Ice Fishing BS Thread

Got some more new rods for ice season. Lots of left overs from last years failed ice season went on clearance early this year.
The 5 rods on the left are all new from this year/last year that I have not been able to use.

 

Chomping at the bit myself. Just need to get the truck & myself to get mended. Thinkin’ by February I’ll be ready to go.

 

I'm not getting away with early ice this year the mountain lakes havnt even capped. Going to revisit them at the end of the month. Hardly even getting night time lows yet.

 

Got this from a guy down the street when he saw me unloading my gear last year. New in box

 

Clam was running a sale on their Amazon page for their new flasher bag, 67% off, so I grabbed one. Have a 3d printed shuttle on the way to put in there and I can use my striker 7 to replace the small screen on my striker 4. Going to be really nice to have this bigger screen and maps (striker 4 had maps, but they were small and terrible)

$80 CLAM 12576 Flasher Bag

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J1YHBL2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

Found a free 1 person ice shack on the side of the road. It looks like it was mint, no scratches in the sled, the cover was in really good shape. But unfortunately mice got into it as it smells terrible, is full of yellow brown ice, and the canvas has a bunch of holes chewed in it.
But, I have it flipped over in the yard warming up to melt the mouse piss soup. Im going to see how many holes are in the canvas, and if its not too many I will try to clean it. Otherwise I can order a new cover for like $120.

 

The mouse house is all thawed out and I got to inspect it all. Cover has a few holes, but not too many that I cant fix it. So its getting washed right now, I will see if the smell goes away and I will fix the holes.
But this thing was brand new, the white on the zippers is still white, the sled has no scratches on the bottom from going over parking lots or rocks, its obvious the person got it and just never used it.
New cover is about $130, so I might just buy a new cover if I can get the thermal one for it. They also sell a "big mouth" cover, its the same as the cover on it, but the front fishing floor area is flared out on the sides to give me more ice space. I would need to make a new front hoop, but that would be pretty easy to do.

The biggest thing I like about this 1 man shack over my current 1 man shack is that it fits under a bed cover. With mine I have to take out the bar that holds my soft topper back window in, this new one slides right under the bar.

 

OK, I washed the sled at the car wash, I put the tent in the washer, tent is smelling less like a rats asshole now. The sled is mint though, so I am going to dry the tent, put it back on there and see how it all looks. Patch kits are like $7 and the local scheels has them in stock, so I think I will throw some patches on there and see how I like it. I going to put off getting a new tent for this as they dont make a thermal version of it. So I might just bring it over to a boat cover shop and have them make me a new cover to my specs for it.

I already have the newer version of this flip over, so I thought about fixing it up and selling it, but the sled on this one is so much nicer than the cheap molded sled on the newer version. Also the whole being able to fit it under a tonneau cover is nice.

 

Just to play the flip side of the coin as iv been on the other side of this situation. Have you considered trying to see if anyone lost that tent locally?
I left a rod bag in a parking lot. Easily lost 2g that day posted everywhere looking for it's return and it was met with silence. Flippin sucks.

If there's nothing posted anywhere then I say enjoy the win.

 

So it was at the end of some ones driveway on the curb, I went up to the door and knocked to ask them about it. No one answered so I went back out to the shack and took the travel cover off the top. Once I saw 4 inches of yellow ice inside it I knew they put it on the curb to get rid of it.

 

Got the thing all put back together, unfortunately due to age (this was made in 2008) all the rubberized coating came off the inside of the tent. So now the fabric is very leaky and its like a screen door in many spots. Im going to setup my diesel heater tomorrow inside my big ice tent and im going to spray the inside of the tent with flex seal to try to seal it back up. The worst parts are the back area and the door that were just swimming in mouse pee water for who knows how long.
I want to be able to use this as my "loaner" this season, then either buy the new cover or get the custom one made over summer.

 

Flex sealed the shack today with the heater on inside of one of my other ice shacks.... I also replaced the plastic trim with snaps so I can take the cover on and off really easy in the back.







Also managed to get out on the ice today, it was 55 degrees for some reason, but we have a solid 5-6 inches of clear ice on the lakes. Only caught one trout, but it was still a good day.

 

One more post, I wanted to put my kenai pro thermal next to the original kenai to see how they have changed. The original kenai was 5 inches longer than the kenai pro thermal(kpt), but the kpt is a few inches wider. I think I would rather have it a little longer than wider. Having that extra 5 inches in front of me make hook setting and using longer rods much easier.

 

Took my hub out sunday for the first time since getting it last year. While warm and nice, I felt like I needed a floor to keep the water from flooding my bags. So I grabbed some puzzle tiles, they are 2 foot x 2 foot and I taped them together into 2f by 4f sections.
I was trying to figure out a good layout so I can cut holes, normally I would just remove tiles, but with 2x2 tiles I would end up removing nearly a whole row just for holes.
I landed on 2 layouts for sitting, side by side, and facing each other. I like the facing each other because we each get our own doors without having to climb over holes. But Im not a fan of how the propane heater would sit (I use a diesel heater many times too)
I can swap between the 2 layouts by just moving 2 tiles forward.

But each person gets a 4f x 4f spot to sit, a 2f x 4f spot for holes, and a extra 2f x 4f storage area.

Side by side

Facing each other

 

Went and did a lil perching last weekend since the brook trout pond was real slow 2 fish in 3 hours is miserable for that lake. Looks like almost none of the regular trout ponds got their fall stocking.

 

Perfect size. Couple years back I saw a Motor home with trap doors in it. Couldn’t figure out why nobody was walkin’ around until they invited me over. Kinda thought “So, this is how the other half lives” but to each his own.

 

One of the biggest upgrades for me was getting a rod and tackle case. No matter how careful I was when I got out on the ice everything in the bucket was attached to everything else by icy monofilament. Especially when I am going out for an evening bite to just pop open the case and pull out the rod and right rig and drop it down the hole gives me so much more time doing the fun part.

 

I remember when I picked up my first striker ice bag now using an eskimo bag it's such an upgrade compared to transporting rods any other way. And it helps keep the gear in better shape longer to

 

Im using the eskimo bag too, but I also bring a rapala double barrel bag with more rods in it. I would rather carry 9 rods with me than have to tie a jig with cold hands.

 

On occasion I find myself wishing I had the ability to carry more rod actions but if I plan according I can cover my basis for a species or 2 with 4 rods.
I also made friends with these to do away with constantly re tying