7 Ice Fishing Hacks To Remember

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Ice fishermen are the duck hunters of the fishing world.

Both of these outdoor pursuits commonly deal with less-than-ideal conditions that frequently let you know if you gear is up to the task at hand. Here are some hacks that the author has developed for you to consider to make your time ice fishing more enjoyable and to help you avoid breaking stuff while doing it.

Carry a Mallet

Here’s one from the Captain Obvious file: The least bit of moisture turns to ice quickly and can cause problems with our gear while ice fishing. While many of us have used a screwdriver or spud bar to clear ice from our gear, most of us have also damaged said gear doing so. I started carrying a rubber mallet to clean the ice off of my auger blades. Ice chunks on auger blades make it difficult to cut, if not impossible. This handy tool also works for clearing ice on your shack or ice machine, while inflicting much less damage.

Headlamp

Open water or hard water, a head lamp is always a handy tool to have in the early morning or after dusk. In the past, I used to stash them everywhere, but the issue was usually finding them with dead and or completely corroded battery compartments. The next choice for many of us was moving to lithium rechargeable models, but those also posed the problem of what do you do when they are dead and you need light now. I found that Millertech has a lithium model that avoids corrosion issues and has a better battery life, but the key being that the battery is replaceable. An extra battery in your ice bibs or glovebox has helped me illuminate plenty of dark situations. A four-bank charger is offered to charge everything quickly and not just be reliant on the battery needing to be in the headlamp itself to be charged.

Blade Cover

If you ice fish, you most likely have an auger. If you have an auger, you better have a blade cover or you’ll likely need new clothes and maybe some stitches for starters. The issues with both old school covers with rubber straps or the newer click on styles is that at some point they aren’t completely on or the wind decides to redirect it to the other side of the lake in seconds. To curb this constant problem just drill a hole in the cover and attach a cord to it with a carabineer on the other end. This allows you to attach it to your machine or the auger itself to avoid loss.

Lanyards

If you ice fish even one day you will quickly learn that things disappear in an ice shanty and that small hole in the floor is like a giant vacuum. Something as simple as a retractable lanyard zip tied to your poles is a great way to store items that you need close at hand. For me this means towels and a pair of forceps. I first used a fly-fishing corded reel, but they broke somewhat easily. Rapala offers a heavy-duty retractable lanyard with a 36-inch cord and 6-ounce weight capacity.

Twist Ties

Rubber coated twist ties that seemingly have countless uses are an ice fisherman’s friend. Available in countless colors, lengths and thicknesses, they do a great job at holding attaching items, while also being able to get them undone quickly as well. One of my favorite uses for them is to attach my propane line to my ice shack poles so that it stays out of the way and doesn’t accidently get stepped on by ice cleat-clad boots. Other uses like a little extra security for holding cables on a forward-facing sonar pole are great to. If you get a bag of these, you’ll quickly find you have more uses for them than you thought.

Modify Case

Ice fishing takes a beating on our gear. We also tend to not have enough room to carry what we need, forcing some items to serve multiple purposes. The Lakewood Greenback Ice Rod Case is one of those. With large extra pockets and compartments it’s really meant as a complete storage solution. Even just basic rod cases these days are large as ice anglers continue to use longer and longer ice rods. For this reason, I have added extra D rings to my Green Back case so that I can store it on the hood of my UTV. The Greenback is a high-quality case made in the USA out of an ABS poly material that is very strong. Heating up a drill bit to drill though the material and using a rivet made quick work out of the mod. I have done something similar so that the same case can be firmly attached to my snowmobile, yet removed quickly when needed.

Working Box

Whether it’s a tough day of fishing or your buddy just wants to try every new lure he bought during the off season; you can end up with lures all over your ice shack. I’ve found that having a working box helps me keep lures I switching back and forth to from getting lost, damaged hooks or taking the time to put them away. I’ve also learned that putting away wet lures also makes a mess as they rust or mildew as well. For these reasons, I really like the medium size Lakewood Lure Wallet to keep almost everything I’m going to be using that day. A smaller model is available that easily fits in a bib or parka pocket and a larger one for the big stuff. This is also a great way to store stinger hooks without creating a tangled mess.

Time on the ice and damaged equipment causes ice anglers to seek out solutions to be more efficient and not worry about our gear. Let us know what ice mods you’ve created to help save money and time.

For more than 20 years, Capt. Ross Robertson has made his living on and around the water, namely Lake Erie and the Great Lakes. Over the years, the Ohio resident has spent time as a fishing guide, boat salesman, TV host, outdoor writer, product designer, tournament fisherman, speaker, radio host and podcaster, and he enjoys sharing his experiences and knowledge with fellow anglers.

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