that saved the day: No summit fever. Our favorite spot would be reserved for another day. Let’s find some reasonable ice surface with at least 10 FOW and make do. Make camp, get fishing. Deal. We stopped at a group fishing nearby to ask about slush. “Slush? What slush?” They had seen none. OK, let’s backtrack a bit, which we did, then we paused to find a good path to deeper water.
My snowmobile has a longer track with longer paddles (better slush escaping capability), so we unhooked my fishing sled and cargo sled, and I went exploring. Found one slush pocket, then a path around it, and then made some circles farther out in to the lake until I figured the water would be as deep as we wanted. Went back, hooked up, and we took the whole train out to the chosen spot. Drilled a hole. Hey! 13 FOW! We have a home for the night! And about 90 minutes of light.
After clearing some snow and setting up the shelter, we agreed that a shovel would sure be handy even if only for that task. Hmmm. More cargo…
Hey ammondude, I’ll work on camp and you work on fishing. OK! Spoiler alert: From the moment he started fishing, until we left, there was not more than 15 minutes between bites. For like 24 hours. Best ice fishing action we ever, ever had. Before you know it, he is icing and releasing some nice hybrids in the 16-18 inch range. Hey, this will do! After the beds were made, I put in a dead stick on my AK Salmonbear and also caught a nice hybrid. They seemed to be about 2 lbs. and sooo beautiful.
Even with the steady bite we managed to get camp set up by dark. Here’s a look at this year’s camp site:
With the steady action it was hard to pause for dinner, but somehow I got ammondude to heat up the brisket. Check out his hot brisket sandwich on an onion bun.
Item to do better this year: Remember the Tang! Check! Oh man, that hot Tang hits the spot. Totally recommendable.
Fishing near the submersible light, watching the Aqua-Vu and the lx6-s is always so fun. Before we knew it, it was like 10:00 p.m. and time for bed. For about 90 minutes, ammondude would put a dead stick down the hole and turn to get ready for bed, only to get interrupted with fish on the screen(s) and/or biting. Finally, he announced that he was not going to leave a line in the water overnight. He pulled up, and got dressed for bed.
How can you not put a line in the water overnight? I rigged up a dead stick and turned to change my clothes. Ding, ding, ding. OK. I iced a 2 lb. cut and gave in. I kept it, declared I was also done fishing, and went to bed at nearly midnight.
Our sleeping system is solid. The bunkbed cots, with extensions and foot pads, two sleeping pads and two zero degree bags on each level, are so comfy. Between that and changing into clean, dry everything, it can’t be beat. I got too warm a few times, then a little cool once, adjusting layers each time. Ammondude was steady-comfortable all night. We were so cozy that we slept until 8:30 a.m.! As always, no heater needed overnight.
Finally, I climbed out of bed, turned on the heater, and then just got back in. Ammondude got up and going, and got into fish. Boom. Like the night bite never ended.
Time to get going. I got out of bed and got a pole in the water and the camera going, and got to changing clothes, eating breakfast, and fishing. I got breakfast in me and my lower half dressed, then took off my night-time top layers and started getting my top half dressed, when a BIG fish caught my eye on the camera. “Big fish! Big fish!” I grabbed the rod and jigged a little and the big brute went right for it, and I set the hook. “It’s really big!” Ammondude rushed in to help but was called outside by a ringing bell on one of his poles. Four one-handed tries later, I pulled out a rainbow/cutt hybrid 2 oz short of my PB, at 8 lb 2 oz. Threw my bib suspenders over my shoulder and popped outside for a picture.
Got some more clothing on and took a few more. Gotta get that Ice Shanty logo in the shot.
Here is what the average fish interaction looked like for most of the trip:
And here is a large one that didn’t bite. These get the heart pounding:
We went on to catch others, but when I iced a 3 pounder, I declared success and was done. Gotta love it when the three pounder looks small.
Finally ammondude got a 4 lb 3 oz hybrid. Beautiful.
Eventually he kept a second fish and was also done.
It snowed most of the time we were there, and from lunchtime, on, and as we packed up, with temps rising to the 20’s, the the FF9416i got
saturated with moisture, and the pole ends in the center of the shelter started a terrible drip, like real bad! If that had happened during the night it would have been untenable. The shelter is a little short, and my back was a little sore by the time we were done, from not standing straight inside. And the zippers got a little stubborn, frozen I think. Despite all that, I still like it for overnight, but I gotta figure out how to prep for those drips if they ever happen overnight. Maybe they won’t, as we don’t run the heater in the night and the top should just be frozen.
Time to pack up and get going. I hope we don’t find new slush on the way to the car. We got everything packed, and went to fold up the shelter, and it was so saturated and frozen that it collapsed this much only:
Holy crud! That won’t fit anywhere, let alone fitting in the bag!! We finally experienced "can’t get the Eskimo shelter in the bag." No way to attach it anywhere for transport. We just need to leave it here and make an extra run to come get it. Good thing we’re not 2 miles from the truck this year!
Started the snowmobiles to make sure they weren’t frozen in place. Mine was a little bit, but broke free easily enough. Ammondude’s would spin the track but wouldn’t go anywhere. Turns out that in addition to the four inches of ice on top of the skis, there was 2-3 in inches of ice on the
bottom of the skis, all left over from our wet fun the day before. We used my ice chisel to clear the ski bottoms and it was fine. We got back to the truck without incident (whew). Here’s the whole train minus the shelter:
A quick and uneventful return trip for the shelter, and before you know it, we’re packed up for the road. Time to head home as the sun sets, about 5:00 p.m.
A customary Big Mac on the drive home, and a big fillet party two days later.
Simply amazing.
OK, last year’s identified improvements:-Limit Ammondude to one brisket sandwich: Check!
-Remember the Tang: Check!
-Add another Jet Sled XL, Shappell HD hitch, cover, and an Otter hitch receiver: Check! Great add.
-Convert the box sled to use a Shappell HD hitch: Didn’t get this done, but got the hardware built for the conversion.
-Consider a backup/secondary heat source: Took the portable buddy heater and extra fuel, and didn’t touch them, but we’re glad we took them. We’re likely to have a backup heat source with us in the future.
-Take a folding stool for the old man sleeping on the top bunk: Check! A good add.
-Take more and better trip documentation pics: Check!
-Record some Aqua-Vu video: Check, but we still missed some great footage.
-Get a more accurate measurement of propane usage: The Big Buddy used 1.1 gallons (~4.62 lb), less than half of the 11 lb cylinder capacity. I was surprised, as we had the heater on for probably > 6 hours, much of that time on high.
Did right:-Ditched the original destination and found a different place to camp.
-Waterproof boots saved us, big time. Good footwear is such an imperative.
-Extra clothing made ammondude’s time a lot better. He had some saturated layers after the slush fun.
-Covers on the cargo sleds saved bedding and heaters in the slush party.
What to do better next time:-Consider adding a small shovel, like my avalanche shovel or some such, to clear snow for the shelter.
-Get back to an earlier start with pre-Noon arrival. Much better.
-Pack some extra straps to carry a frozen shelter on one of the loaded sleds if needed.
-Ammondude tuck in yer pants in case of slush.
-Find more non-cotton clothing.
-Figure out a slush hand signal to have the guy in back stop even though the guy in front is gunning it through the slush.
-Record even more underwater video, by leaving the unit in record mode instead of waiting for fish to appear before hitting the Rec button.
Lingering concerns:-Newer snowmobiles would not get slush-stuck as easily… Ergh.
-What do do about the 9416i drips?
Future:Some day I may customize a flip-over for solo runs. Maybe a clam X300, sleeper-style like the Utah guys and prospector build.
Whew. Long read. But shorter than watching prospector’s most recent video…
