Electric auger upgrade

James Almquist wrote:

Why not just cloverleaf your holes with a 8″.

Cause then you’d be drilling 2 or 3 holes instead of just 1. And when you drill overlapping holes all the slush from the second hole is being dumped into the first hole taking extra time to clean the holes. And when you are on the move from spot to spot it’s not very timely. Plus sometimes the first drop is the best and gotta beat your buddies bait down.

So I bought the ion alpha plus this evening, Scheels had them with a free second battery. Scheels customer service has been top notch to me and I am happy to do business with them again. It was really hard to not go with the Eskimo but I will be able to utilize most of my accessories on the new auger.

If you went 8” you have 2000” of ice per battery which is awesome to over eskimos 1300” per battery. Thats 1400 more inches of ice between the two with two batteries each

Youbetcha wrote:

If you went 8” you have 2000” of ice per battery which is awesome to over eskimos 1300” per battery. Thats 1400 more inches of ice between the two with two batteries each

I did!

I have always bought the 10” auger to use in the hard side, the 8 is for the portable.

Red Eye all I’ve ever used for Lakers is an 8″. My biggest ice laker was a chunky 37″ Lake Superior fish.

A chunky 38+” would definitely be a squeeze though lol

My gripes with 10″ holes:

They suck to drill

Fish can “turn around” in them

They’re ankle breakers

The only time I need a hole bigger than an 8″ is intentionally sturgeon fishing. As mentioned, a cloverleaf works for that, and since it’s a stationary type of fishing the little extra work scooping/reversing isn’t a big deal.

Here’s a 36.25″ I just caught on Friday going back into an 8″, plenty of room.

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I’ve been using 10″ for over a decade now, but I primarily target northern and walleye. The benefit of the larger diameter isn’t whether a fish fits through it, but how easier it is for a fish to get turned up into it.

RynO wrote:

I’ve been using 10″ for over a decade now, but I primarily target northern and walleye. The benefit of the larger diameter isn’t whether a fish fits through it, but how easier it is for a fish to get turned up into it.

Thats the main reason Id like a 10” for lakers. They definitely don’t like getting there head started.

pretty nice having a 10″ hole when site fishing rainbows. 55% bigger window to look thru for a 10″ hole vs 8″ hole.

Also really nice for laker fishing. Sure, you can fit a nice sized lake thru an 8 but its a lot easier with a 10. Can’t really say I see any negatives to a bigger hole other than if you’re running an electric. I’d rather lose a little fish in the hole because it was able to turn around (I don’t know that I’ve ever had that happen) than lose a big fish because I couldn’t get it’s head started up the hole.

I think the Alpha is the sweet spot. I went with the eskimo for the weight savings, I will put it through a good test next week. Hard to find a strikemaster lite flight 40v right now, I have feeling strikemaster is going to be updating there augers shortly.