Guides · Local · Keswick
Ice fishing on Lake Simcoe? Keep your phone alive (and out of the hole)
Cold kills phone batteries fast, and an open hole in the ice is the worst place to drop one. Keep your phone in an inside pocket, bring a warm power bank, use a lanyard or floating pouch, and never charge a frozen phone. If it gets wet, turn it off and bring it to our Keswick store the same day.
Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read · From our Keswick store
Why your phone dies on the ice
Phones are built to work between about 0 °C and 35 °C. A January morning on Lake Simcoe is well below that, and the wind on open ice makes it worse.
When a lithium battery gets cold, it can't push out power properly. Your phone might show 40% and then shut off. This is usually temporary: warm the phone up and the charge comes back.
If your phone dies early in the cold and also dies early indoors, that's a worn battery, not the weather. Check your battery health before the season starts.
Keep it warm and charged
- Inside pocket, not the hut floor. Keep the phone close to your body. Leaving it on a bucket or the ice drains it in minutes.
- Bring a power bank, and keep it warm too. A cold power bank charges slowly. Keep it in another inside pocket.
- Don't charge it while it's frozen. Charging a battery below freezing can damage it for good. Let it warm up first.
- Charge to 100% before you head out. And turn off things you don't need, like Bluetooth and background app refresh.
- Warm it up slowly. Don't put a frozen phone on a heater or in front of the truck vent. Fast heat can cause condensation inside.
Keep it out of the water
A phone that goes down a fishing hole is almost always gone for good. Plan for that before it happens.
- Use a lanyard or a floating pouch. A cheap waterproof pouch with a neck strap is the best insurance you can buy for a day on the ice.
- Don't take photos over the hole. Step back from the hole to take that fish photo. Gloves make phones slippery.
- Turn on your backup before you go. If the phone is lost, your photos and contacts aren't. See how to back up an iPhone or back up an Android phone.
- Turn on Find My or Find My Device. It helps if you drop it in the snow or leave it in the hut.
If your phone gets wet
Slush, a wet glove or a dunk at the edge of the hole can all get water inside. Turn the phone off right away, don't charge it, and don't put it in rice. Then follow our water damage steps.
Bring it to our Keswick store the same day if you can. We open it up, clean the board and stop corrosion before it spreads. The sooner we see it, the better the odds. See water damage repair in Keswick.
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236 Dovedale Dr, Unit 9A, Keswick, ON L4P 0H3, on Dovedale Drive in Keswick
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| Coming from | Distance | |
|---|---|---|
| Sutton & Jackson's Point | about 15 km southwest | Directions |
| Pefferlaw | about 27 km southwest | Directions |
| Monday | 10am – 6pm |
| Tuesday | 10am – 6pm |
| Wednesday | 10am – 6pm |
| Thursday | 10am – 6pm |
| Friday | 10am – 6pm |
| Saturday | 10am – 4pm |
| Sunday | 10am – 4pm |
Questions
Will the cold break my phone?
Usually not. Cold drains the battery and can shut the phone off, but it comes back when it warms up. Charging it while frozen and heating it too fast are what cause damage.
My phone shuts off at 30% even indoors. Is that the cold?
No. That's a sign the battery is worn. A battery replacement fixes it, and most are done while you wait.
Can you get my phone back if it went down the hole?
We can't get it out of the lake. If you do get it back, turn it off and bring it in right away. If your phone was backed up, your data comes back on a new phone.