Hang On!

If you have been ice-fishing for any amount of time, you probably have a story or three about an ice shack blowing away.  It goes something like this:

If you want to watch another one follow this LINK .

Of course those remind me of some stories. . . .

I watched a couple of guys try to pop-up a shelter on the ice during one gale.  They spread it out on the ice and the skinny, little guy got on top of it.  In a matter of seconds the wind picked it up, and threw the little guy aside.

“WOOSH” the whole thing lifted into the air.  I was sitting downwind, but had nothing to worry about.

The wind elevated the whole shelter ten or twenty feet into the air, above my head, up the bank , over the hill and out of sight.  After picking themselves off the ice, and checking the wiry guy for broken bones, the intrepid ice anglers started trudging downwind to find their shelter.  I figured they might pick it up somewhere along the Kansas border.  Surprisingly, in a half-hour or so they came hiking back over the hill, pop-up shelter in hand.  They did not try to set it up again.

If you want to read another ice shelter sailing story,  this old blog post has one, The Don.  Don’t read the whole blog post.  Skip down below the picture of the big guy in the tie-dye shirt, and start there.

This being another light-hearted blog post, I realize it is insensitive of me to just laugh at other’s challenges.  I’m sorry.  Let me make it up by linking to a video that tells you how to set up a shelter in the wind:

Keep your stick, and your ice-shelter, on the ice, and keep your back to the wind!