Dabluz

I've never heard of a lube in the shaft before. Don't see how it would help either. You don't want the blades to slip on ice, you want them to dig in. Yes....if you want to run and gun (make a lot of holes), the 6 inch auger is a great idea. I once had an old Swedish auger with the blade shaped like a big spoon. Wow, it made real clean holes and the center of the ice came out like a cork from a wine bottle. It was real easy to sharpen too. But, it was slow even though it was easy to turn. It was great because it would redrill old holes and holes that partially froze up. It made a 6 inch hole and I pulled quite a few large fish through the hole but it was too small for large cod or even medium sized flounder. I guess a 10 lb pike could be pulled through it but I'm sure that it was such a tight sqeeze.....like giving a enema to the fish....lol.

Small gas engines are not complicated at all and almost invariably, the problem is small. However, in LD17 case, I would have done the same....unless I did not take certain steps to ensure that my auger would restart....such as to let it run until the carb is empty. You do this at the end of the day. The empty carb bowl ensures that the needle valve (the one actionned by the float in the bowl), will not stick in place. There is a bit of rubber on this valve and it will stick closed. This problem is reduced when there is less oil in the fuel mixture because as the gas evaporates, there is a bit less gunk left behind. However, I do add a bit more oil than the manufacturers recommendation. Yes, there is a tad more exhaust smoke and the plug gets dirtier faster but the engine does run a bit cooler but will last longer. These tiny engines need to be run often. Look at how long a person can use a chainsaw, a grass cutter. These small engines also power a machine similar to a grass cutter but it has a blade to cut small trees. Guys use these machines for 10 to 12 hours a day almost non-stop from May to October. I often see guys start up their auger and immediately cut a hole and then immediately turn off the engine and not use it again until the next outing. Do this to a car engine and it also will be hard to start after a while and when it does run, it will be a while before it runs good. Cut a couple of holes at a time...without shutting down the engine between holes. Be generous and cut a few holes for those who do not have an auger. You can even make money cutting holes for other fishermen. I know guys who make enough money to buy a new auger each year and still make a few dollars to pay for a few fishing items and tank their vehicule every once in a while. I know that some guys would give quite a bit to have a half dozen holes cut for them.

For ice less than 18 inches thick, an 8 inch auger would be my choice. I've pulled 40 lb cod and 10 lb halibut through such a hole. On top of that, the hole will stay free of ice a lot easier. I often cut through 30 inches of ice up here in Quebec but I have to admit that I don't cut many holes. Do not bang the cutters on the ice. Steer clear of dirty ice. Lots of dirty ice where I fish because of the tides....the ice often sits right on the bottom at low tide. Keep your blades super sharp...sharp enough to shave the hair off your forearm and oil them as soon as you get home to keep them free of rust. You can sharpen them on a good flat stone and be careful to keep the angle exactly as it is. Buy a spare set of blades and bring them with you. DO NOT LEND YOUR AUGER TO ANYONE!!!! Bring along an ice chisel or hatchet to trim formed ice around the hole when it's very cold. As for tip ups and ice rods etc.....wow....that's a big question. It all depends on fish species and the size of the fish, whether you visit your set up often or not, whether you fish on bottom with the lead weight at the end of you rig or off the bottom, for light biting fish or fish that run before swallowing the bait etc etc etc. One thing for sure, you will want one rod that you can hold in your hand. The best ones are the ones you make yourself from broken rods but there are some good ones for around 20 to 40 dollars....depending if the come with a reel or not.

Were you using fluorocarbon line?

Oh yes....I forgot to say that a new spark plug is not a luxury. I've often seen where an apparently good looking spark plug was the problem.

It's the same age old problem with all tiny carburetors....they get clogged up real easy. If you ever have a chance to get a good look at the gas you get at the pump, you will be surprised at how much junk you will find in gas. Tiny engins with tiny carbs and jets etc are real easy to mess up. Also.....everybody does the same thing when operating small engins. When they are finished using the thing....they turn it off. This is a "no-no". At the end of the day, you should let the engin run but you cut off the gas supply at the tank so that all the gas in the carb and gas line burns off. This way, the gas in these components will not evaporate and leave a gunky mess behind in the process. What you will need to do is just take the carb bowl off the carb, clean everything in the bowl and then the needle valve that is operated by the float in the bowl. Then you clean the needle and main jet. Sounds complicated but takes only about 15 minutes if you take your time and if you are not a total donkey, you will not break anything. I've done this procedure hundreds of times at home and in the bush for people who have trouble with their small engines. 1.2 h.p. Tanaka engines are the ones I see running bad all the time. I think it takes me about 3 minutes to do a clean up job on the carb on those engines. There are lots of those engines in my region because it is dotted with small brook trout lakes and everybody goes fishing with a canoe and tiny engine. Last spring, I cleaned a Tanaka carb at a nearby lake. It was hard to start and when it did, it would not run. They guy had just paid 50 dollars for a checkup. It was very obvious that nothing had been done. I even showed him how to do it by telling him what to do and letting him do it. He wanted to pay me....lol. Make sure the gas is as clean as possible when filling the tank....use a good filter or use a filter when filling you plastic gas can. You can also add a little filter to the gas line between the tank and the carb. There are some tiny filters that will do a great job and install in 2 minutes. I have picked up gas powered leaf blowers, grass cutters, water pumps, small outboards etc that people have thrown in the garbage and 90% of the time, it's just a dirty carb.

I remember....a bunch of years ago, a guy wanted me to make some floating flies that looked like cigarette butts because he said that brook trout often ate his cigarette butts. Anyway, I made some using dark deer hair and white deer hair trimmed short. They worked great but the trout up here in my region will jump on any fly that lands on the water...lol. I also told the guy to quit tossing his butts in the water because it's a sure way to kill a trout due to the fact that the filter stays in the trout's stomach.

I often cut my line with my teeth and it's quite easy to feel the difference in the hardness of different lines. I can't cut braid or Fireline no matter how small it is and how hard and long I grind my teeth. Yes, XT is very hard and therefore very abrasion resistant....for a mono or a fluorocarbon line. I wouldn't use it on a spinning reel with a small spool or for a spinng combo for casting but for trolling, I haven't found any better for the same price. Yes, it's been around for about 40 years yet it's hard to improve on a good thing. I haven't used it with a baitcasting combo but I bet it works great. If you do a search on the internet using the words "fishing line abrasion test" you will find a lot of interesting info.

Pike often attack the walleyes that are on the end of my fishing chain that is hanging from my boat or canoe. Everything is quite visible.

What I find funny about Berkley Vanish is the fact that it is expensive. Just about everybody knows that it's crap yet every year I keep seeing the stuff for sale. The Vanish "leader material" is stiffer and harder (I cut my line with my teeth) and yet I will never use it again. Maybe using some 20 lb Vanish on a baitcasting reel would be ok since baitcast reels do not twist the line. I suggest that anyone who does want to use 20 or 25 lb test Vanish on a baitcasting outfit to buy Dollarstore lures. I've used the large banana style minnow baits for pike and they work great. However, I haven't caught any real big pike with them yet.

Makes a great present to an icefisherman without the fuss of finding out exactly what he wants to fish or with what he fishes. I like the idea but I usually make my icefishing rods and adjust them to my liking. The reason I make my own rods is due to the fact that the icefishing rods that were for sale a few years back were never to my liking. Now, there are quite a few of them.

If budget and weight are of little or no concern....go with the 10 inch auger. I do a lot of ice fishing for cod, halibut, lingcod, etc etc and I've never had any problems getting 40 lb cod through the 8 inch hole that my hand auger makes. Ok....the 40 lb cod was a tight fit...lol. Yes, a 10 inch hole does not close up as fast as an 8 inch hole. Hand augers work ok if you keep the blades sharp and you do not bump the ice with the blades. I sharpen my blades myself and I'm not happy until the blades can shave the hair off my forearm. I have 2 sets of blades and carry the extra set in case. I never lend my hand auger. By late January, I often have to remove ice from around the hole I'm making with a hatchet because my auger is not long enough. Removing ice from around the hole allows the handle to turn. I should get an extension....lol.

Not many old machines in my area. Here we usually start snowmobiling in October and go until the end of May. This means that the snowmobiles in my area run up a lot of mileage and die a fast death. You don't see many snowmobile owners who only use their snowmobiles a couple of times every winter.

I can understand a person's concern for a species of fish. But, smallmouth bass in Ontario are doing fine with the fishing pressure they have now. Not many people eat them and they are a hardy fish. Too many bass can actually be detrimental to the fishing quality because they tend to stay small if there are too many of them. On top of that, small bass do not feed on large prey that are most often nuisance fish to begin with. When the nuisance fish get large, they do a lot of damage to the biomass and the bass have a hard time regaining their place in the structure of the fish population. Here in Quebec, the smallmouth bass are much smaller and from what I can see, more people eat them than in Ontario. Catch and release is not as popular in Quebec as it is in Ontario. Luckily, bass have a great survival rate after getting caught. As for feeding, they don't seem to have any problems in that department....all the bass that I have seen were quite plump. North Western Ontario.....seems to me to be about the furthest north that bass are found. Are these natural waters for smallmouth bass? Maybe not protecting bass in that area would be good for brook trout and walleye who are in their natural habitat. I am not a biologist but I do know that there is more to the management of sport fish than arbitrairily (spelling?) all sport fish equally.

My grandmother was born near North Battleford....a place called Jackfish Lake.

For making stop knots, I think that using very soft monofilament would do the trick. Monofilament "ice line" is very soft and should grab well onto the main line. It's probably the only thing it is good at...lol.

The original question was for a tiny, light, portable stove to heat a one man hut with fabric walls. A tiny stove that will work with wood instead of propane. In any event, I have used a number of propane heaters and even a kerosene heater (catalytic style) while camping in a tent in early winter and the small wood stove was the one that heated up the tent the best.

There are some dandy folding metal stoves that you can buy. On top of that, they are not expensive and fold flat for easy transport. "Update"!!.... I did a search on the internet and could not find a cheap collapsible wood stove. The one's I saw were quite expensive. However, I have seen some in stores in my area in the past but I did not look at them in detail. For stove pipe, you can buy 3 inch stove pipe anywhere. To make the hole through the wall of the tent, cut out a square from the tent but keep the material in case you want to repair the hole someday. After the square hole is cut out, buy a small sheet of metal that is a bit larger than the hole. Then buy snaps....you know those snaps that are used on tarps to hold them in place like the snaps that hold the tarps on a boat. This way, when the tent is set up, you just snap the thin metal sheet in place and push the stove pipe through the hole you make in the then metal sheet. A thin metal sheet 15 inches x 15 inches would be fine. You can make a round metal sheet in a round hole in the tent too....if you want to be fancy. Search the internet for other small tent stoves. I saw one made out of a mail box. A mail box only costs about 15 dollars. I'm sure that you could even make a small stove that would be large enough to store the 3 inch stove pipes inside. Yes....it would be bulky but it would be light.

In the Saguenay River near my home in Chicoutimi, I catch lingcod all winter. They are the saltwater variety. They are very dark in colour. Yes, they are related to cod. As related as perch are to walleye. Most of the lingcod I catch are in the 4 to 7 lb categorie. They are excellent eating. The cheek muscle is huge and is great eating too. The deep water in the Saguenay River is salt water and during the winter I fish for cod, halibut, lingcod, ocean perch, flounder. In the shallower water, I catch smelt and brook trout. To catch lingcod, you bait has to be on bottom. I like to use a 2 ounce jig baited with a smelt. I bounce the jig on bottom to attract the lingcod. The hooks further up the line are baited with smelt and I catch cod on those hooks. I fish up to 500 feet in depth but there are much deeper places in the Saguenay.

Too bad that there weren't any questions about canoes or small boats and motors. If companies knew how many people owned canoes or small cartoppers and owned outboard motors under 9.9 h.p., they would sell more SUVs that had decent roof racks. Fishing just 30 times per year.....wow....I would die if I could only go 30 times per year. How much do I spend to go fishing? Hard to say. All I can say is that I have a 4X4 with a roof rack and a trailer hitch. I don't own a car and have no need for a car. If I ever do buy a car, I would also buy a 4X4 and use the car very little. If I win the lottery....I wouldn't own....not even a home or work at anything. I would would be spending my time going from one outfitter to another year round. If I win the lottery, all of the questions I answered would have a different response.

Luckily, shotguns have a very limited range. You can shoot anywhere on public land as long as it's done safely. Better yet, look in the phone book for any shooting ranges near you. Ask for info in any hunting and fishing store. Since you are going shooting, why not bring along some sheets of paper 30" x 30" and shoot at them from 30 yards. Use different chokes and different sized shot and different shot shell companies to see how your gun patterns. Avoid any shot shells that show big holes in the pattern. Write down which shot shell gives you the best pattern when using shot for grouse and then do the same for ducks, geese, deer (buckshot or slug), pheasant, turkey etc. Practice looking at where you want to shoot then quickly shoulder the gun to see if the sights line up with your line of sight.

I picked a bunch last week but we have been getting -5 to -7 C every night this past week. However, with the clouds and rain and the +9 C we will be getting in the next few days I'm sure that I will be able to pick more crawlers to put in the old fridge I have in the basement for stuff like worms, brews and softdrinks. Now....I have to buy worm bedding and worm food. Any suggestions as to what is best.

I use lures for brook trout. My favourites are the Panther Martin size 2 (casting), Shad Rap silver/black 5 cm (casting and trolling) and the Sutton 44 or 77 in hammered silver (jigging). The Sutton is great for jigging. I use 4 lb mono and give the Sutton time to reach bottom. Then I just softly jig it.

All you have to do is put some kind of slant on the roof and the snow will roll off. I have no idea of what fang is saying. Putting slats over the tarp will not help support it however making a inverted V shape roof will work. What you must decide before making an ice hut is whether you want it to be portable or permanent. If it's going to be permanent, then go with a solid roof. If the hut is to be very small, I have seen simple wood frames covered with clear plastic that were used as permanent huts every winter for quite a few years. You can even double the walls (plastic outside and plastic inside) so that there is trapped air between the plastic walls. Add some sunlight and it gets quite warm inside the hut even though there is no floor. There are some icefishing sites that show how to make all kinds of huts.

I agree with the others.....lots of money for nothing. 200 grams of thinsulate is okay for hunting in the early fall but for cold weather....these boots won't help. It's not the ball of the foot that gets cold but the toes and the heel. If a person is sitting....why not something really big and insulated to put over the boots. It doesn't need to be robust nor water proof nor heavy....just lots of insulation that goes up to the knees. You could even untighten the boot so the blood will circulate better. When icefishing, I use size 12 boots rated for -84. I usually wear size 10. The 2 extra sizes allows me to add a thick airy insulated sole under the bootie inside the boots and to add a pair of extremely thick high quality wool socks over my other socks. I do not make the mistake of wearing the boots while driving to where I am going fishing. I also limit my walking distance to under 1 mile....lol. The boots go almost up to my knees and have 2 adjustable nylon straps so the boots don't fall off my feet. The super thick sole, the insole and the thick bootie makes me about 2 to 3 inches taller but that means that I'm close to 3 inches off the ice. I can move my toes as if I was sitting at home watching t.v. I paid 70 dollars for the boots at WalMart about 6 years ago. I am diabetic so the circulation in my feet is not as efficient as it once was and I can't endure cold weather as well as before. I've never had to resort to using electric heating or hot packs yet. However, I do bring along some hot packs in case.