Ice fishing is special. Not only is it the one kind of fishing you really can’t do everywhere, and the area with reliable winter ice is getting smaller each year. It is also the kind of fishing that perhaps is more dependent on specialized equipment than any other. For example, you can go bass fishing in the same outfit you do your grocery shopping in. Try that with ice fishing, and you risk serious consequences for your health.
The world of ice fishing gear is exciting, especially if you, like me, haven’t updated your kit for quite a while. So let’s look through the list of what you’re going to need, pointing out interesting new gear for the winter of 2023/2024.
Rod and Reel
The rod for ice fishing may look like a common vertical jigging rig, but it pays to get the kit developed specifically for ice fishing. The reason is not every composite material behaves equally well under below-freezing-point temperatures. What immediately caught my eye among new ice fishing rods is Acme’s Beaver Dam Titanium Tip Stick. This rod has a retractable spring bobber that you can pull out for better sensitivity, for example when targeting smaller fish such as perch, or push back in for more stiffness. This gives you so much more flexibility, which is especially important when you can only take a few rods along.
Line
Your line is also having a hard time when you’re ice fishing. It doesn’t have the assistance of a long rod to dampfen the jerks of the fish that’s trying to get away. Also, in a typical ice fishing situation, the fish won’t resist much as you gently pull it out of the deep; it’s right near the hole when it realizes something funny’s going on and the real fight begins. That means, the line would be scratching against the icy walls of the hole, with ice crystals working as saw teeth – a challenge that regular summer fishing never sees. Bottom line (pun intended): don’t economize, pick a premium, with a fluorocarbon leader, developed specifically for winter fishing. Seaguar Blue Label has good reviews across the board.
Lures
Tungsten lures and jig heads are the latest and the hottest on the market. All for a good reason: due to tungsten’s greater density, these lures descend to the bottom much faster than when made of other materials. This can be a very important feature, especially on rivers with strong current. True, they could be a tad more affordable, but heads like Tungsten Fly from Widow Maker Lures really make me want to try them out.
Rod Holder
Sometimes you’ll just want to put your rod down, and get your hands warm, or have a shot of something warm, especially if you’re fishing with bait and not lures. Rod holders help you do just that. Every blogger out there who’s doing a “What’s new for 23/24” gear review is recommending Stealth Tip-Down, and I’m inclined to go with the crowd here. They do appear to be convenient, versatile, and affordable enough to warrant attention.
Tip-Ups
It doesn’t get lazier than that – well, maybe on a deep sea fishing boat: you bait your hooks, let them down, and just take it easy and let that northern pike or walleye hook itself. And when it does, you notice it by the tip of the set rod shooting up; that may not be easy to do in the dark (the more to the north you go, the higher the chance you’ll be fishing in the dark). The Northern Light Tip-Up with integrated light tip can be really helpful there.
Clothes
Keeping you warm on the ice, with probably water around and often quite a bit of wind, being ideally waterproof, and allowing for some freedom of movement at the same time – clothes for winter fishing have quite a challenge before them. One recent innovation that I find really cool are outfits that are floating, such as the Striker Climate lineup. That means, should you, heaven forbid, ever fall into water, the jacket and pants would keep you afloat, rather than drag you down. That could literally be a life-saver. Oh yes, and I’d prefer bright colors for ice fishing, especially if it’s a backcountry trip. Makes you easier to find, if anything goes wrong.
Boots
It’s getting boring, but boots for ice fishing are another part of gear that is difficult to get right. They have to be ultra warm, and also waterproof, and to combine that while keeping them light and flexible enough isn’t a simple task. One idea that’s gaining popularity is boots with heated liners. Those trigger childhood memories of an electric blanket that shortwired, but I do trust modern technologies are safe enough. If you tried boots with heated liners, write a comment below and tell me how it was, OK?
Gloves
The perfect glove for ice fishing doesn’t exist, because it would have to be both warm and thin enough for fine jobs like tying knots: mission impossible. Your best bet is to have two pairs of gloves. One flexible and with a good feel, somewhat sacrificing on warmth, the other just big thick old-fashioned mittens. Keep the thin pair on all the time, and slip your hands into the thick ones as soon as the fine job is finished. Merino wool is best for the thin pair, such as this one from Firstlite. Fingerless if your hands are cold-tolerant, full finger if they aren’t.
Shelter
The real reason for a shelter, my father used to joke, is to make sure other guys on the lake don’t see you catching fish. But even if you’re blessed to be fishing where everyone knows that closing up on a guy or gal who has hit on a sweet sport is bad shape, a shelter can be very useful to protect you from wind. You can also control the lighting – either making sure you can see everything when it’s dark, or shading the hole if you suspect the fish may be suspicious of that bright shine where a thick layer of ice is supposed to be. The newest shelters from Clam give you a lot of space, pop up in just seconds, and are tinted; my father would love them.
Augers
Before you can start ice-fishing, you first need to break through the ice. Our ancestors used chisels, we now have the luxury of hand and motor powered augers. Honestly, I could never learn to love power augers that run on gas, both due to their bulk and because the noise and smell of a two-stroke don’t align well with the tranquility of the snow-covered woods, rivers, and lakes. Thankfully, there’s a third option now – electric power augers, such as this new and improved Lithium 40V by Rapala. The maker claims it’s lighter and faster than ever.
Sonars and Fishfinders
Goodbye, good old days when you got an idea of how the bottom lay by drilling holes and letting the line with a sinker down. Now there’s a whole range of sonars and fishfinders, including those specially aligned for ice fishing. Seelight Live Imaging Transducer is specifically designed to get the sensor conveniently below the ice level. Personally, I’d rather stay with the blissful ignorance and the comfortable illusion that the fish are simply not there rather than see a small crowd of lake trout show their middle flipper to me and my bait. But I’m in the minority here, and most anglers find sonars worth their weight in gold.
If only half of those products were available when my father tried to get me hooked on ice fishing, his mission would have been accomplished faster and more successfully!
Anyway, getting all the right gear for ice fishing might sound like a substantial investment. The good news is that, as you’re only beginning to discover ice fishing, you don’t have to get it all at once. All you need to do is to book a guided trip. The guides will not only share your knowledge about where and how to find fish, they also have battle-tested gear that you’ll be using. Some even have warm clothes they can lend their clients! BaitYourHook.com, the online marketplace for fishing trips, makes it easier to find and book your fishing adventure directly from trusted captains and guides, at no extra cost.
