Reading this gives me a good laugh. Two poles is nothing to deal with compared to 5 poles. I fish 5 poles almost every time I go ice fishing. There are only a few places that it isn’t legal where I fish. When the fishing is fast it is impossible to keep 5 poles in the water[crazy] but when fishing is slow it gives me a good opportunity to try different depths, jigs and baits 
. If you are good at fishing multiple poles you will get many more bites and also learn quicker and more about what the fish want that day. I will challenge anyone to come and fish next to me with only one pole while I fish 5 poles. I will out fish the guy with only one pole every time. The biggest trick is to keep all poles in line of site at the same time. I will run a strait line of 5 poles and jig one of the poles on either end so I can watch for bites on the other four. When the poles are all in a strait line you just have to focus on a couple foot window for the site of a bite. When a school comes through it can be a real mess[crazy] but it is also a lot of fun. Earlier this winter I put a fish on the ice from each of my 5 poles in less than 2 minutes 
. The only time I have lost a pole while ice fishing was about 8 years ago. However, I have seen many guys I’m fishing with have a pole dragged down a hole[sly]. If you secure your pole correctly a fish won’t be able to take it down the hole. When there is no snow and the ice is slick it is I high risk situation to loose a fishing pole.
“If you secure your pole correctly a fish won’t be able to take it down the hole.”
Brian, I’ll bite, how do “you secure your pole correctly”?
There are a number of ways I’ve used to secure my fishing poles. I don’t think it really matters how you secure your pole as long as when you tug on the line the pole won’t move before the drag starts to work. I will sometimes build a snow/slush wall between the hole and the fishing pole. Lately I’ve been putting my fishing poles in rod holders. As long as I have weight at the base of the rod holder(red circle in picture) the fish will not take the pole down the hole.
Another great trick is to place your auger, a rod case or some other pole across your hole (purple line in picture). Even if a fish takes your pole to the hole your reel will catch on the rod layed across the hole. The blue line represents your fishing line in the picture and the orange circle is were your line enters the water. As long as your line goes over the rod laying across the pole there is no way the fish will take that fishing pole down the hole.