Do You Need Ice Fishing Equipment?

Ice fishing Equipment varies a little bit from open water fishing. Before you ever try and get fishing line into water under ice you have to make a hole in it. This requires an ice auger. Ice augers are available in either manual or gas power. If you are going to be any kind of serious ice fisherman, invest in a gas powered auger, a manual auger is going to eat up blades and is not an efficient way to ice fish. The only time that I use a manual auger is when I am fishing for trout in a pond. It is a 4” manual auger made by Swede-Bore. Anything over a 4” manual auger becomes very tiresome to use after a short time. Gas augers often make trout finicky for a long time after the holes are drilled.

The most useful piece of ice fishing equipment I own is a 10” 3 hp Jiffy auger. It has never let me down in the 5 years I have owned it. Previously I have a 2 hp 10” Jiffy auger for 15 years and it still runs fine today. I never would have replaced it but the wife thought I might like a newer model for Christmas a few years back.

The next item that you will need to take with you is, a Tip Up and ice fishing rods.

Any style of tip-up will do if you want to ice fish. I have seen everything from crude home made tip-ups, to One hundred dollar store bought tip-ups. I personally have over 20 various makes, models and styles of tip-ups. Some are very good others are not worth a thing in terms of how they work.

Hi-Tech makes some great tip-ups that don’t freeze up or loose there spools in the water. I have a number of these tip-ups. Frabill also makes really great products, I use Frabill tip-ups almost exclusively now days.

I will tell you one thing and that is pound for pound the Frabill Pro-Thermal Tip-up is by far the best tip-up that I have ever used. I have almost no freeze ups on the water, few “wind” or false flags, less frozen holes and can fit a half dozen or more into a 5 gallon bucket with room to spare. The flags are high visibility and I have not had a single spool fall off after a big Pike runs with my bait and disappear into the depths of the lake. Regular tip-ups let “pillars” of light into the water that can spook fish. The round design of the Pro-thermal tip-up blocks the entire hole to prevent this.

Some people especially those who are new to the sport don’t want to spend the money on more expensive tip-ups. That is fine as well, I have been ice fishing for as long as I can remember and only bought my first round tip-up 3 years ago. I wouldn’t say that you will catch any more or any less fish with one tip up over another but the ease of operation and the lack of problems with the pro-thermal is worth its weight in gold.

Another piece of fundamental ice fishing equipment is an ice fishing rod. Select an ice fishing rod the same way as you would select on open water rod. Just leave out the part about casting. You need the sensitivity to feel the bite of the fish you are after and the backbone to reel the fish in. Pick a rod that suits the species of fish you are targeting. Once again Frabill and Hi-Tech both make great ice rods but most any rod that I have purchased has worked well. Most manufacturers make some sort of ice rod and I am not to pick over the one that I buy.

You will need a dipper for removing ice from your drilled holes. I purchase a dipper that has a chiseled end on the handle for breaking the ice out of the hole on those cold windy days. Never use your hands to scoop ice out of the hole, permanent nerve and blood vessel damage can occur in no time. Not to mention the risk of frost bite.

Frabill makes a nice dipper with a long handle and a ruler on the handle as well. This model has no chisel on the handle end.

Hi-Tech Fishing makes a good dipper also. It’s the one I use most often. The model is ICS-2. It has the chisel on the end and is 18” long.

In my opinion an integral part of your ice fishing equipment would be a shelter of some kind, Eastman makes good shelters, as well as Frabill, and Hi-Tech. I am using and Eastman Ice Cube right now. It is big enough that I can put some chairs in there my Aqua View Underwater Camera System and a small heater with room for my son to play a little when he gets bored.

Other than the ice fishing equipment listed above, some bait and jigs need to be in your tackle box and you should be off and running.

So pack that ice fishing equipment into the truck and get out on the hard water and fish!

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