Who hunted the two freezes of 1983 & 1989

[Mexico]

I was pretty young during the 83 freeze, just remember it killed about every redfish in the bay!

[doghouse]

I don't remember which year but I was hunting near Marfa and had to go to Alpine for a jeep repair and the bank sign said -4 at ten in the morning. I darn near froze that morning before hitting the highway.

[Strummer]

Hunted the 89 freeze . Was 15 but I remember it .

[sharpstick35]

Maybe some folks don't realize there's a lot of Texas north of I-10 too - every year.

or west of 35

[sharpstick35]

Yep cold up there, drove from big springs to kerrviile, 9 hours in 4hi , weird feeling being only guy on I-10 in ice and snow closed interstate, cannot imagine living in North Dakota winter

I own land up there too and go quite often. nothing like some snow goose hunting in 0*

-41 will separate the men from the boys

[rtp]

It was not so much hunting perse in 83 but I was working in College Station in between semesters. I get a knock at my door and it is a girl I work with wanting to know if she could stay with me because her heat was out and her toilets froze over. Let's just say it never was very cold in my apt those days...

I've always wondered if her story was true or not. Mattered to me not!

[RifleBowPistol]

Don't really remember the freeze in 83, I know it got very cold back then a few times. I do remember it freezing pretty badly around 87-89 a few times. I remember there were at least two freezes where nobody was on the road, the roads were all iced up bad. So I had to go out driving on the ice for the fun of it, was not that bad, hard to see out the windshield it would ice up quickly even with the defrost on.

The coldest I remember it getting in Texas, was some time in the late 70s, I am pretty sure. I know we had a pretty new 78 Bronco at the time. It got down to 8 degrees one night we were hunting outside of Tilden. All of the water pipes for the ranchers stock tanks broke, there were large ice fountains all over the place. We were sleeping in a pop up Skamper that night, with the windows all unzipped when we went to sleep, because it was hot in December. Then we all woke up in the middle of the night, because it had gotten cold, so we zipped up the windows, then turned on the Coleman stove, that did not help much. We got in the Bronco with the engine running and the heater on. Then found some little restaurant, general store that opened up around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning we went inside to warm up.
They had a thermometer, that's how we found out it was 8 degrees. I remember that place bought hides or pelts, they had prices listed for about every critter I could think of, on a board. After seeing what they paid for coyote pelts, I wanted to go coyote hunting.
I remember it got very cold back in the 80s, might have been around 83, where I got so cold, me jeans froze to my legs, I got frost bite on my legs, face and ears sitting in a blind, one morning. That had to have been around 83, I was somewhere around 12 to 14 when that happened. We had no idea how cold it was, just that it was **** cold. We had no thermometer out there. I remember when they finally picked me up from the blind and I got in the truck, they had the heater on, it stung badly, I had to get out of the truck and get in the bed, it was too hot in the cab of the truck, my skin was stinging, burning.

Then another time years later, probably around 91 or 92. The last guys we took hunting. I picked them up from the air port, took them to the ranch outside of Boerne. During the winter, it would typically be 14 degrees colder up on top of the hill, that was most of the ranch, than it was in Boerne. That day, the road going up to the ranch, was covered in ice. I got about 1/3 of the way up and the truck started slowing down, almost stopped. So I pressed the brakes. I planned to stop, get out of the truck and lock it in 4X4, but it started sliding down the road backwards. I could not stop the truck. The two guys in the truck got scared. Luckily we finally slid off the road, to the inside of a curve and not the outside of that curve. I decided to try giving it some throttle and see if I could heat the rear tires. I had them spinning with no problem, eventually we had smoke coming off of the tires. Then eventually, when I gave it a bit more throttle, we got more smoke and the truck started going up hill. So I boiled the tires most of the way up the hill. The two guys that I was taking hunting kept saying we can turn around and go back, we don't have to go hunting today. There really was no place to safely turn around on that hill. We made it to the top of the hill, got to the ranch and went hunting. I was told to find them one doe apiece and that was all. Normally out there, that would have taken all of 10 minutes to get to where the deer were from the front gate. But that day, there were almost no deer moving. We finally found one doe, normally they were in groups of three to five, but we found one by her self.
Neither guy had ever shot a deer before. The guy up first, had a Remington 7600 in 270. Took him for ever to find the doe in his scope and finally pull the trigger. I had my 7mm Mag on the doe, if she took as much as one step from where she stood when he shot, I was going to drop her. I did not want to do any tracking that day. Well he finally shot, shocked the crap out of me. Looked like he shot a ice statue of a doe. Ice exploded everywhere and the doe dropped dead on the spot. Not sure she was not frozen solid, she stood there for a good 10 minutes without moving at all, before he shot.
I had no idea it was going to be so cold that day. I had on blue jeans, short sleeve shirt and a blue jean jacket.

[bossbowman]

Some one was talking about having a heater in a blind and someone said it never gets cold enough in Texas, well that got me to thinking about the Christmas freezes of 1983 ( I spent 10 straight days in Freer tx , temperature never above 16F no water or electricity) the bay’s all frozen
Then it got worse in 89 , while duck hunting the bay was frozen, every stock tank , and lake froze deep into Mexico , it was cold cold like around 0-fer “ I guess some of the younger guys don’t remember the cold weather “

I remember '89, we had to go chop holes in the ice on the stock tanks so cattle could drink, you could ice skate on them no problem it was crazy for down here.

[NF HUNTER]

I remember the freeze of 83' I was hunting in Bryan/College Station and the duck Sloughs were all frozen over. I had shot a doe that evening and couldn't wait to gut her and stick my hands in her warm guts to warm them. To the young guys "We did not have the warm hunting clothing we do now".

[CabezaBlanca]

Alt key and 0176.

[doghouse]

I remember '89, we had to go chop holes in the ice on the stock tanks so cattle could drink, you could ice skate on them no problem it was crazy for down here.

Iv'e done this many times in Mills county. Finally figured out to take the tractor with a front end bucket to break the ice.

[crowmagnum]

83 Storm hunting in Roberts co.

[T-roy66]

I remember 83 I was at my dads place on Sam Rayburn when my brother called and said I needed to get to his place on north Toledo he said ducks were everywhere. The next morning I was at his place. It was one of those days where we only shot green head mallards. Worst part of the hunt was on about my third retrieve I tore a hole in my cheap stocking foot waders. When we finished hunting I had ice formed on my wool socks.
Then in 89 I duck hunted Dam B ice covered all of the lake. We broke ice out of a small spot with the boat and killed A limit.

[RifleBowPistol]

One more. Sometime around 86 to 88, maybe as late as 89. There were at least two freezes, where it got down in the teens and lower 20s for about four days. After about two or three days, the fish had all either died or moved into deeper holes and channels. Well we kept getting told that Conn Brown harbor was crazy. So we went to Conn Brown, one night that first night might have been as early as 85, I don't think any of us had our driver's licenses at that point. I think my step father dropped us off around 10:00 PM and picked us up around 2:00 AM. It was cold enough there was ice on the water, it was only about 1/2" or so thick, but there was ice on salt water in south Texas. That was a first for me.
We fished, till we ran out of bait, then figured out, it did not matter what we threw in the water, there were so many reds packed in that channel that night, that anything we threw in there, that would fall at least 3 ft. down, they would hit on. We caught so many reds that night it was crazy. I think we only brought home maybe 10 to 12, between the three of us, but we probably caught 50 or more.

A year later, when I had my driver's license and my first truck. It froze and got down in the teens and lower 20s for multiple days in a row again. So we went back to Conn Brown Harbor. It was basically the same thing all over, except that when we got there. There was some crazy guy going off of the point of the harbor, then wading out about thirty to forty yards and casting out into the deep water off of the point. There is a boat ramp in that spot now, but not back then. We watched that crazy guy pull one huge red after another out of the water, then had his kids hauling the fish back to shore. All of them wading through that cold water with ice on the surface. I have never seen red fish that big in my life. I am guessing they were all over 40". I would bet one was over 50".
So after seeing that, we decided what the hell, they are doing it, lets go for it. So we waded out there, wearing boots or tennis shoes. Waded up to as deep as we could tolerate, then started casting out. I remember every time a boat went by and made a wake, we would all be yelling. The wake would splash our crotches, man that hurt like hell. But we caught some big reds. We really did not have the tackle for fish that large, so we lost all of the really big fish we hooked. It was crazy, but fun. I wound not do that for any amount of money today. I remember after we got out of the water, you would get about 10 steps, then you could hear ice crunching with every step, because the ice in your shoes had frozen already.
The last time a couple years ago, they had a good freeze down there, TPW shut down all fishing in the channels. I guess it was a good thing, but I think it's something everyone should get to experience at least once. Possibly only allow catch and release. The fishing is crazy in the deep channels, when it gets that cold for numerous days.

[Shane]

I remember '89, we had to go chop holes in the ice on the stock tanks so cattle could drink, you could ice skate on them no problem it was crazy for down here.

Growing up in the Panhandle, busting ice was pretty much a daily chore in the winter every year.

In '83 it never got above 32 degrees for about 35 days straight. It snowed a lot. The cotton fields were full of snow drifts that wouldn't melt. It was March before we were able to finish stripping cotton. It made for a lot of coyote hunting that winter. Hides were bringing $70-80. Skinned a BUNCH of them while we couldn't do much else on the farm.