Keep a can of real magic, or reel spray by your rods and lubricate your reels before you leave…They will treat you right for the day, and it will prolong their life.
I like to put a trickle charger on my smaller batteries that I use for ice fishing every few months to keep them topped off. Starting a few weeks ago, I’m also doing the same on my main boat battery. It isn’t a problem during the boating season but once they are sitting for a few months, it is a good idea to put a charge on them every few months. I had not had a problem before with my main battery until a few weeks ago but found out on the lake as I was launching, that I should have charged it the day before[unsure].
A few tips I have learned:
If you slip on the ice, don’t try to catch yourself at all costs. A bruised butt heals much faster than a tib/fib fracture.
No matter how tempted, don’t try to catch an ice auger blade if the pin falls out. Sharp blades need a cover.
If the fish aren’t biting, go back to the basics of what you learned as a kid.
Time spent with your family out fishing is beyond priceless.
One of my fishing friends showed me a thing called the (Parasite) It’s a funny little thing that holds your weedless worms and grubs and salt sticks up on the hook so they don’t slide down…
I am looking for a picture to show you, a picture is worth a 1000 words and in my case alot of time…
[reply]
heres one for smelly jelly. i put a small amount it in a ziplock baggie. and leave bottle in frigde. last longer and its easy to drop lure in without touch the lure. none on my fingers.[;)] [/reply]
My tip is to use Banana Smelly Jelly. It actually does catch fish, smells awesome and whaever you get on your fingers makes a great lip balm.
This is a great thread. Alot of these tips seem to be about advance trip prep, with the intent of speeding things up. I’m down for that.
It’s easy to get obsessive and re-check things. Particularly since any trip is dozens of details, and I have a tendency to forget that I’ve already checked on something. So I did the following:
Compose a bullet point, BOAT pre-departure, staging ramp, and take-out checklist. One page, then LAMINATE it. Keep it in the truck. Review each bullet point once, do it, and move on (am I telling you or me that???). It’ll ease your stress at a busy ramp, and nonetheless, even I can remember if I’ve gone thru the checklist…
BTW, love the smelly jelly in the baggie tip…
Excellent post Old Coot!
It is always reassuring to me when I find out that I’m not the only person out there that does all this stuff! I’ve been called obsessive compulsive (OCD) about my little fishing rituals that I go through and do, and more and more I realize that if you aren’t doing some of this stuff, you just are not that serious of a fisherman!
Seems Ralph and I each learned a tip from each other on our Strawberry trip last week…I’ll be applying the sunscreen in front of the mirror from now on before I leave! Case in point: While out on the boat last week, we were in a pretty hot honey hole. About that same time, I realized that I was gonna get a pretty bad sunburn. It is difficult to apply sunscreen and watch your pole at the same time, especially when the fish are in a frenzy like they were. I’m sure I lost a fish or two while applying my sunscreen that day!
I like all the ideas posted so far, and already do most of them! Another one in particular is the “getting ready the night before” post of TubeDudes I think. I prep the boat, the truck, and all my gear the night before while I’m thinking straight. I then lay out all my cloths (stacked in the order to put them on!), and place items that I don’t want to forget in a pile with my car keys UNDER the pile! I figure I can’t leave if I can’t find my keys, and many times finding the keys under that pile of junk has been a really good reminder to BRING that junk! Like many others, at 4:00 a.m. I am not the brightest star and I can barely get dressed let alone be sharp enough to remember everything that I need. My cousin in NOTORIOUS for forgetting things, and not only does it ruin his trip, it ruins mine also.
Keep the ideas coming, this is a good post!
Randy
Your comment about the keys reminded me of something I do that I KNOW others do not do. That is to always carry a spare vehicle (or boat) key. I always have one in my wallet, but I usually leave it behind when I go float tubing. However, I also have another…on a foam floatation key holder…in my vest or chest pack. It has saved my bacon on more than one occasion when I accidentally shut the locked door before I should have.
**Extra keys are cheap. Having to break a window to get into your vehicle ain’t. Neither is having to call someone on your cell phone to bring you another key…and having not only to pay for their trip but to put up with their abuse too. The worst is having to call a tow or locksmith service. **
ALWAYS ANCHOR your rod holder when ice fishing!!!
If you don’t SCUBA dive have a good friend who does…
Allright. Let’s talk ice fishing.
The only guy who has more warm weather pre-rigged poles than me is probably Tube Dude. But that may not be the case with ice rods.
It seems that break offs, or tangles occur when the bite is on. Not the time to be trying to find tiny ice jigs and re-tie knots. Also pre-rigging them when your hands are warm is a lot easier. So I carry a lot of pre-rigged ice rods with me. Only problem is that they can get messed up with each other in the bucket.
I have a friend who has a rolled up canvas “tackle box” with seperate pockets to hold small bait boxes and velcro tags to hold the ice rods, that seems to solve the tangled-lines problem. He unrolls it on the ice, and the cloth provides an nice dry mat from which to extract necessary gear.
I’m going to try to copy that and ask my wife to sew me one for Christmas. I’ve not seen anything commercially like this. Anyone else?
[reply]
I then lay out all my cloths (stacked in the order to put them on!), and place items that I don’t want to forget in a pile with my car keys UNDER the pile!
[/reply]
Hah! I do this too! My wife always looks at my pile and says.. “That’s a mess” I say.. "It’s organized, that’s why the socks are on the top of the pile. "
I do this so that if somehow, (while I wasn’t sleeping because I am worrying about not waking up on time because all of the 3 alarms I have set “Might” not go off!..) I sleep in, I can be dressed in less than 2 minutes. Socks, pants, shirt, hat, shoes, keys.. I’m out the door! It’s like a firefigher drill!
Something that has saved me fishing time and frustration many times is:
When threading your line through the guides on the rod don’t use the tip of the line but rather double about 4 feet over and then thread the looped end through the guides. If (for me it is often when) you drop the line the loop prevents the line from dropping all the way out of the guides and you can just start where you dropped the line instead of over again. This works especially well with fly line and similar heavy lines that will more easily drop all the way out of the guides. It was years before I learned this trick but I always use it now.
Tip: I also feel the need for several rigged poles. So I took a 5 gallon bucket and 1" in diameter PVC pipe and cut 8 4" lengths. I then mounted 4 with a bolt through the PVC pipe on the inside bottom of the bucket. I then altered the next 4 at the top of the bucket so I could hold 4 rods with reels rigged at the bottom of the bucket, and 4 rods with reels rigged at the top of the bucket. This made it so they were off setting each other. They ride along excellant in the sled.
Trick: When jigging small jigs or micro jigs I always pull the knot to the inside of the eyelet causing the jig to hang more horizontal.
PIKEMAN GO FISH!!!
Take a kid and his dad and teach them how to fish. This beats anything else.
Anyone want to post their list for pre-trip check off? I know everyone’s list is different but I am curious to see what you think is important.
When you get home spray your auger blades with some WD-40 or similar oil. Rusted blades don’t drill very well. A tip I leared from utwalleye – Make your own spring bobbers out of guitar strings (I purchase the heaviest ones that I can find). Form a loop in the end and tie it with rod thread. Tie the other straight end onto your rod with rod thread. Put on at least two coats of rod sealant. Best (and least expensive) spring bobbers I have ever used).