How cold have you been ?

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Philip

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So I was doing a bit of fishing today into dusk and I was that cold I almost poured my flask of tea into my boots rather than drink it.

It still however does not rate as cold as the time I slept under an open brolly one February and on attempting to exit my sleeping bag at 1am for a pee found it totally covered in frost and ice which creaked and cracked as I moved.

So how cold have you been and what’s its driven you to do ?
 
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Steve Spiller

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Had to waste two cups of lovely hot coffee the other day.
Sat my mags in a bait tub on top of the cup to try to make them wriggle....
They did, but I still blanked :(
It's -7 here at the mo'!
 
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bigbass

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I was doing an overnighter and you could say it got a bit cold. I woke up about 3am and saw stars above me, some sods nicked me stealth i thought, but no it was ice. I tried to make a cupper but couldnt get the cooker to work and half the lake was froze over !
And the worst thing was i had to kip in my mates bivvy and he had ate a hot curry the night before.
 
Rickrod

Rickrod

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Fish horseshoe lake 4 or 5 years back. It was -6 and my sleeping bag must of been made from tissue paper i was that cold. I didnt get any sleep and it was a very long night.And that was only the first night.
 
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dezza

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Spent a weekend midwinter, it would be July 1986 camping by Sterkfontein Dam in the Free State. A cold snap came up from the Antarctic and froze my sleeping bag solid with me in it. My friend lit a fire to thaw me out. The temperature that night dropped to -15 deg C!

I have never been so cold in my life. We had a heck of a job towing the boat out of the water which had about 2 inches of ice on it.
 
Peter Jacobs

Peter Jacobs

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Steve Spiller said:
Sat my mags in a bait tub on top of the cup to try to make them wriggle....
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Steve,

When fishing in the cold months in Norway we used to keep the next couple of maggots for the hook under our tongue.

It kept them lively for a while, but as soon as they had been in the river for a few minutes I'm sure that they soon hardened off.

It sounds daft now, but it goes to show the sort of things we'd resort to in a match for 'an edge' I suppose.

As for keeping warm on the river banks these days, I use a small Coleman Black Cat heater inside my Korum Stormshield brolly - two brilliant pieces of kit.
 
Graham Whatmore

Graham Whatmore

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I was never a camper but I have fished in some very cold weather. The coldest days aren't the snowy days its those foggy, frosty, sub zero days when the cold seems to eat into your bones.

I have fished quite a number of matches in those conditions and I remember one in particular on the Warks Avon when it was absolutely freezing, almost unbearable. The guy next to me fell in up to his waist before the match started, borrowed some waterproofs and fished the match out with just those on. Now that takes dedication especially as the fishing was particularly hard and neither of us caught a fish, I blamed him for frightening them off. :)
 
Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)

Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)

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So cold once, as a kid, that after a day fishing on the Medway at Maidstone..I was unable to bend my hands or move my fingers...eventually the bus conductress had to put her hand in my pocket and take the fare out! (Those were clearly more innocent and far less suspicious days!)
 
Peter Jacobs

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Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC) said:
And they made him a Moderator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:confused:

How's the weather in France, Peter? This snow you're sending our way;it will be the right snow for the trains this time?
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This morning it was a brisk -5C, nothing to worry about at all, little frost and the roads were okay too.

No snow as yet here, but it is forecast for late in the week, and even lower temperatures (down to -11C) by the weekend.

I'd seriously recommend one of those Black Cat Heaters from Coleman if anyone is venturing out fishing . . . .
 
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Derek Gibson

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Spurn Point, Yorkshire Coast, cod bashing in February, in the dark hours is no place for the feint hearted. More than once I have seen anglers helped off the beach, barely able to walk. We must have been mad, hyperthermia is no joke !!I have ''never'' been so cold since those day's back in the late sixties. One friend had to be hospitalised.
 
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Scott Whatmore

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I was 11 or 12 at the time. Me and a mate had cycled about 4 miles and came accross a snow drift about 12 feet deep. We had hours of fun digging out a camp in there. Of course we were soaked though and the ride home was horendous and I litterally froze to my handlebars.

When I got home I had to shout for my mum to come and pry me from the bike and pour warm water over my clothes to get them off so I could get in the bath.
 
Fred Bonney

Fred Bonney

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The coldest I ever felt was in a late warm June many years ago.
I did an overnighter on a Cambridgeshire gravel pit and sat out in my day clothes, short sleeve tea shirt etc.
Come dawn I had to go to find the sun to warm up,I've never felt so cold and ill on fishing trips before, or since.
 
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Merv Harrison

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A works 'open' club match at Winthorpe many years ago, freezing wind coming straight down the river, approx 30 took part, after a couple of hours of a 5 hour match there were about 10 left fishing, the first and only time i've seen people being physically sick with being so cold.

The 'hardy' one's stuck it out for the full match, while all the rest sat on the coach.
 
Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)

Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)

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Merv Harrison said:
A works 'open' club match
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Oh god - winter league fishing on the Kentish Stour at Minster - 5 hours praying for one bite from a misguided eel...the venue where every team seemed to be short of regulars so blooded "up and coming juniors". It's called character forming I believe.


I had just about eradicated that from the memory banks....thanks Merv!
 
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Merv Harrison

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"5 hours praying for one bite from a misguided eel..."

One of the lads from our 'works' club fished an open at Dunham Bridge in freezing weather, he won the match with a, (if I remember rightly), 1lb Chub, 60+ anglers and he was the only one to have a fish.
 
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