Ice Fishing Tips & Tricks

[JimW]

With the ice fishing season upon most of us I thought a little thread to share a few general ice fishing tips, tricks, cool gear, diy modifications....

A couple things to start..... if you pull your gear by hand and if you are NOT using a Smitty Sled.... you need to. The difference in pulling your gear is unbelieve. Here is my old Smitty Sled from a couple years ago, my new one is wood free.... aluminum and pvc.

old smitty sled.jpg (119.15 KiB) Viewed 2637 times

And cannot leave home without my Buddy heater to keep warm and do a little Buddy Heater cooking.

buddy heater cooking.jpg (111.93 KiB) Viewed 2637 times

Let's keep this going who has some tips and tricks to make your time on the more more enjoyable and productive....

[thebaron]

Salt your dead minnows. I cover them in kosher salt and let the dry out until they're crispy. Then I cut them in half and use them on spoons like Swedish pimple or Buckshots. No wasted minnows and, for me anyways, they seem to work as good or better than live ones.

[John Zach]

I have some slightly more obvious ones to add, but I'll say them nonetheless.

Take advantage of free online mapping if you don't have have Navionics or Lakemaster or stuff like that. I use gpsnauticalcharts.com and the Navionics online Chart Viewer. A lot of smaller lakes aren't covered, but if you fish larger lakes they can be quite useful, particularly gpsnauticalcharts.com, which has as low as 1/2 foot contours for some lakes. Often if you do a little google search you can find some very old undetailed map for tiny little lakes. The contours on many of these may only be 5 feet, but it is still better than nothing.

Another huge asset is Fish ON-Line. For basically all lakes you can see information like stocking information, maximum and average depth, fish species recorded by MNRF and the public and when those species were recorded. Fish ON-Line also has very high resolution satellite imaging if you zoom in to the max. It is much better than the google maps imaging for most areas and it can help you get a good idea of where to find trails into back-country lakes and what the shoreline and shallows of a lake looks like.

Also, for whoever out there doesn't have any type of flasher or electronics, I seriously recommend investing in one. It will help you so much. You don't have to spend that much money, I own the Garmin Striker 4 and I made a little carrying kit for it. I based mine off of a youtube tutorial by Jay Siemens *link here* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st1OWar7lpE and you can get everything needed to make the kit at princess auto. The unit itself costs around $180 at Cabela's and the rest of stuff shouldn't cost more than another $50. Check it out if you're looking to get your first sonar, you will be happy that you pulled the trigger.

I hope this helps, I know that these are all pretty well known tricks/hacks, but I thought it was good to reiterate them once more!

Tight lines everyone!

[smitty55]

Salt your dead minnows. I cover them in kosher salt and let the dry out until they're crispy. Then I cut them in half and use them on spoons like Swedish pimple or Buckshots. No wasted minnows and, for me anyways, they seem to work as good or better than live ones.

I would agree with the salting part as for decades in Quebec I used them on a leader behind gang trolls for Lakers. However, I only ever salted them just enough so that they wouldn't freeze solid and would still retain their shape and most of the texture for threading on the leader with a bait needle. Not enough salt and the would freeze solid and they would go mushy when thawed, and too much salt and their belly would be touching the backbone so they were useless for threading. I would lay them flat on butcher paper and then salt them in layers between sheets of paper, and place them in ziplock bags. That way they stayed straight and would track nicely and not spin, which was critical. Every late winter I would get Serge's largest Emeralds and do up at least 20 dozen minnows for myself and the gang. I would also use them like that for tipping jigs. They also work great for cutting up and chumming in the winter as they sink well.
Cheers

[fishern00b]

Hello everyone!
This is not my original idea but I would like to share a tip about how to make a shelf for organizing things in your popup. It's pretty simple, customizable to your specific needs, and doesn't take much space during transportation. I took a piece of cardboard to create a template first making sure it fits well, then cut the final shape from 5/16" plywood. It's not intended to hold a lot of weight but should be strong enough for keeping spare rods, pliers, scissors, etc.

[smitty55]

Hello everyone!
This is not my original idea but I would like to share a tip about how to make a shelf for organizing things in your popup. It's pretty simple, customizable to your specific needs, and doesn't take much space during transportation. I took a piece of cardboard to create a template first making sure it fits well, then cut the final shape from 5/16" plywood. It's not intended to hold a lot of weight but should be strong enough for keeping spare rods, pliers, scissors, etc.

Good thinking there, tks for the share. So if I have this right, it attaches up higher where the distance equal the guide slots. Then you slid down until it reaches the end of the lateral slots.The longer they are the further down on the flex poles you can go and the more horizontal the plate will be. It would also be easy to screw in some cup hooks to hang rods or even skimmers off. In a big shack you could have a couple of them. Just don't put holes underneath hehe.
Cheers

[fishern00b]

So if I have this right, it attaches up higher where the distance equal the guide slots. Then you slid down until it reaches the end of the lateral slots.

You got it right. Thanks for describing how to attach it once the popup tent is setup. Dismantling is done in the reverse order.