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An ice angler does not NEED all that much gear. A pail to sit on and carry ice rigs and lures (and fish being brought home!), a spud or manual auger, and warm clothing will suffice. I have been ice fishing for a very long time (over 50 years) and have rarely used a shelter. When I hit some of the back lakes, I take a minimum of equipment in a small sled, and a manual auger. No tent, no heater, no power auger, no graph, and I catch fish just fine thanks. Sure, the extra bits make life more comfortable and a graph is a great thing for some fishing, but you don't NEED them. Just sayin'.... Doug

I can't wait to see how this "stunning" piece of highly figured Quilted Poplar turns out once finished. It's in full round now and will become a reel seat, butt cap and two wood handle inserts over the next several days.

A couple things can make a huge difference to success or not. If you are on a lake that allows live or dead minnows, - grind up with pliers, knife, whatever - a minnow or 2 for each hole, bring some worms, do the same - fish "smell" better than you would imagine - brings them to your bait. Also noise - a vibrating "blade" bait - I use Showdowns - or a rattle bait on a jigging rod, very aggressively jigged up and down to create a commotion below where you are can also bring fish to your baits - sometimes the lure gets hit, sometimes a nearby tip up. If you start fishing and you don't get bit fairly quickly, there usually are not any fish below you, so you either have to move, or get the fish to come to you -they move around pretty slow in winter so it sometimes takes a while - but I have had many days on the ice where a noisy bait and a bit of smell has "called in" a bunch of fish. GL

Makes you wonder what people did before all the gear was invented. lol.

I haven't been in years due to poor ice conditions. This year my focus has been on other things like making sure my mother has enough firewood and working on the house. Motivation has been low either way.. I'm an hour and a half from long point bay and digging out my equipment seems like too much work..

I agree 100%

I've always run a kicker, keep those hours off the big motor and sip fuel. Salmon/walleyes/muskies/whatever. Kicker probably gets 10 times the amount of hours the big mill does. If you do a lot of trolling, you'd be crazy not to have one.

Not that I'm aware of but we did have many people come to the North GTA Tackle Swap in the past. Unfortunately due to the lack of availability of proper dates, we had to cancel it for this year! But we're set for Sat. Feb. 28, 2026 next year, mark the date & don't miss it! We have some great vendors there!

This was a banner year for ice! Friends are visiting Temagami this week, Nipigon and even some are just finishing up on parts of Lake O that froze over well this winter. Agree that costs are stupid for everything now but if you've already made the investment for gear, then it's just up to you investing getting yer arze in gear to go.

I think Champagne would compliment that wood grain better