new to ice fishing

[bigerikt]

Hello everyone,

My family and I moved here about two years ago from Oregon. I finally went ice fishing for the first time the other day, and I'm hooked.

It being right after Christmas, I don't have the cash to drop for all the gear all at once. Have been told that besides rods and tackle, I need an auger, fish finder and a portable house. These things I'll hav to slowly accumulate.

I figure that the auger should be 1st. Do I need the gas/electric auger, or will a hand auger be fine?

[BeenACrappieDay]

If you are basically going for panfish and are up to the task, a 6" hand auger would be good to start off. never have to worry about a plugged carb or running out of gas. at least not the kind that fills a tank.

If you are planning on fishing with the family, I personally would go with a hub shelter. I have a Bigfoot XL 4000T and that is all I use whether it's just me or 5 guys. tons of room, stays warm, and sets up in 60 seconds.

welcome to the sport. good luck out there.

[fridron]

Unlike BACD, I would go for a power auger. Would hate to try a hand auger on 12-18in ice, course I'm old too. If you have the clothes, you could put off a shelter til after you have a flasher or camera. Flasher 1st, camera 2nd, although you could go with one of those $100 cameras and a depth weight for now. Check on Craig's List or in the classifieds here. Whatever, welcome to the state and a great sport. BTW, you're right , it IS addicting.

[TrophyTomorrow]

You can find pretty good ice fishing stuff on Craig list or wait til the end of season and ice fishing stuff goes on sale in stores and save a few bucks.

[The Griz]

Id also go with a gas auger, even though its more money up front, you will greatly appreciate it. Flashers; once you fish with one, you'll never be able to fish without it. I don't think these things ever really get discounted after the end of the season, but you don't need anything too fancy. I think fleet farm has the vexilar fl-8 on sale, easy to use and does the job just fine. Have fun out there.

[Brad B]

  bigerikt said:

Hello everyone,

My family and I moved here about two years ago from Oregon. I finally went ice fishing for the first time the other day, and I'm hooked.

It being right after Christmas, I don't have the cash to drop for all the gear all at once. Have been told that besides rods and tackle, I need an auger, fish finder and a portable house. These things I'll hav to slowly accumulate.

I figure that the auger should be 1st. Do I need the gas/electric auger, or will a hand auger be fine?

personally for Augers I would try to get both a hand auger and a gas auger. I like a hand auger for early ice when you have to walk out and a gas auger for when the ice gets over 12" thick. for a flasher you could start with something like a FL-8SE($280 new). for a one man house I would look at the Clam Kenai ($250 new) or Scout ($280 new) or the Scout EXP ($320 new) for a first house unless you want a full thermal one right away. A full thermal one man will start at around $400(legend Thermal).check around and you can find stuff used also that would be less. I do have a 8" Lazer Hand auger I could part with if you were interested in it. I would cut you a good deal on it. send me a PM if interested.

one last thing is if you want some one to go out fishing with some time send a me a PM and we could set something up as long as it works into my schedule. at this time I only have 2 one man houses but could get my Brother in laws 2 man Thermal nanook if need be. I have all the gear so all you would have to do is show up and fish.

[Juan Grande]

Have you guys ever tried a freshly sharpened Nils hand auger? Used one last weekend with 15 inches of ice and the thing flew through the ice. Yeah, it gets tiring after 10 holes, but not all hand augers are created equal.

I have an LX3 and love it. Would like to get a new fish house and auger too, but they're pricey. Trying to buy used ones is kind of pointless as most guys are asking 80% of the original price on augers and flashers that are 10 years old. They just don't depreciate.

[FishSystem]

welcome to MN cold, and the forum, and to ice fishing! I've also

got room for you.

[hydro]

  bigerikt said:

Hello everyone,

My family and I moved here about two years ago from Oregon. I finally went ice fishing for the first time the other day, and I'm hooked.

It being right after Christmas, I don't have the cash to drop for all the gear all at once. Have been told that besides rods and tackle, I need an auger, fish finder and a portable house. These things I'll hav to slowly accumulate.

I figure that the auger should be 1st. Do I need the gas/electric auger, or will a hand auger be fine?

I see lots of good answers above but the most important thing to remember is that you really do not need to spend thousands of dollars on equipment to go out ice fishing. Find a friend or two that also like to ice fish and who already have the equipment. Offer to buy bait and gas and ask them to go with you and learn for yourself what equipment you will want to buy first. There is an overwhelming overload of opinion and marketing hype on "what you have to have" to ice fish and listening to all of that will empty your pocket book very fast.

In reality, all you need is a sharp hand auger to make a hole, a scoop to clear the hole, a fishing rod to fish with, and a small sled to pull the stuff in. With good warm clothes and a nice day you do not need a shelter, you do not need a $500.00 power auger or an expensive camera. A good sonar is pretty valuable and that is what I would suggest first, beyond the basics mentioned above.

Brad offered to take you out and I would recommend doing that to see how the equipment is used. Also, I would be happy to go over how I have developed my system over the years, and I'm just west of you in Buffalo. PM me if you would like to discuss or maybe hit a lake some day.

[amateurfishing]

welcome to ice fishing, I could not agree more with the above post. I was 4 years ago where you are now, just getting involved in the sport. I cant emphasize enough just attempt to get out and find a "style" that you like. wether its staying put in one place or running & gunning hole hopping. this will determine your primary equipment.

my first year I started with a whole set up for $50 on hsolist(small sled, 4 used combos, 5" hand auger,& a case of old lures). I went out a few times mid feb and learned some hard lessons my first 2 years & slowly upgraded to my style. first upgrade was an old strikemaster 49 cc magnum III I found on hsolist for dirt cheap ($100)still runs like a champ today with regular maintenance, figured if im too tired to hand drill through 2 feet of ice, I aint fishing. 2nd thing was warmth (I had cheap old ski gear)figured if I had a proper snow suit, I COULD get by without a shelter so started searching for the cheapest in the biz, turns out was strikemaster suits, then heard a rumor that they are always have GREAT deals (40-50%)off at ST. Paul ice show, get that info verified and sit n wait for the show to come up. next was "who wants to set at a dead hole" mentality. did some research and turned out to be "showdown troller" at the time. got it 30%off @c's store end of jan with still time left on the ice that season.(I have since upgraded to HB 597 for boat & ice). so now I can make a hole with ease, stay with a comfy ice suit on, and check depth and fish with sonar. started catching minimal fish but could see suspended ones as well,(major plus with sonar). then I started learning on this site where to target fish on lakes and started getting more bites. more bites means im finding the fish but not hooking them. 2 things now came into play, shelter for more ice time & equipment for icing the fish. again c list time watch and wait for used flip over and find what I want. to this point I was bobber fishing and pretty much missing every bite possible and couple ppl recommended "spring bobber rods" to me from here. bought a couple and catch rate increased exponentially. they were cheaper rods for me (tips broke easily) but showed me the vast potential of spring bobber style rod. after 3 broken tips I was ready for something more durable and quality driven....& now have met TB.

reason I am telling you all of this is it is very possible to start slow and discover your style. it is very easy to find decent used equipment that fits your budget. everytime I was looking online for specific used equip I had a budget and once it popped up I always pounced on it, and there are always sales to be had at some point & time if you are willing to be patient.

my combos are TB rods with okuma 2/3 reels (this is high end but I personally believe it helps me set the hook) and doubt I will ever go back to cookie cutter rods, I personally will always buy electronics brand new because I always want a warranty with mine. as far a lures, line, shelter, augers, etc, personally these are the areas I don't think anyone needs to buy new to save money (but great deals can be had with new at times) and you don't need to go out and spend 2 grand in one season to do it.

I would highly recommend if you really like the sport try and hit a trade show or 2 in the area. you can get great deals if you try hard and the knowledge you can walk away with from some of the experts are phenominal. $10 admission can be money well spent especially if you are asking questions/looking to learn or shopping for product specific items.

I am in elk river and if you would like to go out sometime I can show you "my" ways (and I always just go to the local lake) and show you some of my equipment, I do try and keep my equipment bare bones necessities. good luck and welcome to the sport

[Dooley87]

If I could only have one piece of ice fishing equipment It would be my Vexilar. It's just an fl-8 but it's priceless for telling you depth, bottom hardness, weeds, and most importantly fish. I would borrow everything else or go with friends who have everything else if I only had the money for a flasher. If you have a boat with a graph fish finder they make ice fishing kits for the graphs with a case and a transducer so you can transform your boat's graph into your ice fishing fish finder.

This also isn't about what you want but more about things you need to start. So to me a power auger doesn't make the list. A hand auger will work, will just be a little more labor intensive. Also a house is not needed but if desired a pop up hub is hard to beat, I have an eskimo quickfish 3 and love it, I can spear or angle out of it, sets up super quick and easy and I can carry it on my back like a back pack.

You don't need to get fancy with rods either. One of my all time favorite crappie and bluegill rods is a blue HT light 24" rod around $7 with a $4 plastic reel taped to it similar to this one.

Otherwise a sled (a cheap children's sliding sled would work) a few buckets a scoop and a few cheap jigs will get the job done. If you get a house and need a heater I would buy a cheap $15 camp stove that runs on the 1lb propane cylinders, I have one and I took the "cooking plate" off so it's just the burner and it fits in my pocket and heats my hub house pretty nice and you can still put a can of soup on the burner.

[pikerliker]

Hey bigerikt definatley check out the online list that starts with C! I can't print the actual name of the list or it will come out in my post as HSO list (forum thing). Go to sporting goods and type in ice fishing for a search and all kinds of portable houses, augers, flasher units, etc will pop up. You can find some pretty good gear for decent prices on there. Especially when starting out there is no reason to spring for brand new gear on everything. If it's electronic or a power auger have them give you a demo to make sure it's running and look at it's general condition. You can usually tell if somebody has taken care of their stuff. In starting out needing everything that will save you many $!!

[th64]

Go to the ice show next year on the last day you can talk those guys down on anything that is not a hot item-BTW if it is on the shelf Sun afternoon it is not a hot item.

[DarthBaiter]

Like Dooley it seems my "go to" rod is the cheapy $7 rod with the plastic spool. although it may be more of the fact a favorite lure is attached and I'm to lazy to switch rods. Here is what I have and love it all. Jason Mitchell Thermal X house. ION 8" electric auger. Marcum showdown troller 2.0 with optional performance pack. IMO and my style, a great setup.

So you have to ask yourself for HOUSE: Is it just going to be you fishing alone and occasionally one other or whole family whatever that number is. Flip over (great for 1-3 and hauling gear) vs. hub (great for families and larger groups) for starters not to even begin talking perms.

AUGER: Hand (cheap but tiring) GAS (faster but fumes, gas/oil, maintenance, if you have car or suv you'll be smelling it) ELECTRIC (fast, no gas/oil so no fumes, no real maintenance but not great if you plan on drilling 50 plus holes per day).

Flashers/locators: So many choices here, so I'll just put my two cents in and suggest like a previous post and say the Marcum troller 2.0. Much easier to read then traditional flashers. It's vertical display top is top and bottom is bottom, simple and quiet. I would get the performance pack to go with it too. Plus it's pretty cheap at around $199

[Labs2012]

I first started ice fishing with electronics in the 80's. I would rather go without an auger and look for open holes than to go without a flasher of some kind. Vexilar or Marcum, it is up to you. I like the self leveling transducers like on my LX3TC better than the puck with the bubble on my old Hondex FL8. In either case, no matter how you get through the ice, auger or chisel, they will tell you if fish are there right away, and where they are in the water column. Sure you can catch fish setting a bobber 1.5 ft off bottom, but you might miss a lot more without a flasher. It is also an entertainment piece when you work a fish or school of them to chase your bait. A good heater, and some kind of wind break of shelter is next. I have a power auger to, an old Mag 3 from the 80's that still runs good, though not as quiet or fast as newer models, it beats a chisel or hand auger. When your over 50 moving around without a power auger is tough. My 14 yr old daughter ice fishes with me and I need to bring my vex with me or else she ends up using my Marcum and I am stuck without a flasher. That's a bummer. Enjoy your ice fishing. and if you drive out, never hurts to have the doors cracked. It's gotta be easier to roll out with the doors cracked if you go through, And don't ever wear seat belts of have kids belted in on the ice. In an emergency, every second counts. Be safe, and have a good time.

[pushbutton]

Excellent first post…….

[magic_minnow]

Welcome to MN! I'm also from OR (portland area) and live in Otsego currently. Ice fishing is a blast, but I still miss the ol Columbia River for some sturgeon and salmon! World record walleye also came outta the Columbia if I recall correctly.....

[bigerikt]

Believe or not, my dad held the walleye record in the 80s. He got it on the Columbia just east Biggs Junction.

I would love to head out when ever possible.

[Finlander]

Check out the Alexandria Outdoors Get Together next weekend!

See the post above! Good info there, and a great time for new ice anglers!