Equipment

[Rainsford]

New user. Have lived in Montana for the past 4 years and want to learn more about ice fishing so I can fish year round. I do not want to spend a ton of money on something I may not do very often, so my question is can I just use a broken micro shakespeare rod or is a dedicated ice fishing rod a necessity?

[missoulafish]

You can use whatever rod you are comfortable with and can afford. No pre-requisites have to be met.

[zcm_82]

You can use whatever rod you are comfortable with and can afford. No pre-requisites have to be met.

+1 on this. None of my rods are that expensive, and the fish don't care.

New user. Have lived in Montana for the past 4 years and want to learn more about ice fishing so I can fish year round. I do not want to spend a ton of money on something I may not do very often, so my question is can I just use a broken micro shakespeare rod or is a dedicated ice fishing rod a necessity?

It'll work. When I was a kid, most of our ice rods were the ends of broken rods that my Dad glued into a chunk of wooden dowel for the handle, with electrical tape to hold the reels on.

If you are set on a dedicated ice rod, there are a lot of inexpensive ($20-30) combos out there that will get you by just fine. The caveat is if you buy a cheap one, but it in person, not online.  A lot of times you'll have to sort through a few to find one where the eyes on the rod are aligned well and the reel is decent. The cheaper rods tend to have pretty spotty qc, some of them are great, others are trash right out of the factory.

I had a few of the Shakespeare Fuel combos for a several years... they were about $15 a piece at the time, and I caught a lot of fish on them. I've upgraded rods since, but I actually still have the reels on some of my ice rods.

Like most hobbies, you can make ice fishing just about as cheap or expensive as you want to, and most of us fall somewhere in the middle.

[Jim F]

best deal I found on ice rods recently is from Kast King thru Amazon. Kit- 1 handle, 2 rod sections, one medium and one medium light..
Available in glass or graphite. Pretty nice, and compact as well

https://www.amazon.com/KastKing-Konvert-Linear-Different-Action/dp/B08KTH3LQY/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3DQ7N0TILYL5C&keywords=kastking+konvert&qid=1643641308&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=kastking+convert%2Csporting%2C174&sr=1-3

That said, use whatever you have that you like, long rods work great unless you're in a shack, and it sounds like you probably are not
if just getting started. Rod choice will mostly depend you what you want to fish for.
If you are creative, spend time looking at every rod you see at a yard sale inspecting the tip/section. many of my rods where a dollar or two that
got shortened and had a handle added

[meandcuznalfy]

+1 on this. None of my rods are that expensive, and the fish don't care.

It'll work. When I was a kid, most of our ice rods were the ends of broken rods that my Dad glued into a chunk of wooden dowel for the handle, with electrical tape to hold the reels on.

If you are set on a dedicated ice rod, there are a lot of inexpensive ($20-30) combos out there that will get you by just fine. The caveat is if you buy a cheap one, but it in person, not online.  A lot of times you'll have to sort through a few to find one where the eyes on the rod are aligned well and the reel is decent. The cheaper rods tend to have pretty spotty qc, some of them are great, others are trash right out of the factory.

I had a few of the Shakespeare Fuel combos for a several years... they were about $15 a piece at the time, and I caught a lot of fish on them. I've upgraded rods since, but I actually still have the reels on some of my ice rods.

Like most hobbies, you can make ice fishing just about as cheap or expensive as you want to, and most of us fall somewhere in the middle.

X2, most of mine are open water tips glued into dowels, I love them, they work great.

[pmmpete]

Ice fishing rods and tip-ups tend to be inexpensive.  Orvis doesn't make any ice fishing gear. And you can use your open water reels on your ice fishing rods.

But you can't go ice fishing without a hole in the ice.  One of the big expenses of ice fishing is an auger.  You can hold down your hole production costs by buying a manual auger, but they can be a lot of work, particularly in areas where the ice gets thick.  If you have a big cordless electric drill, you can buy a auger shaft and reduce the work required to gain access to liquid water by using the drill to turn the auger shaft.  But if you stick with ice fishing, you'll eventually want to buy a gas or electric auger.

You'll also need a sled to tote your gear out onto the ice.  Get one with sides at least a foot high, so all your gear won't fall out if the sled tips, and so snow won't come in over the sides of the sled into your gear.

If you are selective about the days that you go ice fishing, you can get away without a shelter.  But when the wind starts blowing and it starts snowing, a shelter is mighty nice.  You can get a pretty nice ice shelters for not too much money. Be sure to get anchors and ropes or straps so you can tie your shelter down.

If you cultivate some ice fishing buddies, you can use their auger and shelter while you decide how much you like ice fishing.

But the most important ice fishing equipment is warm clothing and boots, which will allow you to stay outside comfortably all day in all kinds of weather, while pursuing the usually sedentary sport of ice fishing.  You need lots of layers of warm clothing, overalls or bibs, an oversized parka which will fit over all your layers, warm hats, gloves, and mittens, and most importantly, really warm boots with a couple pairs of warm thick socks inside them.  Because some lakes develop a lot of slush from time to time during the winter, you want boots which are 100 percent waterproof.  I recommend knee high highly insulated rubber boots.  For example, Cabelas sells rubber boots with several different thicknesses of insulation.  Go with the biggest and most insulated boots you can find (mine have 2,000 gram insulation around the toes), and get them about two sizes bigger than your street shoe size so you can get lots of socks under them. Good boots are an investment which will pay dividends in comfort and fun on every ice fishing trip.

[Perch-Eye]

 One important thing is traction devices. You can buy cheap cleats that fall off all the time or spend some money on the good ones. I just use 1/2'' long sheet metal screws in the the bottom of my Arctic Pro muck boots and change them out as they dull after a few uses and I've never had a boot fall off yet.


Ken.........

[pmmpete]

Low-tech DIY ice fishing gear (not mine - I'm a gear junkie).