1) Ditched the Clam Plate and switched to a Kovac Ice Master.

2) Picked up a 10” bit for my gas auger which had me using my gas auger more than I did a year ago. Bigger hole eliminates the need to drill an extra transducer hole.

Sylvanboat wrote:

On a related subject: how much area are you entitled to for your tip-ups? We were fishing in Shawano earlier this week and a guy with his wife and two small kids easily took up 100ft X 100ft with their tip-ups.

6000+ acres on that lake and you are wondering if they took up too much space? The problem with that lake is that almost everyone tries to pile on top of each other in the communities. Then they get irked if someone is taking up too much area. Many, many acres on that thing that get very little attention but are exceptional….even better than where you see the hordes of people and shacks parked.

I had a guy creep in on me a bunch of years ago…not on Shawano…a different lake. I was the only other person on that lake. I kept getting flags, he kept moving closer. Up until he drilled a hole five feet (no exaggeration) from one of my tip ups. I walk over, pull mine out and sarcastically say: “If you’re going to be that close just use my hole.” He thought I was serious and in a blink of an eye his tip up goes in that hole. Instead of making a scene I moved mine to his freshly drilled hole. Mine kept going up, his never moved once. I was very careful about concealing the type of presentation I was using so he couldn’t see what it was. After about an hour he picked up and left. It was highly irritating but getting the last laugh like that was great.

Bearcat89 wrote:

The safety issue is different. A dim home light could work for that.
Completely different then rigging 20 million candle light led strips to the out side and lighting up a entire city block on the ice to show you have little d syndrome

In the anecdote I shared above the safety issue was in a boat and my standard navigational lights were on. The ones I have on my boat were brighter than a dim home light. The guy still almost rammed me. I’ve had other close calls as well. Enough was enough. If my boat is anchored I have something extra on. Safety far, far outweighs inconveniencing someone who is annoyed by it.

I have a much bigger issue with people who run docking lights as headlights when their boats are under power. For starters…it’s illegal. You are only to have the standard red/green bow light and the stern light lit when the boat is under power, yet you encounter scores of pontoon boats with docking lights running when they are wide open.

Running them constantly on the outside of a shack would be a bit much…and as stated above, when you have an insane amount of LED lights go off when someone breaks into it people will notice and the hooligans who broke in are going to get the hell out of there as fast as they can. For that purpose they are an incredibly inexpensive theft/vandalism deterrent.

This thread took a turn.

I have a ton of LEDs on my boat and I also put them on a permanent shack….but they are there for a reason.

A few years ago I almost got rammed at 2am when I was anchored up tight against a rice bed. I was pulling 24 hour muskie fishing session and needed to take a nap. Navigational lights were on and a jerk wad came through wide open and missed me by about 5 feet. For that it was a safety issue and I don’t have them going at all times…but having them on there is great when navigating narrow channels and turning them to purple is a game changer when fishing.

For the shack it was to deter people from breaking into the thing. Tons of LED lights on it wired into a motion switch located inside the door. It’s armed or disarmed by a switch located on the outside of the shack so you can arm it when you leave or disarm it before you go inside. If that motion switch is flipped whoever is there is in for a rude awakening because it draws attention. It’s happened once and the guys who broke in got the heck out of there in a hurry.

Anything mechanical is going to break at some point in time. With these the biggest reason why they break is that people are not using them properly. “Hey, I have to pull start this thing so I’m going to yank it like you have to yank a 25hp lawn mower engine.” Nope…it has gearing in it so you don’t have to use as much effort as you would on other pull start engines. So they yank their tail off and they break. There are other reasons they fail but the biggest culprit is user error. Avoid that and they’ll last.

I have that same Ryobi brushless drill. Drilled a crap ton of holes last year and it was fine using a 6” mora, 8” mora, and 7” Lazer. The drill had power to spare. With an 8” Silvertip bit (angled blades like a Lazer) make dang sure you have good blades on it. Angled blades like that are more aggressive and require more out of the drill than a shaver mora type blade does.

….and yeah….at minimum use a 4ah Lithium plus HP battery. Even with the other Ryobi tools I have there is a noticeable performance difference between the HP battery and a standard Lithium Ion battery of the same size. You want the HP battery.

I’ve fished that lake before. Many years ago but I’ve been on it. Some other pretty neat little lakes in that area. From what I remember this one can be a bit cyclical where you’ll have real strong years followed by a few that are not so great and then it’ll rebound and start over. When lakes like these are “off” you go somewhere else and leave it alone….but when they are on you focus on them and if it doesn’t get much pressure you keep your trap shut. These are at risk of being overharvested because of their size….anyway….

Here’s a mapping tip/trick that works quite well. Take the map you have and color each depth ring in with a different color highlighter marker. Once you are finished flip the map upside down so south is up and north is down…or rotate it 90 degrees either way. Basically look at it in a way you’ve never looked at it before. Put a mark on the first 3 or 4 spots that jump out at you on the highlighted, upside down map and fish there. This mapping study approach has accounted for a pretty high success rate for me on muskie lakes I’ve never been on before. You see things you didn’t see before and quite often you pick up on areas that get overlooked because they are not obvious when you look at a map with north pointing up.

I’m a mail carrier so I had to do a bunch of experimenting before finding a combination that didn’t limit dexterity and keep my fingers warm.

I use nitrile gloves as my first layer and then put on different types of gloves with the fingers dipped in rubber or something like it. If it’s bitterly cold I’ll add fingerless wool gloves as well.

The nitrile gloves underneath are cold at first but since you are constantly moving your hands they’ll warm up on their own. If I leave my hands sit motionless they will get cold fairly quick. The key is to keep moving your hands to keep the blood flow going. I’ll use the same system when I’m fishing. When I’m walking out or drilling holes, cleaning holes, I have on a pair of ski gloves.

I use what is called a “Might D Light.” It’s foldable, rechargeable has built in hangers, and runs around $25. I have three of them and we use them for everything all year long. It avoids having the deal with wires and bringing out a dedicated power source plus when folded up it fits in a decent sized pocket.

Little joe true spin underneath a tipup. Work the tipups hard and keep moving them until you are locked into a school. Tighten the tipup spread and you’ll be able to see which direction the school is moving. I’ll then hole hop in front of the school waiting for it to arrive with some sort of jig and minnow combination. Usually doesn’t matter much once you are locked into their movements.

Build a kick sled. You push instead of pull. Eliminates being tethered to the thing if you go down and you might find that it’s easier on your body pushing than it is pulling.

Branden Doyle wrote:

Where u get the cord to do it. I’m disappointed that it’s brand new and the firmware is outdated. And now I got spend More cash to update.

The software update can be downloaded off of Marcum’s website for the rock bottom price of $0. It’s a free download. The USB cord can be found pretty cheap if you don’t already have one. I’d look around in your home before buying one. I had half a dozen of the cords that work with mine.

I run my LX7 on my boat and I strongly feel that it is a better open water unit than it is a hardwater unit…and I love it as a hardwater unit.

As stated above, make sure you have the latest software update. The gain curve is much better in that update than in other ones. It was a good unit before but with the update it is much, much better.

This is what I advise people to set it at when starting out…it sort of follows what Marcum suggests but in my opinion is more fool proof and will keep you in check until you get a better feel for this type of unit.

-Mode 1 for anything under 10ft
-Mode 2 for anything deeper
-Set ping rate at 1. This slows it down. Since you are stationary you don’t need to fiddle around with getting a quicker reading. It is already pretty quick in 1. If you put it on a boat where you will be moving you’d want it set higher. Leave it at one to keep consistency on the ice.
-Manual dynamic or manual. Stay out of auto dynamic. That has a ton of potential but it can jump around a bit.
-Start with everything at “0” in terms of sensitivity, target adjust, and IR.
-Adjust only one of those things at a time. Start with sensitivity to pick up bottom and bump it up until you see your jig. Use target adjust to fine tune. That is important…ONLY ADJUST ONE THING AT A TIME. You might be tempted to start hitting all sorts of buttons and that can throw you way off of these base settings so go with sensitivity first.
-To start I’d go with the 8 degree cone even in shallow water. Once you pick up your jig widen it out to 20 degrees. Find your jig first then proceed.

Other suggestions…
-You do not need to have your transducer below the ice. Let it ride high in the hole. I run mine so the bottom of the transducer is maybe half an inch below the water surface.
-Set your background on “night” so it is all black and you can bump the brightness down. This will prolong battery life.
-The 6 color palette is awesome. Use it.

Random thoughts…. There is a learning curve with them but if you can use a smartphone you can use one of these things. Once you get your preferred settings down they are simple to use. On my screen I run a vertical zoom, a vertical depth (like the showdown) and the entire water column in a graph. I never use the traditional flasher dial. The graph gives you a history you can refer back on. A round dial does not. Once you get the hang of it you’ll be able to pick up a single fart bubble from a minnow 85 feet down.

95% of the time I simply use a lithium jump starter. Much lighter and more compact than a bulky power box.

I had stuff laying around to build my own so I did but use it sparingly on the ice. It gets used for other stuff. It has the standard USB ports, a 12v outlet, lights, voltage meters, etc. Where it differs is that I got my hands on a marine radio with built in speakers. Slapped that in the thing, mounted a small antenna, and a 1″ RAM ball for my camera. If I added up the cost of all the components I have in the thing it would cost around $60 to build. If you have a very, very basic understanding of 12v wiring it makes no sense to overpay for one of these things. Just build your own.

Pulled pike through a 7″ hole that were up to 41 inches. A bit tighter than a guy would prefer but it fit.

I didn’t see the need for a heavy box dedicated just for power when I can carry along a Lithium Ion jump starting pack in my pocket for a fraction of the cost and a lot less weight than what these things are selling for….but I do like to tinker so I built something a bit different.

The “power box” I threw together has the standard stuff you see on the commercialized versions. USB outlets, a 12v outlet, lights, blah blah blah. Where it’s different is that I picked up a marine stereo with built in speakers off of Amazon and a small car antenna that folds down and built a radio box. I have less than $50 invested into the thing and oddly enough I rarely take it on the ice. The jump starting pack works just as well and isn’t as bulky. I will use my contraption in the woods cooking maple syrup or working in the garden. I suppose I could throw some lithium batteries in it to lighten it up but it still takes up space in my sled.

I use mine with the bottom of the transducer maybe an inch below the surface. I’ve never had any issues having it that high.

I was a vexilar guy for close to three decades. The miserable experience I had with an FLX28 changed that. Now I have an LX7 and couldn’t be happier. I run it on my boat and use it in the winter. The graph feature is invaluable because it provides a history of what was there. I can look up at tip ups and not miss something that came through like you do without it. The graph history gives a view of a jigging cadence that brought something in. You don’t have that with a standard dial flasher.

I would suggest seeing them in use on the ice in person. Reading stuff online can only tell you so much. I know a bunch of happy FLX28 owners. Good for them. The one I had was a turd that wouldn’t work from the start. Changing transducers, batteries, etc. never improved it. It wasn’t one that fell in the recall range. It was just an absolute lemon. Oh well…I’m hindsight I’m glad it worked out the way it did because I feel that the LX7 is a superior unit.

For jigging i don’t mess around. I want to have the upper hand….so I’m basically running the same type of setup as I have on my muskie rods. 100# powerpro, 100# flouro leaders, large rattle baits, fuzzy duzzits, bondys, etc. I view pike as a “water goat.” They’ll eat anything and do not hesitate to take something large. Those larger baits will keep smaller fish from biting unless they are super aggressive.

For years I used smelt as dead bait. Then when WI was hit with VHS and instituted special dead bait regs smelt prices shot up and a lot of bait shops stopped carrying them and the ones you could find were small. Paying 10 bucks for three small smelt sucked. I used to pay 10 bucks for an overflowing soda flat for big ones. That’s when I started getting my dead bait at Asian grocery stores and preserving my own. Mackerel is my mainstay and I believe they are better than smelt. Anything you can get whole will work…sand gobies, scads, octopus, etc.

If you have to go the online route I think Ardisam’s account on eBay is “moreoutdoor4usales” or something like that.

You could put together a complete auger for a very reasonable price through them. They have individual bits, powerheads, blades, etc. Just about anything in their catalog can be found there.

Dead bait on tip-ups. I use flagel rigs. Pike will take dead bait head first and due to the way that these rigs are designed the hook is at the head of the bait. Because of this there’s no waiting around. Flag goes up, you respond to it, you grab the line and pull until the fish pops out of the hole. No waiting for a 2nd run, no giving it line, no giving that fish a chance to do anything dumb. It’s just brute force against the fish. This type of rig sets the hook once you start pulling.

I work my dead bait hard. No leaving it sit for extended periods of time. Every 10 minutes or so I walk through and lift them up about 6 inches or more. I want to turn those “lookers” into eaters. Pike will stare a bait down for a long time. Doing the lift alters their perception and often causes a reaction strike which is either a “feeding” strike or a “I don’t want that tasty morsel to get away” reaction type of strike.

I will also jig for pike. If you get into a pile of them jigging for pike will be the most fun you could ever have with a jig pole. Jigging is now my preferred method for pike and I’ll run tip-ups for pan fish instead. Still do the dead bait thing a fair amount but having a camera pointed at a large rattle bait with pike swarming around it is as fun as it gets.

This is where having access to a university library pays off. You can dig up basic statistical data off of a website in regards to survey data but that’s just an appetizer. Get your hands on the written reports of those surveys which often include a deeper explanation of stocking programs and you find yourself with the meat and potatoes of a particular survey. Those write ups are an absolute goldmine of information.

Mostly alone. I will fish with others but it’s a very limited group of individuals I trust.

Stocking reports and surveys are a good place to start. You can sometimes line up stocking info with a later population survey. It could shed light on growth rates…but don’t just look at the species you are targeting. Pay attention to the forage base as well.

On my “home” lake I fish it hard after a so called freeze out. A lake won’t completely freeze out unless it freezes right tight to the bottom. My lake is a definite “sleeper” that people think freezes out. It doesn’t. It can’t. It’s spring fed. What happens is that during a harsh winter when people think it freezes out it actually knocks down the abundant forage base. The desirable species are fine but for a year or so the forage is depleted and the gamefish still have to eat. It’s easier to catch them when they aren’t stuffed already. It’s great because it “froze out” and people stay away. I have no problems perpetuating the idea that it was hit hard by winterkill.

Then when others think it has recovered it really hasn’t. It’s just going through a down (by my standards) part of its cycle. Having days where you can jig up a dozen or more pike in the 10-15 pound range with not a soul around is great. So maybe it’s not a sleeper lake as much as it is a lake that others are not fishing when it’s awake.

buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mudshark wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
I run a Frabill Commando as my 1 man rig. The entire thing probably weighs ~35lbs and has the built-in padded seat. At 0 degrees it stays plenty warm with just the Little Buddy heater that screws on 1# tanks. The best part about it is that there is no support bar or anything like others have referenced with some shacks. I run and gun with the entire thing from hole to hole. If I’m on fish or it is extremely cold, I flip it and fish. The entire process takes 4 seconds.

I looked at one of these before a bought my Shappell and my research came up with 71lbs…..I did like the true flip design though…..

Mine is probably 5+ years old and only has the padded seat, not the boat style. There’s no way it’s 50#. I could carry it on my back to my fishing spots. The biggest drawback is that if you were over about 6’1″ or love to use extremely long ice rods, you’d run into issues.

I’m guessing the figure you got is for a newer one with a boat style seat and probably a heavier canvass?

I’m really intrigued by yours. I have a Commando as well and it’s about 5 years old. It has the boat seat and does weigh around 70ish pounds with the seat. The canvas is not heavy at all. I removed the seat and made my own set up for seating. Still nowhere near 35 pounds. I haven’t weighed the boat seat on it’s own but even that along with the mounting brackets for it doesn’t come up to 35 pounds of weight that can be cut out of the thing if it all was removed. I’d say the seat on it’s own is 15ish pounds. If you’d include the brackets that it sits on those would run another 5 or so. Doing the quick math here…70 pounds minus the 20 for the entire seat assembly (seat and square tube mounting brackets) leaves you at 50 pounds.

Were there other differences between these things from year to year that would account for the 15 pound difference in yours and mine? I have a hard time believing that a heavier canvas on this shack will add an extra 15 pounds over one with lighter canvas. Is the sled different? The only additional thing on mine is a set of hyfax bolted onto the sled.

Anyway…it is a nice one person shack and the price was right. I got it for free from a relative who uses longer rods for brown trout. I can definitely see how that would be a pain but if you are using shorter rods it’s a nice piece of equipment. The biggest benefit of the way it is designed is the door that zips open and shut. Without that I’d probably give the thing away to someone else.

Sounds similar to what mine was doing. The way I fixed it? I’ll be that guy…I bought an LX7. I had nothing but headaches with it and was advised by the company to run a suppression cable on the thing. That was the final straw. A unit like that shouldn’t need a dang s-cable. There were other issues as well. I hope it works out for you…I really do. It worked out well for me by switching to a different set up.

I’ve used it for my hub. I won’t insulate the entire thing. I cut pieces off big enough for each wall and stuff it behind the supports. Then just pull it out when you take the thing down. I put my heater in the corner that the wind hits and insulate behind the heater and around the bottom. That alone is enough to make a big difference as it gives one more layer of a wind break. I put it in the roof once and that was it. The condensation would be channeled into a stream in one spot. I’ll take the occasional random drip over getting peed on by a steady stream any day.

Use manual dynamic instead. That’s the simple fix to this issue. I’ve found that the dynamic mode works pretty well in open water but for ice fishing it was as you described. No biggie…stick with manual dynamic.

My issue using dynamic while ice fishing was that the thing is so sensitive that when I’d be fishing suspended crappies or perch I’d have a school come through higher in the water column and it would read that tightly packed school as the bottom.

We had close to two weeks here in Wisconsin where the temp never got below freezing and mixed in there we had rain. On the first day below freezing I drove my truck on the lake I fished with no problems. Just have to watch where the in-flowing streams are and be aware of any springs. In mid winter a three day stretch of 40 degree weather isn’t going to kill the ice. Use common sense and don’t be a brain dead cowboy and you’ll be fine.