Eskimo Quick Fish

[Ishmel]

I just saw the Eskimo Quick fish for the first time and I'm sorely tempted to buy one for fishing this winter. Has anyone used one? I am not sure what to think about having the floor open, but I'm not sure that will cause a problem. Plus, for the cost, I can buy a big buddy to go in it and still have less in it than a Quick Flip.

Thanks!

[TSCTSC]

I tried it before. It is the pop up tent thingy right? No real problem with the open floor. In fact, u might want it as u call drill your holes everywhere. Typically at the three corners opposite the entrance. Also, there is a lot of floor space and standing space. Only problem is that set up is slower than the flip overs. However, I think it is still faster than the other non-flip over tents. The other problem is the door. It is a vertical zip and if you want it to be partially open, u have to make some modifications to keep one triangle opened. All-in-all, not a bad tent at all. However, the carrying bag where it is stowed, is a little weak.

If u do not move around a lot, and want to have some space, this might work for you. No complaints with the tent quality.

[Ishmel]

Yes it is the pop up tent. I'd be upgrading from a 5600 clam, which is nice enough, but it's a real pain to set up in the wind. I guess with the price, it's hard to go wrong.

Anyone else looking at these?

[Ishmel]

I've only been able to find these at Sportsmans Warehouse. It doesn't seem like they're very popular, although they look really cool. I think I might have to buy one and write a review here if anyone is interested.

[Northlander]

A open floor is way colder than even a tub style house. Setting up chairs etc. in a open plan is tuff at tims due to ice cracks, frozen snow etc. All your gear also seems full of snow or wet all the time. I would go with a full floor suitecase or a sled style. The floorless are good when weight is a factor like packing into the BWCA or something. I wouldnt use one for my every day house. Winds are also a big factor with these.

[Ishmel]

Thanks for the info guys. I went ahead and bought the Quickfish3, which claims it has room for three men, but I'm guessing two with gear would fill it up pretty well. My overall impression is that it's well designed and well built. It's light weight, but the hub system and poles look heavy duty. It has eight spots where it can be staked down with ice anchors, four at the corners, and one in the center of each side wall. After setting it up a few times in the family room, I can now put it up and take it down in less than 2 minutes, not sure how that will go on the ice in the wind but it's already WAY faster than my Clam 5600. Inside there is a lot of room, the floor is 70" X 70" with a ceiling height of 80". I like that I can stand up and stretch in there. It has 4 windows that are a little on the small side, and two fresh air vents. One immediate downside is that I can't tell if the ceiling hub will be rigid enough to hang a lantern from and I can see lighting being a huge issue in this tent. Another downside is the open floor. I am not concerned about cold, as the plastic floor on my clam has an R value of 0 anyway, but I can see a problem with everything being wet all of the time. I am going to it a few times on actual water before I get too excited about it, but if its a problem I'm sure I'll be able to make modifications.

So I am very happy so far with this purchase, At 1/3 the cost of a simular sized flip-over style, I think it's well worth the money, and as far as portability and ease of set-up/take down, its miles ahead of suitcase styles (at least of my clam anyway). Anyone with comments or questions?

I'll update after I've been on the ice a few times.

Anyone want to buy a used 5600?

[big musk411]

I switched from the clam to the flip over style two years ago. I think the design is much better, esier to pull and faster to set up. Also I like being able to keep all my gear in the sled part and the fact that you don't need to be dead accurate when cutting your holes. The drawback is your feet are directly on the ice, but good warm boots are a simple solution. I havent had problems with water on the floor.

[delcecchi]

I bet a piece of that pink foam or some plywood to throw down on the ice and rest your feet on would keep you warmer.

[Northlander]

I use the rubber fatigue matting and it works good.

[Ishmel]

Northlander -

Do you use the heavy rubber mat with the octogon holes in it? I love the idea, does it help with keeping your feet warm and your gear dry? I seriously think that idea is the winner.

[Ron Vroom]

I am completely satisfied with my Quickfish 3 which I used the entire season last year after selling my Quickflip 2. The tub was useless to me because I don't have a snocat and always fish near my pickup. Here are some tips: Electric clamp on light hangs from hub with no problem. I made a folding triangle of 1"x2" sticks to create an accurate pattern to drill 3 holes before setting up tent. Use a cordless drill to predrill anchor holes. In wind, set corner anchors before popping up shelter and always use side anchors. When tearing down, leave corner anchors set, then unpop I use armless folding chairs to take up less room. I use 3 plywood boards backed with 1" foam to keep feet warm. No problem ever with being wet. Lots of stuff can be hung from overhead rods with velcroe straps, like rod holders, coats, hats, gloves, etc. Fishes 3 comfortably with holes in 3 corners opposite entry. For moving gear in and out, unpop side at zipper which is not anchored and fold that side upward and hold open with bungee across top corner to side anchor ring. I put my sunflower heater with 10 lb tank right in center, with heater facing up to keep everybody warm and to heat soup on. This is a great shelter.

[Carp-fisher]

How do the Quickfish ice anchors work?

[Ron Vroom]

They work very well, but if you don't pre-drill holes for them, they are hard to start. They easily screw out. I should elaborate on lighting. I use a 12v garden tractor battery in a battery box in which I mounted a standard 120v duplex wall recepticle and a rocker switch on top. Inside the box I have a small 70 watt inverter which is wired to the battery via a 12v cigarette recepticle. The inverter plugs into that, then a 120v plug goes into the inverter and one lead from the plug connects to the 120v recepticle, the other lead goes to the switch, then to the recepticle, so you can shut and turn on the inverter. I run a 120v aquarium airrator on the 120v recepticle and the other plugin is for my 120v 40watt high efficiency bulb in a clamp light which clamps to the celing hub. Running both the airrator and the light draws about 1/3 of an amp, so battery life is very long and I recharge about every 3rd trip or so.

[Ishmel]

Thanks for the post Ron. Care to hazard a guess at how much the whole set-up weighs? I'm planning to walk out most of the time and am looking for something like this but want to be conservative with weight/size.

[Swimmer]

Now you guys have me thinkin about a QF III. I would use LED's from super led (Contact Us Please) that I siliconed into a clear tube from the aquarium store...works great and draws almost nothing (I have an extra 12V gel battery, but usually just hook it up to the IceMachine battery with no problems)...very light setup.

[Ron Vroom]

Apparently my last post did not make it. The specs. show a weight of 28 lbs., so it is easy to pack in, fly-in on a ski plane or on a dog sled. Remember the old heavy canvas tents we used as kids, compare to today's lightweight tents which accomplish the same thing or better at far less weight and cost.

[Ron Vroom]

I have one concern about this year's version I have seen in both the II and III (II must be new this year). They have put in a curved zippered door entry which I have tried to open and close on an unanchored shelter on the showroom floor with much difficulty. Far too much stress on the zipper which I expect will fail. My shelter (last year's model) has an entry zipper straight down the corner and I have had no problem. If Eskimo was trying to make entry easier, see my tip on folding back the corner which I discovered in a Fleet store floor model where they were trying to make it more accessible for customers to see. A clerk figured it out by collapsing a side and folding up the corner. Once your gear is inside, there is no problem going in and out the normal zippered entry.

[Ishmel]

Ron, I noticed that issue as well. When I pointed it out to one of the workers at Sportsmans Warehouse, he showed me how if you pull lightly down on that top corner, all the tension comes off of the zipper. He said that when it's anchored in the ice it won't have that problem. It seems like he knew what he was talking about, but we'll see.

[catch22]

I've got this unit and I really like it. I bought mine last year so I've used it an entire season. It's a pretty fast setup, weighs like 20-25 pounds. I just lay it in my otter magnum with all my other gear. It's much lighter than quick flip units that have tubing, if your out in snow towing it by hand you'll appreciate it. As for cold feet because of no floor, never, but I have a real good pair of winter boots, rated to -100. It's really a two man unit not 3, and without the floor you can cut 3 holes on the river and stagger your electronics in respect to the hole your fishing for the current, you can't do that very well in the quick flips because of the tub. The tent held up suprisingly well in the wind with the ice anchors, I didn't even pin the sides, just the bottom 4 corners.

[Swimmer]

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Northlander -

Do you use the heavy rubber mat with the octogon holes in it? I love the idea, does it help with keeping your feet warm and your gear dry? I seriously think that idea is the winner.

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Went out and bought the QF III yesterday and I think it will be a winner. The 80" of height sold it for me...along with the light weight. I can throw it in the FT Pro and have a lodge to go to while I search w/ the Pro. I still have not figured out what to do for a portable floor though. The fatigue mat is good, but way to heavy (kind of defeats the purpose of the deal). Pink foam insulation chunks (seems kind of clunky)? Anybody have any light weight alternatives to the fatigue mat??

[Northlander]

Dont use the whole mat just a piece big enough for your feet to fit on. If you dont like that use a piece of outddor carpet.

[Ron Vroom]

I agree with Northlander. If you have decent boots, you don't need anything. I bring along 1" styrofoam glued to a 12"x14" piece of plywood for my buddies mainly to please them.

[Ishmel]

Do you think those interlocking foam tiles would work? They are meant for workshops and laundry rooms and play areas for kids. They might not stand up to the moisture, but they're about $1 a piece.

[Swimmer]

Are you thinking of the basement floor undercarpet insulating panels?

[Ishmel]

No, thinking of the interlocking closed foam tile that is black on one side, colored on the other. Comes in packages of 6 or 8 tiles for $15 bucks. I really think its meant for play areas for kids.

[Swimmer]

Ishmel, that sounds like a good idea...what size are the panels? I think I will try it out a few times with the good boots on and see if I need a "floor". The GF might not be happy though.

[Swimmer]

I went to Harbor Freight this weekend to pick up a camera and found cheep fatigue mats. Four 1'x 1' waterproof foam interlocking panels on sale for $7.99. These seemed ideal, so I bought two packages. We will see if they are slippery on the ice or not...I already have an idea of a coating I can apply to make them tight if there is a problem. Good luck.

[Ishmel]

Good find Swimmer. I am sure those are the same tiles I was looking at. Let me know how they work out, will ya? Good luck and be safe out there.

d

[Maverick1951]

Hello fellow fisherman. My first time on here. I was looking for info on the Quick Fish and I sure found the right spot. I saw one at Cabela's and was really impressed. I will have one soon. As for the hole drilling, it looked to me that the best place to put the holes would be on the sides not in the corners. The house billows out there and two guys could each fish two holes. Just a thought. This is a great site.

[Ishmel]

I managed to make my first outing yesterday. I was very satisfied with the performance of the Quick Fish. It actually set up faster than I thought it would. One thing I learned is that you want to stake down the upwind side before you pop out the roof. It was very roomy for one man, and I think will be enough space for two men and gear. It sealed to the ice well, and held heat from the big buddy very well. Downsides were that there was considerable condensation, even with the vents open. I unpacked it and stood it in a corner to dry when I got home. I had some difficulty getting it into the bag properly when I took it down, there is definitely a right way to put it in the bag and it took me three attempts to get it right. Although hopefully I won't make that mistake again. Of course anything sitting on the ice got wet, I'll have to try some sort of mat, at least to keep the heater level.

Other than those issues, setup and take down was less than 10 minutes, includeing unpacking my gear. Overall I'm very pleased with the Quick Fish.

[Swimmer]

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I managed to make my first outing yesterday. I was very satisfied with the performance of the Quick Fish. It actually set up faster than I thought it would. One thing I learned is that you want to stake down the upwind side before you pop out the roof. It was very roomy for one man, and I think will be enough space for two men and gear. It sealed to the ice well, and held heat from the big buddy very well. Downsides were that there was considerable condensation, even with the vents open. I unpacked it and stood it in a corner to dry when I got home. I had some difficulty getting it into the bag properly when I took it down, there is definitely a right way to put it in the bag and it took me three attempts to get it right. Although hopefully I won't make that mistake again. Of course anything sitting on the ice got wet, I'll have to try some sort of mat, at least to keep the heater level.

Other than those issues, setup and take down was less than 10 minutes, includeing unpacking my gear. Overall I'm very pleased with the Quick Fish.

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First, welcome to FM Maverick1951. I agree, this is a great site.

Ismel, where did you place your holes? I don't think condensation would be any better/worse with any other portable. If it is bad, the windows themselves open fully on velcro hold downs. I set mine up at the office and at home and it seemed like the first time it went back in the bag was kind of tight, the second/third time it went in very easily. One thing I am concerned with is the door zipper. When set up, the fabric is very tight around the door and using the top zipper, I had the zip seperate on me. Using the bottom zipper, this did not seem to be a problem. Once I get it out on the ice, we will see if I got one with a bad zipper.? Good luck...and I will let you know how it and the "flooring" work out on the ice (if it ever dips below 32 degrees again). I was looking for a sled to put all the stuff into and the Gander' Otter II sleds are around $70 for a medium! Anybody know of a less expensive alternative?? PS, the Harbor Freight fatigue mats are 2'x2' (four interlocking to a package) not 1'x1' as I stated earlier.