Burrrrrrr

I thought about going fishing this morning but after looking at the -15 temperature, I think its a sleep in morning. My personal cut off is -10 actual temp…I usually don’t pay too much attention to wind chills. My experiences in less than -10 get very expensive. To me, fishing in less than -10 and lower, gear gets very brittle and I break too much stuff. There is that one exception if I am on a trip, than its part of doing business.

What’s everyone’s threshold when it comes to the thermometer????

Don’t really have a cut off if i planned on going I would go. Now if nothing planned sitting at home I might not go. Red Lake this year we fished in the mornings -40 and you just have to be a little more careful so we didn’t break any door handles on the trucks or augers thought our portables would be broken but all worked out.

Been there on a trip to SD -35 for the weekend and we broke everthing. Still got our fish

Depends on if my friends fish shack is set up or not.

I agree with Skol. We did a trip in January with negative temps. Broke a rod, buddy heater wouldnt work, one snomobile stopped working, auger was worthless on top of a slow bite. Everything really does get expensive.

Fished in Northern MN once at -30 temps. Had to leave the ATV running on the trailer from my folks house to the lake or it would freeze up. We got some funny looks on our 1 hr drive each way…….

If I’m in a sleeper there is no temperature requirements. If I’m going in a portable with my buddies who know what they’re doing, again no bottom. If the wife, non-fishing friends or family are involved I’d say in that -10 to -20 range.

My Coldest day ice fishing was 22 years ago today.
Was fishing with Jake’s Northwest Angle resort up on LOTW. Bomber ran out of Young’s Bay resort and our dayhouse’s were setup just south of Garden island so it was an hour or so ride out.
Jake told us the temp that morning was -43 in Warroad, and with the winds on the lake, the windchill was -104 (using the old calculation). When he dropped my father-in-law and I at our house, he showed us where 2 other of his houses were and said if your propane freezes, run to one of those other houses.
He spent the day constantly driving between his houses making sure everyone was OK/had heat.
Been on URL in some -30 cold, but in a sleeper, so other than starting the truck off and on not really a big deal.
In a portable, -10 is about it for me. Done some way colder days on sled-in lake trout trips to Ontario, but stuff breaks/breaksdown really easy in those temps and can make for alot of extra work.

I sneak out in the afternoon a lot to fish and therefore typically take a “run n gun” approach. Flasher, two rods, pocket full of plastics, and auger. So in that case, I’m usually eager/willing into negative single digits if very little wind. Now if it’s blowing, upper single digits. Guess that’s kind of the rule of thumb I’ve created in my head.

I did go friday morning. It was -12, and the fish were hungry! Went again today, temp 10, fish were slower. Ive been in a portable at -20 -25 with no wind. Sometimes its worth it, case by case.

Last year I went with some buddy’s to Kabatogama and it happened to start out on the coldest day of the year. -38 but zero wind thank God. The cabin we stayed at froze the heat off. The resort owner had a few spearing shacks and his snow machine froze up tending those. The Atv we had wouldn’t start. It was a mile hike to our spot from the landing as they discussed whether to hit the tavern for the day or fish. I pretty much put my foot down and said for the money invested in the weekend the tavern wasn’t an option for me. I can do that anywhere. The group as a whole pushed on to fish and we did quite well including my biggest perch ever. I wouldn’t fish locally if it was that cold I’d put another log on the fire!