Or how about 'you know it's raining when...'

Here's one to start with:

Some buddies and I were fishing a hole on a Puget Sound river during a very cold Nov day last year. This particular hole was packed full of chum and some silvers. The game was for the first guy (me in this case) to make his way to the top of the pool where some logs were piled, lean over them, toss your fly out about 20 ft, strip, pause, strip, pause - FISH ON! Then you were supposed to make your way to the bottom of the pool to play the fish so as to let the next guy make his casts (and to keep the fish out of the logs).

Well, it took a few minutes for the first fish to hit, and when it did - the guys yell 'move down!'. Well, I would have moved if I could - my felt soled boots were frozen solid to the log I was standing on. Took quite a bit of effort to get un-stuck. And I still managed to land the fish. For the next hour, we put on quite a show - a guy would get in position at the top - within 1 or 2 casts (and clearing ice from the guides) he'd have a fish on, he'd pass the the next guy (high fives usually given) who had just release his fish and was making his way back to the top, and play his fish in the bottom of the pool - usually along with guy #3 who was still trying to land his. Finally we moved on to let our arms rest.

Anyway - got any fun stories about the rain or the cold??

on an icy febuary morning on manchester dock i was going blackmouth fishing when i slid the boat in the water . there you can jump from trailer to ramp wall to dock without getting wet. well the railing on the dock where i jump to was covered in frost and i slid hit the ramp wall then fell next to the trailer and was in a foot of water on the ramp but I shoved the boat off and had to wade to the very edge of the ramp almost the dropoff. up to my shoulders to grap the bow tie. It ruined my trip I just put the boat right back on the trailer. Ben

Waliking the bank in and out of the water last winter in the snow I felt my feet getting heavier and heavier...rocks and ice and slush build up on those felt soles as bad as on poorly-waxed cross-country skiis. I felt huge and heavy footed, like Herman Munster

Putting in at Blue Creek one December day last year, we had to melt the ice out of the plug hole in the drift boat. I had left a coke in the boat from the day before and it didn't thaw out enough to drink until noon.

GutZ

You know it cold when

1.your anchor rope is frozen to the floor and you have to chip it out.

2.your guides are freezing up every cast.

3.your dumb arss fishin partner can't understand that he needs to be carefull when bringing his bait to the boat because you now have a strips of frozen egg(looks like a red pin stripe) plastered to the side of your boat :p


Tight lines

Kevin

You guys are bringing back some memories for me, though I'm not sure if they're good, bad, or just funny.

The frozen anchor rope and Herman Munster felt soled boots are classics.

I remember having to get out and push the boat over a shallow spot on the Snoqualmie when slush had build up so deep on the bottom that the boat got stuck in it. Anyone ever heard of that?

I also had a doozy while ice fishing at Fish Lake when I was in junior high. The area had experienced an Indian summer, melting lots of ice on top, which then refroze, leaving a layer of about eight inches of water between the ice layers.

Not good.

I'd fallen through so many times that on the way back in I lost a boot and was hiking in my sock. My dad noticed and I had to run back twenty or thirty feet to get my boot out of the hole it was in... I didn't even notice it was gone. Now that's cold feet.

Not a cold story, but a rainy one. Float tube flyfishing for trout with a friend of mine on a local pond. It was raining so hard that the splases from the rain drops were bouncing up and soaking my face to the point that I couldn't see to fish. I've never seen rain that hard in my life.

Fish on...

Todd.

You know its cold when:

1. Two casts and your guides are frozen;

2. Your fishing partner whines about his feet every five minutes;

3. Decide to relieve yourself of that morning coffee, damn can't zip my pants back up!

4. Finally, when you seriously wonder if "a damn fish is really worth this".

Hey - that reminds me of one of my 'favorites' -

20 degrees out; sideways frozen rain stinging me in the face; stading waist high in frigid water; fingers were numb 20 minutes ago - now I'm wondering if I even have fingers?? Neopreme chest waders; 4 layers of zipped up / buttoned up goretex, fleece, polypro, ect; then... mother nature calls!! (can you say 'shrinkage'??)

Years ago I was steelhead fishing on the Oregon coast. There was a nice layer of ice along the edge of the river. I ended up getting one steelie and was cleaning it when I got to thinking, boy this fish sure has a lot of blood in it.

Well it turns out I had chopped a good way through my finger when I was taking the gills out. My hands were so numb from the cold I didn't even feel it. I wrapped a handkerchief around my finger and it was almost completely soaked thru by the time I got home.

that is cool

A couple of years ago we floated the Nestucca on a day that never got over 20 degrees. Wound up catching some decent brats and went to bleed one and the blood froze as it was running out of the fish. Had to dump water in the bottom of the boat to pry the fish out when we were done.

3 years ago, I got a fish early in the morning just before Christmas when it snowed. When I went to clean it later it was frozen. I couldn't get my knife in it. I had to bring it home and thaw it before I could clean it.....now that is flash frozen.

You guys are hardcore!!!!!!
tyler

About twenty years ago, my brother-in-law, Bob, and I hiked in to the Rockies for a little late spring trout fishin'-campin' adventure.

The rangers we talked to warned us of the chance of an actic cold front coming in, in a few days, but we felt confident in our gear and experience, so we hiked on in to about the 7,500-8,000ft level.

Arriving at a beautiful little lake, about 3:00 in the afternoon, we quickly set up camp and rushed to get in a little fly fishing before dark, as the fish could be seen risin' on the lake.

As the sun started to set, the six little brookies we'd caught started to sizzlin' in the frying pan for dinner. Later as we sat back enjoying a smoke and bit of scotch, we noticed a considerable change in the weather.

What had been a balmy spring day was rapidly turning into a very cold night. Well, we said to one another, the rangers warned us, but we'll be ok.

We had pitched our tarp lean-to so that the open end faced a huge boulder, and had our fire built right next to it so that heat would be reflected back into our sleeping area.

We took turns adding fuel to the fire all night but on toward morning we both finally snuggled into our sleeping bags so far that we forgot about the fire.

Well, you may find this hard to believe, if I hadn't been there I wouldn't. When we woke up it was obvious that we were both colder than either could ever recall having been, I really think it was the excessive shivering that actually caused us to wake up at all! As Bob and I slowly stuck our heads out to take a look around, we were dumbfounded to see the fire, flames about 2ft high looking for all the world like a normal fire should, completely frozen SOLID!

Now boy's that's what I call COLD!

Boy, first lier just doesn't stand a chance, does he?

RiverMan,

I like No 4. I do that a lot.

I've experienced a few of the above, but I thought I was the only person to ever see flames freeze solid. Really! Papa is telling it like it is.

As for finding the ol' cold "turtle neck" with frozen fingers when nature calls, that can be real fun, eh? My advise is don't wait too long to take care of biz. I've been there when buddies have pee'd themselves by waiting too long to get after this winter task. Must be nice having your genitals become encased in a frozen pocket of yellow ice. Wheeeee.

I've had a near frozen face several times running my sled in winter on the Clackamas River. Made me learn to use a ski mask and goggles during freezing days. One winter day I got caught in a sudden heavy snow storm on that river and couldn't see well enough to run the rapids. Being a long way from the ramp made it a wait out situation. It put over 2" of snow all over the deck and hull of my sled. Later it took 2 trucks to get it up the boatramp - and tow it to the nearby Clackacraft d-boat factory (thanks Bruce!).

The only 2 times the cold ever had me really scared was the time my d-boat broke loose on the iced over Siskyville steep wooden rail launch on the Wilson R., with a guy down near the bottom of it. And the time my dad fell out of my first driftboat flat on his back in about 3 ft. of water when it was around 20 degrees out on the Nestucca R.

The boat 'slide' could have taken out the guy down below, but fortunately it hit the water. And it skipped across to the other side of the river and then slowly drifted on down by itself.

As for dad, he was drenched and I worried about hypothermia setting in due to 20 deg. cold and a light wind. It was a long way to the takeout so I got ready to give him my jacket and hightail it to the ramp. Just then a nearby farmer came down to the hole to see how fishing was and came to our rescue - taking dad up to dry off, and his wife put dad's clothes into their dryer. Very lucky. ... Oh ya, how did he fall out? I came wading back to the boat in my waders and assumed he saw me getting in the other side - not. It suddenly tipped the boat and he backed right over the gunnel and flat on his back and flailing the cold water. Lesson learned. Never dumped anyone else, rapids or otherwise, except that one time.

Oh, there was one other scare. I was with a couple friends in a 2 wheel drive truck going over the coast range to fish near Tillamook. A Jeep came up behind us and wanted to pass. So our driver pulled in to a side spot a little too fast, and we slide toward a cliff with a long steep hill down thru flocked trees. His truck stopped just on the edge of the embankment - whew!

RT

You know it's cold when.......You dip your hands in Puget Sound to warm them up.

You know it's cold when you see RT out on the river wearing his 'facegear' and pads.

[ 12-20-2001: Message edited by: Krome Brite ]

Good one, KB

Hey, RT, are do you keep little heat packets in those knee pads to keep warm? :p

That isn't the only place I keep those little heat packets. Aye aayyn't know duhmmy!

You know it is really cold when your standing in the meat hole with snow up to your arss ripping fish after fish and no one else is there, got to like it!!! PEACE