B-Man, I’d check with some and Ice Castle dealer. They do custom houses however you like. We built ours based on one of their models, but added and took away some features as well to get it to our liking. They will do almost anything you want and get it built that way. I’m sure a few dealer won’t take the time but there are a few that will like Smokey Hills or Park n’ Sell.

There are a lot of big lakes where tracks are almost a necessity at times. Lake Winnipeg is one for example. In order to get to the places you want to fish you need to get throw some big drifts and slush pockets that you just can’t with wheels are you sink it too much. Granted the smaller lakes by me if you can’t get around without wheels you’ll be doing what was mentioned before and drilling thru snow which turns to slush. So have to just think about your fishing situations to know if they would be worth while.

I have the Strikemaster 40v in a 10″ and my brother has the Jiffy. Hands down the Strikemaster is better. Faster and lighter. Either has no problem drilling a 10″ hole. For what it is worth though, the Jiffy does cut a slightly bigger hole than the Strikemaster.

We pushed our trip back till next week, so we are hoping the melt continues and gets the snowpack down some and also get the fish turned on. Hoping to hear ice/snow condition reports from later this week.

The short RV plug and cold weather extension cord for the Ice Castle. No more messing with the big black RV cord you get with it and an extension cord. Just bought a 50′ to go around the back of the to the truck. Solid purchase.

No chance he is able to get a lien card without paying off the loan. If you’re paying cash/cashiers check, I would just tell him you need to meet him at his bank. If he’s unwilling to do that, I’d be very leery of the situation.

Thanks Cameron, is that for the east or west side? Or does it even matter? We are planning on fishing out of the west side next week.

Strikemaster 40v is the way to go for electrics. As fast as they come and with the design its a lot easier to handle in thick ice than using a drill set up. Used it in 30″+, but wouldn’t say it was cold out given I was drilling in my house. I can’t say enough about how good it is and I’m using the 10″ model.

I believe you can leave them on for 6.5′ wide houses, but for 8′ wide you’d have to take them off. If you look at pictures of them, they extend past the wheel well on 8′ wide houses.

A buddy of mine has them and he swears by them on his 8×17 ice castle. Granted it won’t float over the snow, but he says it pulls easier thru the snow and lets him get to places he doesn’t believe it would without them. I’ve yet to fish with him while he’s using them to see, but he told me they were well worth the money.

They did have it plowed out from Volden’s and around the fishing area, so that’s an option, but typically no one fishes there. Had some buddies stay over with their house both Friday & Saturday just outside the tourney area and they had no luck.

Was out there last weekend for the fish tourney before the last two rounds of snow down here. Its very rough getting around and quite frankly I wouldn’t try it as you’ll be shoveling quite a bit. There was a plowed road out of Boyd’s landing to the Sag, but that’s about it. If you had a 4 wheeler you would maybe stay on top of most of the snow pack, but not a truck. Saw a few people driving down the lake and were getting stuck unless they were going about 20 and beating the crap out of their truck.

Thanks for the help Fred! I’ll give these guys a call and see what would be best. $50-100 sounds a heck of a lot better!

Granted they are all newer, but I haven’t heard of anyone having an electric auger motor break yet, Ion or Strikemaster. Knock on wood there as you are right that I would have no clue on how to fix it.

I’ve used a buddy’s Ion and my brother has the new Jiffy one, but neither seem to work as well as my Strikemaster 40v. Never used any of the actual drill ones like the K-drill to compare to though.

I have zero complaints and would buy it again in a heart beat.

I only have experience with TB and Tuned up rods. My perch sweethearts are 32″ and shorter where my Tuned up Precision is 36″, so not apples to apples there, but I would say the tip of the precision is a little stiffer, but the overall backbone isn’t as stiff. Some big fish put it to the test with it bending right at the handle. I don’t get that as much with the TB.

As far as the Walleye Sweetheart it is a all around stiffer than the Precision, but no where near the same as the Commander. I use my walleye sweet hard as my deadstick up on Winnipeg and use Commanders to jig. The TB would work, but I prefer the commanders for that. Keep in mind you can get the different builders to adjust the blank for what you prefer. I was going to get a walleye sweetheart with an inch cut off the tip to be stiffer for Winnipeg, but then the Commanders came up and I tried them instead.

My go to rod is always my precision around here for walleyes, just as the feel of the rod is the best of all I’ve used and matches the smaller buckshots and jigs I typically use the best.

Wow this got out of hand/off topic in a hurry. Thanks for the guys that actually posted some helpful information on cell phone boosters. I’ll keep looking for some cheaper boosters.

And thanks for all the unsolicited parenting advice, will work well on my zero kids…

Moving the house doesn’t matter as it happens all over. Have an ice castle and at some of the lakes I fish barely have service outside.

Not just for making a call, more for streaming stuff to mirror on TV, using internet/Pandora, ect. But yea $500 is more than I’m wanting to spend for sure.

Yep those are the ones I’ve been looking at. I think I can run it thru my tailgator hook up by getting adapters to upsize the cord to fit the normal coax cable. Just don’t want to drop $500 on something that doesn’t help out much.

That’s terrible, you miss all the good fishing windows and for what reason?Sun is up a long time before 8:00 am.

This might be a dumb question, but why did you put it on the ice instead of just leave it in the box or on the tailgate?

I’ve seen on another site where guys made some of their own mounts so they could do this specific thing and had positive results.

Guess for me using 2×4’s isn’t cuz I’m worried it’ll freeze in, I’m more worried about the spray foam on the bottom freezing to the slush and coming off a small bit at a time.

I used 2×4’s in each corner as well. Could get away with 1×4’s if you want. Only time I don’t put anything down is if its completely bare ice with no snow to use to bank. Drill the holes with the house up and pull out the slush and lower it down.

Good to hear you were able to get this all worked out and solid advice.

Do either of you know if the livescope does side scanning like the panoptix or is it just the down view?

Not going to help Keith as he already has his, but I saw Pro Fab Outdoors has a house that flips over on a ranger as well that sits on top of their Ranger Toppers. Would solved the storage problem, but the toppers seem pretty expensive.

Keith – There are a lot of front auger mounts for rangers that bolt into the front bumper. That would leave room below for your storage rack. Wouldn’t need to have them incorporated together. Minn-Dakokta Industries is one company you could look at to get an idea. I had a buddy of mine make one similar to what they used and attach my digger carrier to it. Was relatively easy.

Will come down to hard you guys are wanting to fish. Almost no way of having 5 guys jigging in one, but if most are just sitting around playing cards and drinking then 5 will be fine. Will be tight, but manageable for 1 night. Just bring a cot or have someone sleep on the floor.

All of his videos are awesome. Been a big fan for a long time, just wish he’s put out more videos! The split screens with the camera and now with the panoptix he does are just so well done.

I’ve bot Pflueger Supreme 25x on both of mine. I’d recommend making sure you pair it with better reel than you typically use ice fishing given you are targeting bigger fish with the commander.