2018 Innovations/Ideas

[Downthehole]

Has anyone had any lessons learned/tried new things, got additional needed gear so as a result of being out on the ice. They don’t necessarily need to be inventions, just things to make the ice fishing experience easier. I have a few:

Rubber Mat - getting s small rubber door mat helped keep my feet off the ice and keep them warmer.

Battery Charger - I fished 5 days straight earlier and found that my bait bucket air pump used a few D size batteries. At $4.00 a set the cost of batteries can start to add up so, I got a battery charger and rechargeable batteries. This should will cut the cost of keeping the air pump running.

Air Pump Insulation - The bait bucket I have (Frabill) had pipe runn8ng from the air pump into the bucket. There is a section of pipe exposed which would freeze from time to time. To try and stop this Inhave some polystyrene around it to insulate and prevent freezing. I’ll be testing this later this week.

Does anyone else have anything they have done differently this year?

Andy

[holehopper]

I keep my spare drill motor battery,hand held depth finder,and extra propane canister,in a soft sided insulated lunch cooler,seems to help....

[snowcone]

oh I got one   how about a magnet on a string in case something goes down the hole .
and I pull an old sock up on my propane bottle on my buddy heater make it easy to handel when changing
i have sprayed the zipper on my pop up with pam so it freezes less
the back of my sled has rod holders so they arent in a bucket  easy traveling

[Fish flasher]

Hello, I did a upgrade two seasons ago on my big buddy heater. It just died on my last trip out so I'll now charge it. The upgrade was four 18650 lithium batteries. It runs at 7.4v and it is 4amp hrs. The heater is 6v but this has not hurt the heater and it runs a little faster. You can get the 18650 battery holder on line. I got two and half seasons out of it before my first charge.

[Downthehole]

Hello, I did a upgrade two seasons ago on my big buddy heater. It just died on my last trip out so I'll now charge it. The upgrade was four 18650 lithium batteries. It runs at 7.4v and it is 4amp hrs. The heater is 6v but this has not hurt the heater and it runs a little faster. You can get the 18650 battery holder on line. I got two and half seasons out of it before my first charge.

I ran a Big Buddy fan for a while on standard batteries....it ate them! I use it to heat our back porch so I have the plugged in to the mains. Great tip!