“If you go out with me one time, you will be totally addicted to it.” That’s what I tell people and they just shake their head.

Ice fishing has been so stereotyped in people’s minds. The misconceptions come mainly from the movie Grumpy Old Men I think, when Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau set out on an ice fishing adventure back in 1993. But ice fishing is just like fishing from a boat in the summer in the fact that…it is what you make it. You can sit in a fancy hut with a TV, fancy chair, a cup of hot coffee, and a heater, or you can be a runner and gunner, which is my approach most of the time.

I grew up in Northwestern Pennsylvania and my Dad and Uncle used to take me and my cousins on the ice all the time. While the older guys fished, we kids would spend most of our time skating around on the ice and having snowball fights. As I got older and skating mistakes became more painful, I began to share the excitement that my Dad and Uncle possessed for ice fishing. By the time I turned fourteen, I’d stay out there all day long and then fish all night until the next morning. I can honestly say that my passion for ice fishing has not wavered in the least to this day.

Ice fishing is fun, very good exercise, and perfect for kids who need action and want to catch a bunch of fish. You can go to almost any lake that has panfish, find a weedbed and catch hundreds of small bluegills, which my kids cannot get enough of. Besides all of this, the sun rise from the ice on Presque Isle Bay in January is breathtaking.

Nowadays, I typically drill fifty holes in a day, sometime less, sometimes more. Not all, but most of my equipment is probably considered “old school” to many. I have an electric auger, but usually take my old hand auger instead because it provides a little winter time exercise. Most days, depending on where I plan to fish, I will walk well over a mile throughout the day, exploring the lakes structure with my Vexilar (depth finder) and checking old reliable spots from years gone by.

My rods are 32 inches long (custom made by Setyr Rods) and all have a moderate action, just like my bass rods. I carry six of them with me all rigged with different baits and colors, again similar to bass fishing. With my wife’s sewing thread, I wrap a strike indicator, or spring bobber on the end of each rod, which helps tremendously in detecting light bites. My reels are the old plastic spool type reels which I secure to the cork on my rods with electrical tape. These reels are the most dependable in bitter coldg temperatures because they never freeze up on me. They have no drag either, instead requiring a little thumb training for fighting a big running fish on 1 pound test line.

One thing I can say I keep up to date on is my baits. I use a lot of jigs, similar to my bass fishing again. I have a friend, who I call Jimmy the Jig Man, who makes most of the ones I use. Although you can catch plenty of fish on a store bought jig, and there are some pretty good ones out there, I personally like having special colors that do not exist on the shelf. I also like having a good quality hook in all my jigs, which Jimmy can make happen. I have a relatively small ice fishing box that includes all my jigs in various shapes and sizes, some Jiggin Rappalas which are unbeatable at times, a couple small jigging spoons, some small tubes, a few plain hooks, a pack of split shots, and of course lots of Berkley gulp panfish stuff.

My Hut is also important and I try to stay with the current models. I use a Frabill Predator Series, which is perfect for my style, which is always on the move. But when I do want to settle down in an area, it has a lot of space for two guys to fish comfortably. I usually set the hut up in the general area I plan to fish and look at it like a home base if I should get cold or something. This particular hut, in Steeler colors,  is also super fast to put up and down and can be used as a wind breaker as well. It’s versatile which is why I like it.

There have been a few brave souls over the years who have reluctantly taken me up on an ice fishing venture. Those who doubted the fact that ice fishing could ever become so much as an insignificant hobby in their life, are now avid ice fisherman in most cases and have spent thousands of dollars on their new favorite sport. It’s funny, now I call some of them on occasion for ice reports because they are out there more often than me.

There are still numerous naysayers who maintain their position that ice fishing will be boring, cold, dangerous, and whatever, but they too someday will be in my way one day on the lake, I promise. Once you experience a good day on the ice, I have bad news for you doubters….can you say addicted?