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- Ice Fishing Gear List (2021) | Complete Ice Fishing Setup
Ice Fishing Gear List (2021) | Complete Ice Fishing Setup
It’s not too expensive to get into ice fishing, but it can require quite a bit of gear. Jimmy Glaeser explains all the gear in his ice fishing setup and how he uses each item. He gives ice fishing tips along the way like: how to pick a spot to drill a hole, what auger to start with, what tip-ups he uses, his go to jigs, what he looks for in an ice fishing shelter, how to transport all your gear onto the ice, and the tool he uses to get the fish off the hook when it’s freezing cold.
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Gear Mentioned:
Strikemaster 40v Auger - Gas Auger 
HT Enterprises Explorer Magnum Tip-Up Model EXT-500 
Eskimo Hand Auger
Jig - Northland Fishing Tackle Buck
Jig - Rapala Jigging Rap Fishing Lure
Transcription:
Brad: Well below freezing outside snow's on the ground and ice is forming on the lakes must be ice fishing time honestly I wouldn't know the first thing about that because it's 52 degrees here in Kentucky in December and I have never ice fished a day in my life I am literally sweating right now but that's not stopping me from chatting about ice fishing on Gearbox Talk today we're kicking off an effort to bring the expertise of the go out community into this show we're interviewing long-time GoWild member Jimmy Glaeser about ice fishing Jimmy lives in none other than Wisconsin where the ice runs as deep as the passion for ice fishing so i'm glad to get this guy on to talk about it Jimmy's not a self-proclaimed pro he's just a long time enthusiast he loves this which is why I thought he was perfect to give us an overview of how to get started ice fishing sometimes pros kind of forget what it's like to not know anything Jimmy's going to give us an overview into the gear that's necessary the gear that's not how to pick the right auger he has some great insights into the gear itself tip ups and all that good stuff now if that sounds good let's go and give this video a like let's text it to a friend who's also trying to get into frozen fishing this season go on i'll wait alright the waiting's over this is Gearbox Talk with Jimmy Glaeser
welcome on to Gearbox Talk
Jimmy: How's it going
Brad: Good man every year when when it hits ice fishing time I see you out there and it looks super fun and i'm a newbie so i'm excited to get your take on this and we're going to dive right into some questions you ready
Jimmy: Yes sir
Brad: alright dude I'm very interested to hear this okay you hit a lake first time ice fishing how do you pick a spot to drill
Jimmy: Well it's you kind of go off if it seems to me if I go somewhere new i'll either kind of check out where people are going or onyx and some of these other apps have nautical charts and you can see the structure of the lake and you just kind of go off of the depths you know you pick a depth really you can't you could call like the local bait shop they're always really helpful on you know where what depth are people catching them off of otherwise they are you kind of go off the same as you would regular fishing you know they like structure they like points drop-offs things like that so you kind of pick a depth you want to try and walk out there and
Brad: get at it alright so that's the next question is drilling a hole okay so and there's a couple options here for your beginner level what what's your drill of choice to to get started
Jimmy: So what I started on was and I just got this auger a couple years ago just a six inch eskimo handheld it's I always thought handheld i've never used one before and I thought that's gonna be pretty tough well it's it's amazing how easy these little things are to drill a hole and that's when your kind of targeting smaller fish crappies some you know panfish stuff like that I also have a eight inch strike master gas powered auger it's an older it's pretty old I got it from my buddy but that's one I use when i'm targeting bigger fish walleye northern you know some trout on lake superior
Brad: Awesome and you know another another thing that I know a lot of people are searching for when it comes to ice fishing is what are tip ups and why should you use them and then what tip ups to buy so what's your approach there
Jimmy: This is the tip-ups I use they are HD I can't even remember what that stands for to be honest but this is tip up essentially your flag this drops into the hole and I use treble hooks on the bottom of mine I know of course I need to cut my pants a lot of some states don't allow treble hooks so before you just go do that make sure you know the regulations but yeah you kind of set this with a little depth finder which is a little weight bring it down usually off the bottom but sometimes you know they're suspended and yeah fish pulling the flake pops up and
Brad: You can put your beer down and go go check out the ice another
Jimmy: Race is on you place your buddies down to get to it
Brad: So we could talk a little bit about what species you're chasing too but you know with with that species what are the fish eating during fishing season and how are you replicating that with your tackle selection
Jimmy: So a lot of times early season I use basically exactly what I do just like jigging during the summer up here for like walleyes we use a lot of like sucker minnows crappie minnows shiners shiners are a big one out on lake superior and then sometimes if they're real finicky I only use the head of the middle which I just started doing that last year someone was like I was like I can't get the hook set like just use the head it kind of gives them just a little less to focus on and then otherwise for tackle I mean there's so many jigs out there I don't know if you can see these but teardrops and gumdrops and all sorts of small jigs they're I call them crappie jigs but this is what I use or wax and with waxies if you start getting into the bigger fish like the trout and the walleyes you can use some of these jigging spoons I think they're from these ones are from northland fish and tackle
um or also jigging rapalas have become pretty pretty popular with a lot of people lately so the thing with jigging Rapala is if you have multiple holes in your you know set up they spin when you you know jig them so they can swoop your line if you have a lot of lines going we learned that the hard way and it was a mess
Brad: How do you prevent that just spread them out further
Jimmy: Yeah yeah I would just have one hole
Brad: Don't just don't be ambitious right I like that alright man this is always interesting to me because I see you know i'm in Kentucky we're not doing a lot of ice fishing in fact in like 10 years of living where I do now in Kentucky which is more of the northern point I can only remember one time where it's been cold enough to see people out ice skating okay so i'm not in the region for this but i'm curious for you you know with you know taking out the shelter you know i'd like to hear you know what are the key components to a good shelter and then for a beginner like is that necessary
Jimmy: Sure so I i just got my own shelter last year I kind of got some money for christmas and I went right to you know the store and I bought I think it was only like 150 bucks but the one I got is tall i'm six foot two i've been at some shelters that are like five foot five so it's like really tough to stand in there and so the ones the one I have is six feet tall then the bottom kind of flares out a little bit which doesn't seem like a lot but when you're drinking drilling holes in the corners it's nice to have that added foot space so so yeah that's what I looked for looked for was basically height for me and then if you want to one person a two person a six person I think there's eight person ones out there
Brad: And I know a lot of people are looking you know that that beginner level person they're asking the questions like is it necessary and I know it's freaking cold up there but like in general is this like a gotta have thing or maybe you tried a couple times without
Jimmy: We definitely go without them yeah just because it is when you start packing all the gears it can get heavy and tough but on the nice days yeah we just we don't bring anything I mean i've seen people just bring a piece of plywood in a bucket just to block the wind a little bit so it's not is it necessary no but it is nice to have when it gets really cold especially if you get out there you know right that first light and or right before dark when the temperatures really start to drop
Brad: Yeah that makes sense it's a lot of gear you know it's a lot I mean how are you transporting all of this to get it out onto the ice you know I feel like this is another meme waiting to happen right people think of the trucks falling through the ice how have you found the best way to get your gear out onto the ice
Jimmy: So I got an otter sled one of those big black it's not even the big one it's I think it's only probably four feet wide not even three feet maybe and yeah I just put a rope on that with a handle load everything into that otter sled and just pull it out there works really well I used to just have like a five gallon bucket and it's i've had some disasters with that it's they've stuff falling out you lean over and it all dumps out and those are relatively cheap too I think the one I got was like 50 bucks or 75 bucks
Brad: Yeah it's interesting this is less expensive than I thought it was going to be to get into like everything you're even the shelter especially I think is the cheap like a lot cheaper and more affordable than what I would have thought to get into it I mean sounds like all in all you can get into this for a few hundred bucks you can try out ice fishing and and see if you like it you're not making a multi thousand dollar commitment here
Jimmy: Absolutely yeah I think tip ups are 20 25 bucks I think I only have four of them poles you know these are basically walmart specials I picked up for you know 20 25 bucks so yeah a few hundred bucks you can basically have everything you need
Brad: alright final question I like to ask people from time to time on Gearbox Talk is out of all this stuff what's your favorite piece of ice fishing gear
Jimmy: Oh man probably well now that I have a gas auger that really comes in handy there's a few things I love tip ups there's nothing better to look down like you see the flag you yell flag and just start running so yeah these hd enterprises ones and yeah I love the tip ups chasing flags awesome man but yeah another just piece of gear is pliers when your hands are cold it's good to have a good set of pliers I got these ones these deco ones I never realized how bad I needed them until I started using them and how quick it saves on trying to get a hook out when your hands are freezing cold
Brad: That's a good tip I see I didn't even think to ask that because I kind of I don't know i'm not used to fishing in that cold of right temperature range so good tips man dude thank you so much for coming on here I really think that this this high level advice is going to help somebody get out for the first time this year appreciate it Jimmy
Jimmy: Absolutely thanks Brad
Brad: Thank you Jimmy Glaeser remember all the gear that Jimmy mentioned is in the show notes if you buy any of that we make money if we make money we donate a portion of that money to raise em outdoors it's a camp that teaches kids to fish hunt hike camp do all this stuff it brings the parents into the fold and it creates lifelong outdoor enthusiasts out of that so if you're gonna buy the gear anyways buy it through the links we'll be back soon with another episode on ice fishing so go ahead and subscribe to the show so you don't miss out also this is our last episode of the year it's been an awesome start to this show thank you for a wonderful kickoff this has been a crazy year it goes without saying and we've seen despite all that we've seen great growth in this I think it has a lot to do with people getting into the outdoors finding new hobbies in this year when you had to get outside so I thank each of you for your enthusiasm for the content for sharing it with friends if you have suggestions drop those in the comments we read all of your comments we take those suggestions to heart except for that anonymous guy who told me to shove it you sir can go alright that's it happy new year i'm out