Get Your Gear Ready For Ice Fishing
It’s getting agonizingly close. The temperatures are hovering around zero, the horses water trough has a thin layer of ice on it each morning, and I have to wear my winter jacket whenever I go out. It’s almost ice fishing time!
Realistically, we are still several weeks away from good ice in this area. Being able to get out on the ice before the new year would be a pleasant surprise. While I pine away for the hard water season, watching YouTube videos and looking over my posts from last season, there is plenty of work for me to do right now in order to ensure I can hit the ice on that first perfect day. Taking the time to get your gear ready now, will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
Prepare your Auger
The first thing I do in preparation for the hard water season is put new blades on my auger. It doesn’t matter how sharp the current blades were at the end of the least season, I buy a new pair and get them on before that first outing. I have a strong aversion to repeating the night I found myself on Fairy Lake and, to the amused looks of those passing by on their snowmobiles, spent 30 minutes drilling one hole. It turned out that ‘someone’ had decided to sharpen the blades before that outing, and my extreme fear that I had lost a whole lot of muscle was for naught as even Darrell could not get through the ice without extreme effort. Buy new blades and if you like, keep last year’s pair as spares.
Make sure you have a cover for your auger. There is nothing worse than realizing you have sliced open your floater suit on the auger blades and that it could have been your leg! Check to see that your cover stays on securely. If not, buy a new one.
I have only had a manual auger to worry about, but if you have a power auger, put some fresh fuel in it and give the motor a check over to make sure everything is in working condition.
Change your line
By the end of the ice fishing season, my line starts to look rough. When I pull the reels out for the next hard water season I find lots of line twist and breakage. It’s time to strip the line, consider what I’ll be fishing for, choose new line, and spool up.
What type of line you choose is based on your personal preference. Most of my ice fishing is for crappie and perch so I choose very light mono for many of my reels. I usually use Vicious Panfish ICE as I find it holds up very well for my fishing – minimal line twist and very durable. For heavier set-ups I started using braided ice line last year. I’ll be putting it on a few reels again, but I was not overly pleased about the freezing that occurred outside of the hut.
Check your rods
I’ll admit it, I’m not always nice to my fishing rods. I’ve been known to toss them on the ice when running to see someone else’s catch, and they have fallen off of the seat of the hut while moving from one hole to the next. Right now is a great time to pull them out of storage and have a look over. Check the guides and the reel seats, and make sure there’s no reason your rod should fail when reeling in that dream fish.
Stock-up your inventory
Fishing can be a fairly inexpensive sport – unless you lose lures as often as I do – but we still need to buy a certain amount of equipment. Whether you lose them often or not, it’s a good idea to look through your tackle boxes now and see what lures will hold up to another season, what needs to be replaced, and what’s missing. Do hooks need to be replaced? Are you running low on your favorite jigheads? Did you lose that spoon in your favorite color? Now is the time to make a list of the lures you need/want to add to your tackle box. After all, I’ll bet your family would be happy to receive a detailed Christmas wish list. This will also give you a chance to sort your tackle and have it organized for the start of the season.
Give your tackle boxes a good once over, as well. Do they need to be replaced? Is there one like my little jig box that no longer closes tightly? After spilling the entire contents of this box into the trunk of the car, I decided this box needed to be replaced before I hit the ice this year.
Create a checklist
Make a checklist that includes everything you will need for the ice fishing season. It’s easy to forget some of this equipment, so a checklist will give you the chance to make sure you have everything you need, and that it is in good working condition. Do you have your ice scoop? Several pairs of gloves and hats? How is your floater suit? Are there any rips? Does it still fit comfortably? Do you have cleats for your boots and ice picks to get you out of tricky situations? Don’t forget to add a change of clothes to that list. I have a backpack that stays in the truck all winter with a complete change of clothes and several extra layers.
Waiting for the ice to freeze is the perfect time to get your gear ready for the upcoming ice fishing season. You can spread out the work, play with your fishing stuff, and dream of the season to come. Having everything ready ahead of time will allow you to hit the ice that first day and worry about catching some fish.
argosgirl
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