Ice Fishing
Homemade Ice Fishing Stuff
About 20 pages back I posted my trigger set up for a snap rig. The wire is bent on to a snap swivel in these pictures. Any flexi rod with a tough steel tip will work. I use four foot glass Zebco perch rods out on the ice rigged on a cedar, folding framework as shown. They really do set the hook for you......Very handy with light biting perch.
Some years ago when I had a permanent shack on a lake it was always a pain keeping my minnows alive from week to week. I built a small round screened container and weighted the bottom. I would drill an extra hole in the shack and lower all my minnows down in this at the end of each outing. I attached it to several feet of rope. The next time out I would drill a hole next to the rope. I attached a large hook at the end of my broom handle and would use this to hook the rope and bring them up the next time out. It worked great and minnows lasted all season and were very lively.
Some years ago while doing a lot of night fishing from a permanent shack on a large lake I had a problem with snow and blowing snow covering my tip ups. Since my shack was out there all winter I made some plexi glass covers that I framed out in aluminum with two handles on top. These were made long enough that the whole tip up fit in it and high enough that the flag could go up inside of this cover. I would pack a little snow around and put a coffee can of coal inside if it was really cold outside. My tip ups have lights on them and were very easily seen when they go up.
Homemade Ice Fishing Stuff is a safe place where the idea is to throw a ton of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. We all can learn from other peoples ideas even the failures. Hockeyguy's idea got me thinking about the different metal peg board stuff on the market besides just a hook. Drilling two holes an inch above each other lets you clip on other pegboard stuff even a small shelf or multi slotted screwdriver rack and a pliers holder for either the inside or outside of a square plastic bucket.
Here are a couple of home-made tipups I bought used 25-30 years ago. I've actually been getting into ice fishing the past few years and these have worked pretty well for northerns and bass so far. One is made from wood and the other from a thick piece of plastic. They both fold up nicely for transport. Looks like both were made by the same handy individual.
My version of a tip down. Made with 5’ of 1” pvc...two elbows...one T...one 30” piece of lath...plastic ice reel...3” long, 1/4” carriage bolt...1/4” wingnut...one small cup hook squeezed shut for the end guide. Cost me just under ten bucks per unit. I glued up all of the pvc joints except for the upright so it can detach from the base. Not very compact, but works well. Obviously you have to handline the fish.
Polski this is probably the set up you remember. I use this with my dad many years ago. We called it a power line. Copy and paste:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&ei=_0clYN3DJZa3tQbw24zADw&q=powerline+fishing+setup&oq=rubber+band+power+line&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgAMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADMgcIABBHELADUABYAGCrgAFoAXACeACAAZ8BiAGfAZIBAzAuMZgBAKoBB2d3cy13aXrIAQjAAQE&sclient=psy-ab#kpvalbx=_EkglYJDhOoiqtQbslbXoCg15
Ya Wskiph we called our fishin poles Mendota rigs used a heavy lead sinker to just balance the cork to be almost under the water. Any lite bites made the cork bearly move....then you would start hand lining em up from deep depths...line would always end up frozen an tangled. Meal of Perch made it worth it otherwise it was a long day
