Getting ready for ice fishing season

[joatmon]

I've been thinking about it and slowly getting ready. I'm not planning any major purchases, but you never know. I have backup batteries for both of my flashers and occasionally have to switch to the backups on overnight trips.

I won a custom 36" rod in a different (non-BFT) contest last winter and bought a Okuma Ceymar C-30 to go on it. I put 15# braid and a 15# fluorocarbon leader on it. I need to re-spool some other reels and do general maintenance.

I've signed up for that other contest again for 2025. It is similar to the Ice Challenge, but uses total length of all species to get to total inches. It is called the Utah Ice Grand Slam (Game of Inches) and can be found on the FishDonkey App. Many of the species caught for that tournament cross over with the Ice Challenge.

The final thing I've been doing is making a preliminary plan of where to go and when. Some highlights include an overnight trip to Flaming Gorge in late December (and again in January and February), a different FishDonkey tournament at Scofield on January 4, and trying to time ice conditions at several lakes for target species. Should be on ice in the next 2-3 weeks somewhere!?

I've gone from Fish On! to fish on and on and on and on...