How do you store your ice fishing gear at home now and in the off-season?

I am in a new house this year with a much bigger garage, but I am still looking for an efficient way to store the gear when at home and I need the truck bed for other things. I have seen some guys use the kayak ceiling-mounted lift things to hoist it up the ceiling. I am considering that for the off-season, but want to be sure it’s easy enough to also use repeatedly during the winter. I’m think an electric hoist for that connected to some sort of platform where I can put the sled, house, auger, etc on.

What do you all do?

Its fair game for me as long as the wife gets her van in. It stays in the garage year round, someday she will decide to move somewhere with more space

Stays in the garage year round. Looked at the bicycle/kayak hoists but most are not rated to carry the weight of my ice shack, even empty. Thought about the electric hoist and platform, but that isn’t cheap and in the summer the boat isn’t in the garage so I have the room to leave on the floor for now. Will be interesting to hear what others do.

I use an enclosed trailer in the winter and an electric hoist in the rafters in the off season.

Do you run an ATV/Sled in the winter? If so having a dedicated trailer is kick ass.

Standing your shack on-end takes up less of a footprint in the garage too, but you’ll want to get most of your gear out of it.

We’ve got a 1000 sq. ft attached garage and it’s overflowing. However for Winter, I can get my F150, my wife’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, a 17’ boat, a JD X540, and all our miscellaneous stuff + too many tools and a work bench in.

My strategy is to use the full height of the garage (10’8” ceiling). For the off-season my ice gear goes up on a 4’x8’ muscle rack ceiling storage platform. Ice rods go into a rod rack on the wall and tackle goes into a wall cupboard specifically for ice fishing. During the season it all slides perfectly under the boat trailer on a sheet of OSB making it readily accessible but out of the way. Portable grills, extra chairs, bean bag boards, and extra coolers take the place of ice gear on the ceiling rack in winter.

I like to have my gear close by and accessible at all times. My schedule is beyond crazy so it doesn’t take much of an excuse for me to NOT go out fishing anymore. Prior to jobs getting crazy and the 2 girls, it was the opposite with me basically fishing 4 times a week at minimum

I stand my shacks up right and all my gear goes on my racking I have along the walls.

My truck goes in the post frame shed. The FW Traverse and JD 738 with blower goes in 2 car heated garage to thaw off/start easier. I have two 8 foot long shelves for tackle, electronics, heater, propane, etc. Also a double outlet for charging auger and electronics batteries. Enough floor space for my single shack, hub, sled, buckets, rod cases, etc. I also have hanger to hang my ice suit up so it dries after every trip. I back up to the door and slide whatever I need for the day in to the truck. It takes about 3 minutes and I’m on my way.

Summertime I have shelf unit in shed for all the gear. The 2 man hangs from the rafters.

If you have a work bench in the garage, build it so your flip over can just slide right underneath it and out of the way, that’s where mine spends the entire year.

I stand up the shelters that I’m not using or slide them under the boat. In summer I hang the shelters on the wall and have a suspended shelf 6’ above the floor. A heavy hook in the wall and the tow rope keeps them out of the way behind the boat.

I use a pallet rack for my ice fishing gear year round. Bottom shelf is the flip over, second shelf is an otter sled with misc gear, top shelf is hub fish house and a summer camping hub.

I store my flip over fish house on a pulley system on the ceiling, and the hub on heavy duty hooks near the ceiling. Once I take the flip over down it stays in the back of my truck for most of the winter. Summer rods I have some 2×4’s on the ceiling where I store them, and my winter rods stay in the Eagle hard case with loose lines.

I built 2×4 and plywood shelves all along the back wall of my garage. I have 3 “levels” of them, and one wraps around over my work bench I have fastened with cleats screwed into the rafters and into the wall studs for that one. I have hub and 1 man shack along with 2 sleds and all my gear goes into totes. I also have all my hunting and summer things out there also in totes and basically rotate whatever is in season to the lower shelves. I also have them Berkly rod holders and they are mounted on my ceiling for both open water and ice poles. my garage is not to big nut this was the best I could come up with for space and usage. Saves a lot of room in the house for other things.

I put my rods in a hard case, hang my hub from the ceiling in my garage, tip ups and tackle box in a storage box taped shut, just got it but I’ll leave my k-drill in it’s box and put that on top of my gun safe.hoping to get a conex next year should be good mouseproof storage. Edit: I didn’t use my hub for 8 years as life just made it difficult to get out and suspended from the ceiling I had no mice in it.

Ryan,

I thankfully have a 13′ garage (separate story) and used a cabling system to wrap the garage with 4′ deep shelves – attached. The sled and Eskimo 3i sit on a lower shelf and I just back the truck in to load it easily – from there I just need the Flasher, rod bag and small Scheels duffle with tackle and “extras”, and I’m off.

Overall I have a small 17g bin for the stuff above and larger 27g bin for the getaway trips such as LOTW. Bins rotate outside for the winter; Flasher and rod bags are stored in the basement.

-Bruce

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During the off season it gets piled up in the corner of the shed in the back yard and during the season I have this other great storage shed called an ice castle. we haven’t used it much for ice fishing the last couple years so everything just gets put in there.

I have plastic shelving along one side of the garage that I use to store smaller ice fishing (5 gal buckets, rod cases, Buddy Heater, etc.) along with camping gear. Tackle bags and electronics/batteries I store in the basement where the temperature is more constant. Have a workbench with a cutout underneath for storing my small flip-over. Pop-ups and auger I lean against the shelving.

Good ideas so far. Yeah, for me, because I can’t leave it in the truck for the entire season, I need to make it as easy as possible to quickly load in and out or I’m going to start getting discouraged from going out as the season drags on. One of the things I hate about ice fishing is all of the crap that goes with and am always trying to slim it down and organize it to make it easier to deal with.

I like the idea of having a shelf truck bed height that I can slide the gear on and off.

Racor ceiling lift. It’ll hold all of my gear (including shack) and will lift it tight to the ceiling allowing us to pull our vehicles in. Another plus is the mice can’t get at it.

Raises and lowers using a drill. Very easy to install. I did have to replace the cables because my garage has 10ft ceilings.

http://www.racorstoragesolutions.com/p/detail/phl-1r?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

A hand auger and a five gallon bucket eliminates all those problems. LOL

I’m going on year 9 with my Racor lift, nothing better imo

I added longer cables and security chains on each corner just to be extra safe…

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I’m going on year 9 with my Racor lift, nothing better imo

I added longer cables and security chains on each corner just to be extra safe… just dont overload it

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The kayak hoists do work but can be a bit cumbersome. I have tall ceilings in my garage and decided to build a powered lift system based on some internet research. It actually turned out pretty well and has held up nicely. I can back my truck into the stall and lower it down far enough to slide the houses right into the back of my truck. There is a text link to a video of it in action along with the photos.

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Holy Smokes, that looks solid.