Ice Fishing
Name something that annoys you while Ice Fishing
@kvandehei
”The inability to efficiently carry a beer while hole hopping is a pet peeve of mine. I need to start buying the aluminum cans with screw on tops. Really cuts into the drinking time when you can't carry a flasher, 2 rods and a beer without spilling.”
I solved that issue.
Flasher, camera, rod holders, beer holder, built in radio... Drink holder as it an ideal level where I don’t have to bend down to pick it up from the ice. Everything is self contained within that bucket. The lid has a sunk in container for carrying minnows if needed.
Vegas - very common. ATV, snowmobile, vehicle driving by is enough to scatter fish. Someone complained about people drilling a ton of holes, if you actually want to catch fish the best technique is to drill a bunch of holes before even trying to fish one for the same reason.
The inability to efficiently carry a beer while hole hopping is a pet peeve of mine. I need to start buying the aluminum cans with screw on tops. Really cuts into the drinking time when you can't carry a flasher, 2 rods and a beer without spilling. Then add a few fish to carry to the mix and chaos breaks out.
So...I'm new to ice fishing. I too own a "Sally". I never thought about auger noise affecting ice fishing...but... The wife and I were out this past weekend up in Sturgeon Bay. We got on the perch...small perch, but still we were on them good. My wife was having a blast jigging them up. Didn't matter the size.
Then 2 guys came near us...not close...but near. I had no issue with that at all. They started using their gas auger to cut about 8 holes. Fish immediately left our holes. Like tons on the graph to zero. Had to wait about fifteen minutes after they were done before the fish came back.
Is that common? Does auger noise really affect the ice fishing bite? We were in about 12 feet of water...if that helps.
Sign me up, I am officially a "Sally".
Could not wait to use my new "Sally" the other day. So, against my better judgement, I went out two Saturday mornings ago. (Prefer to fish week days, less people). Got to the lake at 6:45 AM, knew parking lot would fill up early, and was able to get to my favorite spot and had nobody around me. Awsome. Silently drilled three holes through 12" of ice, within seconds btw, with "Sally".
Picked up a few gills right away and felt pretty good.
Numerous cabins/residences adorn the shore line in this bay, lucky people. Having made absolutely no noise, I felt pretty good about using "Sally". Residents must be able to sleep in now.
My how fast things went 2 chit. In the next several hours, all I heard was the Brpppp, Brppppp of fellow fisherman trying to start the old gas/oil burners. Some would start, run for a bit and choke off. Some refused to run, some weren't primed, some were getting to much gas, others not enough. Some had horribly dull blades which just caused the guy to run it at full throttle ever longer. Some weren't allowed to warm up enough before bearing down on them. Now mix in the swear words, and bet the cabin owners felt like hitting themselves in the head with a hammer.
With "Sally" all a person has to do is pull a trigger, and in a matter of seconds, done. Quietly, very very very quietly.
Ended up drilling several holes for others who were struggling with the ole gas/oil burners. Personally, me thinks they just wanted to test out "Sally". Man you should have seen the smiles......
Oh, and very very light also. So, yep I am officially a "Sally". Hmmm I think I will call the combo, wait wait wait, "SALLY". What a great idea, thanks u no hooo
I've been fishing and have had guys come fish not only my holes that I drilled but right up on me. I like to drill a bunch and move around but I don't fish any existing hole without checking if someone is using it first. This has happened on Delevan. Monona Bay is kind of a exception since there are so many out there and so many holes. Probably a bigger peeve is when guys leave there garbage on the lake. Listen up! Your mother isn't coming out to clean up your crap!
Man, I’m completely with you on that post, USAbrams. I’ve yelled at people for dogs springing my tip ups and peeing on my shelter. And as for the driving right up stuff, I just give them the cold shoulder. Once a guy drove within 30 ft of me in his full size truck to ask how thick the ice was. I politely explained to him how he was an idiot. I do chat with people who quietly walk up, but after a few min I tell them I have to get back to fishing. That’s why I’m out there. We can chat in the bar later
get peeved when some idiot has to bust up the ice to get the boat in one last time, the very few screw it up for the many.......that and throwing big rocks to check the ice so I can fall over it walking run into it with my sled or quad or just turn an ankle soon as it is snow covered.
I am not necessarily “annoyed.” And, I get it, there is always an element of danger on the ice. We all must be informed, wise, and careful when ice fishing. But, I think as a society sometimes we overdo warnings and such... It may be a liability thing. But, it seems that lots of ice fishing articles or shows tend to end with a fairly substantial section on ice safety. There is a time and a place for safety of course, but sometimes the "theme" of the article or show is on a fishing tactic and the ice safety thing is kind of thrown in there kind of unrelated to the main topic of the article. And there is a possibility that people tune out the message because they hear it so much or in all sorts of contexts.
It seems to happen more with ice fishing than other hobbies and such for whatever reason. I don't know about snowmobiling magazines or shows, but I wonder if the safety emphasis is as high. That seems more dangerous than ice fishing.
Like I said, I get it, there is certainly a time and a place for ice safety awareness, and if one life is saved, it's all worth it. And, maybe these messages do a Lot of good, so I don’t want to minimize them one bit. Any ice fishing fatality pains us all. But there are many dangers in life. Personal responsibility and risk is a part of all of our lives.
