What's the worst ice fishing item you ever bought and the best and why?

[kousui]

残念 です ね!!! one of my favorite nihon go sayings. Niru-san, good luck this ice season.慎重で安全であること

[wyogator]

The best item: too many to list, but I'll try anyway.  Lowrance fishfinder, Eskimo Quick Fish, Strikemaster Mag 2000, Buddy heater, Otter sled, good rods (St.Croix, 13 Fishing) The worst: old Eagle fishfinder (Awesome at the time, any fishfinder is better than none), cheap Shakespeare hollow graphite rod that snapped in half while fighting a big walleye, Coleman Black Cat heater (dangerous, crappy, doesn't even compare to a buddy heater).  Now I just need to scratch that Aqua Vu off my Christmas list.😉

[slipperybob]

The best and worst...of all time.    that I've used for ice fishing.  (I will change my mind at any given time  )

Well...some of the worst had already been returned back to to seller already and I can't remember what the exact names were...


some of the worst that I've found out afterwards...
HT mini-baitcasting ice reel (and some of their cheap spinning reels back in the days...)
Shakespeare Cajun mini baitcasting ice reel.  (better handline)
Jason Mitchell Meat stick (first year run)

The best
Grivel G10 crampons
Eastman Outfitters Ice Cube
Shimano Chronarch 50Mg
Shimano Curado 50E
Clam 1060

[icebucketjohn]

BEST:
 Kahtoola Ice Spikes
 Nils 6" Convertible Auger
 Clam Drlll Plate
 Aqua Vu Micro
 Eskimo Spud Bar
 Micky Mouse and/or Bunny Boots


WORST:
 Yaktrax Ice Spikes
 Eagle Claw Ice Spikes
 Plastic Ice Scoops
 

[jimhaney08]

Worst: standard Black Betty reel (can't stand the back reeling), the cheap plastic containers that bait comes in, not buying a shelter my first year 

Best: Garmin Striker Ice 5, Strike Master bait pucks, buying a shelter my second year   

[FG Steve]

New worst to add to my list from last year:

Strikemaster Bait Bucket.  Looks insulated but worms freeze SO FAST in it.

[Huntindave]

The WORST  item I purchased was the FIRST item I purchased for ice fishing.  Don't remember exactly what it was,  but  it sure  has cost me a lot of money over the years.

[ActiveTrapChecker]

The WORST  item I purchased was the FIRST item I purchased for ice fishing.  Don't remember exactly what it was,  but  it sure  has cost me a lot of money over the years.

 

[FG Steve]

The WORST  item I purchased was the FIRST item I purchased for ice fishing.  Don't remember exactly what it was,  but  it sure  has cost me a lot of money over the years.

Well, I think that would be on my BEST list.

 

[Tuma]

Best and worst would be making myself a rod wrapper and building rods.  It’s a great, addicting hobby and I love that I can custom shape and tune the blank to exactly the action I want for a presentation. But anyone who tries my rods wants me to make them a handful and I just don’t have the time.  I rather be out fishing than building.

[Martian]

not sure on the worst, too many to pick from, but my very best ice fishing investment has been my flasher, hands down

[McfishinWV]

Best: Sonar/flasher
Worst: Kids snow sled incorrectly believing it would never roll over and spill everything out like it 100% did every time out

[fishnhawk]

Best: Vex 8/28 and Mora/Octane/Clam plate

Worst: FishTV <hands down>
I use my AquaVu quite a bit but that FishTV was a hunk of $hi%

[sns2]

Best: Vex FL8 (bulletproof), but have since upgraded to a Ice Helix 7 G2 Chirp that I have yet to use

Worst: Marcum underwater camera.  Worked fine, but was just a pain in the rear end to setup.  IMO, a good thing to keep kids interested, but that's about it.  Traded it for another flasher.

[jr50]

Worst for me were the Frabil round tip ups, always have false trips with them no matter how I set it.

Best was my vex flx28 and my strike master auger. 

I do have a buzz stick and loved it, the thing quit buzzing 3 years ago so it is now my dead stick rod, caught lots of fish on it.

[wirehairman]

Best and worst would be making myself a rod wrapper and building rods.  It’s a great, addicting hobby and I love that I can custom shape and tune the blank to exactly the action I want for a presentation. But anyone who tries my rods wants me to make them a handful and I just don’t have the time.  I rather be out fishing than building.

Want to build me a rod? 

[perch chacer]

Best: Clam auger drill plate.
Worst: Agua Vu

[eyeflyer]

BEST     My first GPS in about 2000 I think, the Garmin E-Map. I once read the internal battery was only good for about 10 years but mine still works. I have all my waypoints backed up but over the past almost 20 years I have probably at least 70 great spots on it from Alberta Lakes.  Once located in the summer it made finding mid lake structure so much easier in the winter.  With the exception of first and last ice I spend most of time ice fishing walleye on mid lake structure if a lake has any.
 Marcum VX-1 flasher and Ion Auger and a Jiffy auger I bought in 1997..........still works but I don't really use it much anymore.

WORST . Actually nothing really comes to mind

[IDAHOAUGER]

Best is the good ol' Shakespeare Ugly Ice rod and reel, that thing is indestructible! Worst thing was a Cabela's brand underwater camera, seem like a great item at the time.  The thing died after just one trip, got a refund and bought a fish finder that can be used for ice or open water

[Ihawkangler]

Tie for worst-- Original Clam Plate and a Marcum Showdown.   Original clam plate was garbage and should have never been sold.   Marcum Showdown got condensation inside the unit and would turn on and off.   Took it back and got another one and it did the same thing.

Best also a tie.  Striker Climate Suit and K-Drill + Milwaukee Fuel

[WALL E GATOR]

Best: Striker Ice Hardwater Bibs n Parka-Safety and Warmth.  Garmin Panoptix 73cv PS22 - see what you have been missing.  Striker Ice Transporter- Best Ice Rod and Tackle Storage I have found, its loaded up n about all I need to grab

Worst. Cheap Poles- jaw jacker pulled the tips off of 3 of them

[Huntindave]

Best and the worst item I've purchased and used happens to be the same item. 
Spoon auger, best thing since sliced bread compared to the dull chisel I had been using.
Spoon auger,  worst thing I owned the day I replaced it with a Mora hand auger.
TODAY just now,  best thing is the plastic disc on my auger. Saved my auger from going down the hole.

[badger132]

Best: 199 Ski-Doo Tundra- can't gat over how many more fish I find being mobile.
Worst: In line reel: Between snags, and the fact that I bought a right hand version, and it is opposite from my spinning reels, I gave up on it after 1 trip.

 

[Ice_Fly_Guy]

Worst - Okuma Avenger bait feeder - the lightest setting is not nearly light enough.  Basically worthless, maybe I got a bad apple.  Anyone have tips to fix it with lube?  PM me please.

Best - Striker Predator Bibs - I no longer worry about if/how I am going to keep my core warm and waterproof.

[Seamonkey84]

Worst - Okuma Avenger bait feeder - the lightest setting is not nearly light enough.  Basically worthless, maybe I got a bad apple.  Anyone have tips to fix it with lube?  PM me please.

Best - Striker Predator Bibs - I no longer worry about if/how I am going to keep my core warm and waterproof.

I got the ceymar baitfeeder, I thought the lightest setting was a bit tight, but it worked great on a ~18” bow. I’d imagine panfish and smaller stocked trout wouldn’t like the resistance though.

[Jagger0502]

Best is going to be a toss up between my vexilar flx28 (previously Marcum LV5i flasher) or my TUCR Bullwhip. Between the two I have found and caught so many more fish. They have both changed my game on pulling fish thru the ice.

Worst - not going to give the brand but I got a used gas auger that was nothing but trouble every time I took it out. Replaced with a jiffy propane with zero issues

[Dave R]

Best would be my Vexilar FL8SE.

Worst has to be an HT Enterprises folding sports chair. It's too low and tips over if you lean back.

[Iceassin]

The Fishing Buddy locator...I think that's what it was called. Resembled a cane and mounted on the side of a 5 gal. bucket. Not too good.

[Captn66]

best is a toss up between my vex & my ion auger ... no gas ... no struggling to get it running ... long battery life.  Honorable mention and best deal goes to a used marcum that I got for my son last christmas but that's for him and not me. 

not sure if i have one thing that's the absolute worst ... lots of things i tried and just didn't like, but most were cheap things to begin with (cheap tip ups, cheap ice cleats that wouldn't stay on or didn't provide traction) and not really enough to irritate me enough to call it the worst. 

[quickshake]

Best:
-Frabill Ice Scoop
-Strikemaster Lazer Mag with old Tecumseh power head
-Snowmobile
-Underwater camera

Worst:
-Mora hand auger.  Don't get me wrong it was so much better than nothing, but I'm not going back.

https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=348255.msg3709121#msg3709121

I love my micro vue, I never fish over 40' deep and always clear water, works like a charm IMO.

 worst was those cheap plastic cross tip ups I bought for my boys, 8 years ago,

 Best is the FL8 I finally bought this year, my first flasher, loving it, probably better and easier than getting my micro vue set up on my bait but that isn't too hard either. I drilled a hole in a bucket  big enough to get the camera through then put my cord in a slit in a rubber ball facing 30% down. Send it down and rotate the ball on top of the bucket until you find your lure. put it about a foot above and 2 feet to the right of my jigging hole and set the screen on top leaning on the ball. I'm not a hole hopper, usually set in same hole all day while watching my tip ups. I just target perch and walleye but catch the occasional pickerel and bass where I mainly fish .
7-15perch 12-14" with an occasional 15" and a walleye or 2 is normal  for 6 or so hours on the ice.