Most "ingenuitive" ice fishing inventions....

[Spud_bar]

How many of you guys have fridges in the garage or basement??? that's a technique in itself! start counting... I'm #1... anyone else?

[Oldfart]

Ive got 2! But its not fair. You see, I'm a reptile breeder, big time, and the only reason I bought this house was that one floor of it was to be mine for the biz. Talk about a big man zone! 2 freezers, ten thousand mice, no wife and kids allowed. Gonna change my name to happyfart!

[Kodiak Commando]

I'm number three got a cheap fridge and a monster of a freezer for all the fish and eggs i keep.

[suskymusky]

another idea is take a cheap roll of toilet paper and soak it over night in rubbing alcohol. find a metal bucket, put tp in ,light it and it will burn for hours with no toxic fumes.

   Uuuuummmm, no. There are fumes a plenty your nose cant detect. The carbon monoxide  will kill and you wont smell it coming.

Ive used the toiletpaper/rubbing alcohol/coffeecan setup for years.Its good for hunting and for warming up your hands while fishing tip-ups, however in a closed shelter the CO will kill you, as I almost found out icefishing in a tent with a coleman lantern.I was wondering why I was getting so sleepy, and thankfully I figured it out before I passed out, and got the heck out of the tent .

[Thor]

I have part of a paper clip tied onto some of my older (less expensive) jigging rods that I use as a way to keep the rod from being pulled down the hole.

Down near the handle, where the hookholder is usually placed on some better rods, I have tied in the U-shaped portion of the paper clip.  In an emergency (e.g. my beer is empty), I just grab the line near the tip of the rod, double it back, place it in the paper clip, and lay the rod across the hole.

If a fish bites, the line pulls straight down against the paper clip as the rod spans the hole, and the rod won't get pulled in.

It works for panfish, but I don't think I would recommend it for bigger fish.

[hollis]

One thing I have done is that I have too much stuff I'm sure to take out on thec ice but I try anyway, A sled isn't enough so I took a tobaggen and for short time trips I can put most things on it but for longer times its not enough so I took a thin piece of plywood and attached al runners almost the same lenght as the bed of the tobaggen and attached it with a sort of hindge which is a piece of innnertube tire rubber screwed to both (so as not to have edges to drag) now I can flip it onto the tobaggen for the short runs and flip it out to have a double lengh "train" . I put on some ropes and eyes just like the tobaggen has so that I can bungee stuff to. it can be heavy with all the stuff so not good to pull across parking lots loaded, it pulls ok with ice and most snow if you get a LONG rope and pull it via the loop around your waist. I use those studded ice pull overs on my boots (kind of like yax traxs but has tiny steel studs) on pure ice. if very icy

[fishinlooney]

I needed a rod holder in my trap so I took one of those small red "bucket" rod holders and cut a small groove just above the front "wall" of my trap sled with a Dremel.  Insert rod holder and presto, a secure, and very light rod holder.  One on each side of the trap and I'm fishing two rods and don't have to worry about losing one.  Another trick for the new Fish Trap Pro, I took an old top tray from a tool box that has about four compartments and inserted this into the hammock under the seat.  Now my hammock doesn't sag and my gear stays where I put it!

[Hard_H2O]

And if frozen cat food is not for you, try this. Same trick, freeze it with a stone and sink it, but.... Go to a tag sale and get a used blender to keep out in your garage. Chop up fish guts, clams, old squid, whatever.  Very good chum, and the wife wont kill you for stinkin up "her" blender. You got your own bait blender now!

On a show about commercial crab fisherman in Alaska they showed what was basically a big paper shredder that each boat had. The new guys would be tasked with taking the bait fish and feeding them through this shredder. Looked like a terrible job. That was some nasty stuff coming out of that thing.

[Kodiak Commando]

Yeah, ive used those machines during a commercial fishing class in high school. Those things are sharp, some careless fisherman have lost some fingers in those things.

[P Gottshall]

Back to the cat-food thing, I made a chum-bucket from a gallon ice-cream bucket, & put a fist-sized rock in the bottom of it to weigh it down.  Empty a can of cat food into it, & you're set.

I drilled a lot of holes in it for the chum to be able to disolve into the water, and attached it to a floating water-bottle.  At the end of the day, I pull the whole thing back into the boat.

It's pretty important to use a bucket from Butter Pecan (God's ice-cream!).  Black walnut may work as well; I've never tried it. 

Now there's a solution that's environmentally friendly!



Good luck,
Paul

[Spud_bar]

This chumming stuff sounds interesting. I've never tried it and barely heard of that trick around here. I fish for mostly perch/walleye/northern and occasionally bass. Anyone know any tricks for making ice? haha I'm dying to get out there and this run of 40* weather is terrible.  . a Couple years ago I ordered a fishing catalogue from the uk and it's really incredible to me how their gear in the magazine is almost entirely for carp. I've certainly never fished for carp (and admitted to it) but it's pretty interesting how one fish can be interpretted in so many ways.

[MikePike]

i have learned alot in this thread, poor TFB getting crapped on for a little of littering. keep the hints and tricks coming please!!

[P Gottshall]

Question on the frozen cat-food idea - will it sink?

Paul

[TroutFishingBear]

I don't know if the frozen catfood actually sinks or not. Haven't been in any other states this year where chumming is legal to try it I would think it would though.
As for people getting pissed at me for littering a few cans... it was a way to get me to stop. I suggest the frozen catfood thing for anybody who wants to try it!

[oakorchardfishking]

the frozen catfood wont sink on its own, it will just float in the hole and make a mess... just like a frozen chumbag for saltwater fishing... but as someone suggested, as your are making your catfood to freeze, just put a decent size stone in it! this will make it sink to the bottom!

[TroutFishingBear]

Back to the cat-food thing, I made a chum-bucket from a gallon ice-cream bucket, & put a fist-sized rock in the bottom of it to weigh it down.  Empty a can of cat food into it, & you're set.

I drilled a lot of holes in it for the chum to be able to disolve into the water, and attached it to a floating water-bottle.  At the end of the day, I pull the whole thing back into the boat.

It's pretty important to use a bucket from Butter Pecan (God's ice-cream!).  Black walnut may work as well; I've never tried it. 

Now there's a solution that's environmentally friendly!

(Image removed from quote.)

Good luck,
Paul

forget even puting chum in that. It's the butter pecan attracting all of the fish