Ice Fishing Shelters – Ice Anchors

By Nick Simonson The noise in the pines behind me grew until it sounded like a rushing spring waterfall on the North Shore.  I had been on the ice just long enough to set up my hub-style ice fishing shelter, drop my Vexilar transducer and land my first fish of the new year when the [...]

Trickle Down Techonomics

Our Outdoors – By Nick Simonson A post on the ice fishing forum of a website that I help moderate asked: “I paid $300 for an old sled shack and a Vexilar, did I get a good deal?” My response was as it usually is for these kinds of questions, “You’ll wonder how you ever [...]

Hottest Ice Fishing Gear of 2010

By Nick Simonson The ice on most northern lakes is now thick enough for anglers to safely haul out their toys thanks to a cold stretch at the beginning of the month. Though nighttime temperatures have been below zero, new innovations and advancements in tackle, gear and shelters are helping anglers heat up the early-ice [...]

Small Ice Fishing Jigs

By Nick Simonson It’s the evening of the first day when the temperature has stayed well below freezing and I’m sitting in the not-quite-bright-enough light of the living room, squinting as hard as I can in an effort to thread a wisp of one-pound test through the eye of a 1/64 ounce Genz worm in [...]

MarCum – More Power, More Performance

Through years of studying, fishing, and testing by engineers rooted in the heart of the ice-belt, a new leader emerges on the forefront of the ice fishing electronics market.  The result is the MarCum line of high-power sonar flashers that were designed from the ground-up, relying on modern principles of sonar and science. MarCum’s approach [...]

Ice Fishing with Plastics

By the Ice Team   Many ice anglers of today understand that winter’s fish live in water at its clearest. In such conditions, fish tend to locate and choose prey based on visual evidence. That might sound like mumbo-jumbo, but it means that what your bait looks like is more important under the ice than [...]

The Hottest Ice Fishing Supplies of 2006

Our Outdoors Nick Simonson (Part -1 & 2) Though the weather has been more like March, the holiday season is upon us. If you haven’t figured out what to buy your favorite ice angler for Christmas, it’s not too late. Each year brings more advancement in ice fishing gear and gadgets and there’s still plenty of [...]

The Ice Fishing Sonar Revolution

Our Outdoors Nick Simonson Is there anything as comforting on the ice as the whir and glow of a sonar unit? Inside the cover of a permanent shack, or jumping from hole to hole, flasher-style depth finders have been a boon to anglers for over 15 years. New developments in sonar technologies and recent offerings [...]

Fishing with Spring Bobbers

Our Outdoors Nick Simonson     I  cannot recall how many times I have watched fish rise up on the Vexilar as I work my lure in the water column only to have the fish pause at my offering then head back to the bottom. Be it a small jig with a wax worm or [...]

Ice Fishing for Panfish – The Right Ice Rods

By Jason Mitchell More ice anglers are discovering that the tip of the rod we are using has as much influence on our presentation as the actual motion we put on the rod while fishing. A rod with a fast tip for example will give the lure a distinct flash and pound that is more [...]