I bought two of the Eagle claw’s and while they worked fine and I caught fish with them I saw on another post/site where someone had re-rigged the drag and it seemed to work better, I may give that a shot. The drag as is leaves something to be desired. It seemed like it kept adjusting itself every 3-4 fish I caught. Everything else worked fine and as I have never fished with a reel like this it took a little time to get the feel for it, and to be honest it could be something I’m doing that is messing up the drag. I would like to try out one of the Black Betty’s and see the differences in the two.

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I’ve yet to become totally loyal to any one manufacturer because so far none of them have sent me a paycheck .

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Yup my feelings exactly! 5 years ago I had an Eskimo flipover, a Jiffy auger & a Showdown. Now I have an Otter Lodge flipover, a Strikemaster Solo Pro & an LX-5 flasher (though I still have a Showdown for backup). If your stuck on one brand out of loyalty I think you miss out on what some other manufacturer may offer that may work better for you.

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When that happens, I usually start yelling at the fish, blame the democrats, blame George Bush, accuse the fish of being communists conspiring against me, and then open a beer.

Sometimes it works.

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Wow i thought I was the only one!

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LOL, he sure makes it look easy

http://www.lewiswinch.com/multidrill/Ice_Augers.html

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Following that video did you see the video for the ICEHOGGER? Not sure I would be interested in it but it looks like a nice idea.

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Purchased a Mad Dog auger rack for my new Strikemaster Honda auger… the throttle and linkage in the way, won’t work. Ended up mounting on gun rack…will have to see if it works ok without breaking.
jim

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Yup found this out the hard way myself. I bought it on sale from Cabelas online but never thought to check and see if it would work with the Strikemaster Solo pro. Well at least I only paid $20 for it.

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This is the contraption I made last summer. I have a platfor made out of 2X4’s and OSB with 4 ropes going through pulleys to a DC winch mounted on the rafters. I pack my Otter Lodge with all of my ice fishing equipment except my electronics and winch it to the rafters out of the way until December rolls around.

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That’s a great idea and very similar to what I was thinking too, I plan to store my mower and other summer tools up there in the winter. How do you have all 4 ropes connecting to the DC winch?

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I have all 4 ropes go to the flat part of a D ring. On the other side I have a storage hook and the winch hook. I winch the platform up a little higher than it normally sits and then clip the storage hook to an eyelet lag bolted to a rafter then let the winch down so all of the weight is on the lag bolted eyelet rather than on the winch. I’ve been thinking of doing something a little different than this as it’s a little bit of a pain to do but I guess it’s only twice a year I use it.

This is the contraption I made last summer. I have a platfor made out of 2X4’s and OSB with 4 ropes going through pulleys to a DC winch mounted on the rafters. I pack my Otter Lodge with all of my ice fishing equipment except my electronics and winch it to the rafters out of the way until December rolls around.

I was out on Lake Onalaska Sunday with approx 9″ plus of ice and saw what I believe is the first truck out to the landing lights. A full size newer Nissan and he had his child with him. If you want to chance it by yourself fine but don’t make your kid go with you.

Well I kind of wish I COULD be on the ice to see if anything is broken or not. At least your lucky enough to be out fishing. As for Marcums customer service the same thing kind of happened to me last year the first time out. My LX-5 just flashed a little red and died… I wasn’t very happy but after sending it in they fixed whatever was wrong with it for free so it was a happy ending. It’s not like other places where you have to fight and scrape just to talk with someone that knows anything and can help you with your problem.

What a coincendence I’m also going to Winnie this weekend…gonna try Zoomers first thing on Wed and see what conditions are for the rest of the trip. May see ya up there Woody.

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whatinhell is a LOTW stop sign???

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you took the words right out of my mouth… It’s probably one of those things where if you have to ask you don’t want to know.

Well I got the camera back last Thursday so I tried it out this past weekend and it works great! I have no idea what they did to fix it as there was nothing in the packaging to let me know what they fixed but whatever they did worked great! I’m really impressed with the extremely fast turnaround as I sent it out on Monday and got it back on Thursday…
I really didnt think I would have it back for this last weekend’s fishing.

Well,

I called Versa this am and their having me send it in. I shipped it out overnight so with any luck I can have it back by X-mas. I’ll post back if they let me know what they fixed. Thanks for the help.

P.S. anyone have an LX1 pro for sale, I’ve kind of been wanting a backup unit and also something for my friends to use who have nothing.

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Did you play with the power/range knob? Sometimes just wiggling it back and forth will make it work.

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yeah I tried wiggling pretty much every connector and button on it, I tried re-seating the power and transducer connectors a couple of times to no avail. Just a week or two ago I had it running without the ‘ducer cable plugged in and it ran fine….now not so much. I bought the unit in the summer of 2009 so not sure if the warranty is still good or not, I would take it apart myself as I work on electronics for a living but just in case there is a warranty I don’t want to void it, anyone know of an LX1 pro for sale? I have been wanting to get a cheaper unit for a backup or spare for friends for awhile now….looks like I could use it sooner than I thought.

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I made a couple of rod holders for my new flip shack. Very easy to make with scrap wood and cheap wall mount broom holders from Menards, I screwed a 3 inch piece of pvc to the side for a rod holder. Can’t wait to try it out this weekend!

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I bought a couple of those broom holders and am going to try my hand at making one tonight using some oak I have laying around. One question though, did you use 2 screws in each one of those broom holders to keep the board flat and not tilt when weight is put on it? I only ask because they are made to be used with only 1 screw in the middle of the bracket and the board could tilt to the side with weight on it.

I’ll be at the Neshonoc derby…It was a good time last year despite the cold weather, good prizes and a beer tent…what more could you want?

Well I was planning on it but the people I’ll be fishing with this weekend want to go somewhere else…

Looks to be some nasty weather this weekend also so shouldn’t be too many people there.

Thanks for all the responses guys…Im heading up near Lac Du Flambeau this weekend and I’ll give the 3 hold method a try. If it doesn’t work out the other guy will just have to pony up the dough and buy his own sonar

Well I guess I was just used to fishing with a friend that doesnt have a sonar and using the Showdown in one hole we could see both our jigs without too much adjusting and do a respectable job of fishing…I will try the three hole technique and see if that works better for us. However when It’s just me the unit works great!

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did you play with the gain at all? if it flickers in and out, i’d turn it up a bit and see if that helps.

how far away are the holes? remember its only a 20deg cone. if i have to share a flasher, i try to drill a 3rd hole inbetween the holes fished to give both fishermen the best shot at finding their jig.

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Tried turning up the gain and it starts to see the other jig around 5 but then it seems like too much gain for whats going on. the other hole is only 2-3 feet away in my portable flipover, should be plenty close.

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With clippers do you ever raise a burr on the eyelet?

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I think about that too but I have been using clippers and haven’t lost a jig yet…

But i suppose there’s always a first time

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I don’t think using perch eyes (or any part of a fish classifieds as a “game fish species”) is legal in MN.

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Thats good to know for my annual Winnibigosh trip in February. I was thinking of trying it then… I guess I’ll just stick to the Demon jig with a minnow head or the swedish pimples there.

Well can’t beat those but I was out on Winny in -10 and windy last year in a portable…

Well I picked up the Snosuit bibs for $200 at the ice show and tried them out yesterday…WOW! great investment & couldn’t be happier with them. Best bibs I’ve ever had and being a snowmobiler and ice fisherman thats saying something!

Wow, nice man made wind break you have there, you must have really been slayin em. Sorry I can’t help you find a Junior though…

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Fishthumper-
Just go here: Crosslakesales.com- then fishing-then ice fishing clothing-
You can get an entire snosuit for 300 right now-
Snosuit is the best! And at that price you can’t afford not to buy it-
Let me know if you have any other questions!

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Luke. Thanks for the Info. That is a great deal.

I really don’t want a full suit. I wish they had a deal on just the bibs. They do have some great deals on the Artic Armor as well. Thorne’s told me that Snosuit are no longer making the full suits. If anyone is looking for a full suit and wants a great deal I’d hurry and order you one.

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They have just the bibs for $119.

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Unfortunately the bibs they are selling are all XXL size…so buyer beware.