Walking with portables

To me it’s all about efficiency and nothing else.

Easier to pull, more I can move.
Easier to pull. Can pack more stuff. Quicker to change lures. Change Rods. Auger is handy and I can Drill more holes. Etc.
Warmth while fishing, longer outings.

You have to fish where the fish are to catch fish, and not all that often do fish quit moving their flippers and sit stagnant under your hole. Better you can stay on top then and more gear you can bring, better your odds of sliming some ice.
I don’t care what the weather is doing, ice adapted all my fishing gear to fit any conditions.

Lots of tools in the tool bag to put fish on the ice. More tools you bring more likely you find the right tool. More tools is more weight. Move the weight easily and all of a sudden your using all those tools efficiently.

My dam manufacturing engineering career all too often unfolds onto my fishing life… And makes me a better fisherman.

Perms, aren’t there to catch more fish, they’re for comfort.
Build some comforts into your portable and you’ll slap more fish on the ice.

And that was my afternoon ramble

Not sure if it’s a generational thing or more related to product development. What probably started as an idea to get out of the wind for those that didn’t have a permanent eventually took on a life of its own. I have no doubt there were many people that got into portables who started to look for ways to add creature comforts to make the fishing experience closer to a permanent. You start adding more space, better seats, etc. that translates to more weight. Now you start to think of ideas to combat the weight which translates to more gear, more this, more that…

I’ve gone to a small flip up and sit on a bucket.
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I tend to agree with your statement, however I enjoy the small creature comforts that my portable has to offer (heat and no wind). I don’t think I will ever own a permanent fish house for the fact that I can move like I can with the portable. I mainly have the portable for my girlfriend and her nieces and nephews that join us in the house. 90% of the time I am out hole hopping trying to find fish. Mostly carrying the auger, vex, and a fishing pole. I’m “that guy”.

I am just looking for efficient ways to pull my house in the early and late season to get on the best fishing that I can while conserving the most energy that I can.

With my Eskimo house, the sled is maybe 4″ tall, therefore making it a huge struggle to pull through deep snow. Up until this year, I never went fishing until the ice was safe enough to drive on, so I never had to deal with this minor inconvenience before.

I have seen the smitty sleds, keep thinking about building one. I did go to fleet farm and get one of those deer dragger harnesses, which works great. It’s a big orange harness with a rope on the back that I just tied off to my sled rope, a lot more comfortable walking long distances hands free. When you get deep snow though this will still make it easier, but a smitty will have more of an impact, both a harness and the smitty would be ideal.

I cut the leg part off of one of those cheap saftey harnesses that comes with treestands, leaving just the upper part, and attatched the tether to the sled rope, I can leave that top part of the harness on and just hook it up to the sled when i want to go, leaving hands free and makes it a lot easier to walk out long distances with less fatigue

I have skis permanently mounted 2″ off the bottom works great only thing is it makes it harder to load into the pickup easy to put to much weight on a ski tip need to unload it all the way or have 2 people but it pulls great by hand or with the wheeler

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I started building these in the shop to fill in down time. The pic is of first run but switching to aluminum angle and lightened it up.

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Iceasylum, looking good. What is the length of the skis?

FDR

So I am in the process of building mine right now. Finally found some skis at the local thrift store (YAY!). I have seen many different styles of how to attach the cross members, but I am unsure of how I’d like to do it. Does anyone have any suggestions on if I should make them removable or make them fixed to the smitty sled? I was also thinking of attaching them to the bottom of my sled, but was afraid of exactly what you mentioned; Keppenhiemer.

Also, do any of you have an auger mount that you put on your sled for early/late season or just run and gun around the lake? If so, would you mind sharing them with me?

Thanks for all the input on this topic!

2 pieces of 2X6 on each ski standing up….
Notch them for a 2X4 flat side up..
Put 1 or 2 lag bolts in the notch and cut the head off the bolt flush and drill holes to match the bolt dia in the 2X4…
Assemble and strap the sled on with eye bolts you put it the 2X6…
Good to go…

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James….+1 on the harness.
I have one of these and it works great!