Ice Fishing: Basic Equipment Equals Fish and Fun

Photo courtesy DWR

Catching fish through the ice doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment. A short fishing rod and reel, a package of worms and a few hooks are about all you need.

In fact, if you just want to give ice fishing a try, you don’t even need an ice auger.

Drew Cushing, warm water sport fisheries coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, says you’ll usually find plenty of predrilled holes on the ice fishing waters you visit. “If anglers drilled the holes just a day or two before,” he says, “they’ll have only an inch or two of ice in them. Just break that thin ice and you’re in business.”

If you want to drill your own holes, though, you’ll need an ice auger or a digging bar. A way to create a hole—and the most basic fishing equipment you can imagine—are all you need to catch lots of fish and have lots of fun.

Simple and affordable
In addition to warm clothes and waterproof boots, Cushing says the following gear is all you need to catch fish through the ice in the winter:

A short fishing rod and a small reel.
Fishing line.
A package of wax worms or meal worms, and some small hooks.

“Don’t use nightcrawlers,” Cushing says. “In the winter, use wax worms or meal worms. You can catch any species of fish through the ice using these worms. They’re the best baits to use in the winter.”

Cushing says wax worms and meal worms are easy to keep alive in the winter, and they’ll last longer on your hook.

If you like to fish with lures, buy some small ice flies or small jigs. Cushing says these flies and jigs come in a variety of colors.

“Make sure you buy a variety of colors,” Cushing says. “That way, you’ll have the color the fish want on any given day.”

A digging bar or an ice auger. A manual ice auger (one you turn by hand) costs about $50. You can pick up a digging bar for as little as $5 to $10.

Cushing says some anglers use gas-powered augers. But he says a gas-powered auger usually isn’t needed.

“If you have a hand auger,” he says, “you can drill through six to eight inches of ice in about a minute. Unless you’re trying to drill through two feet of ice, a gas-powered auger usually isn’t needed.”

Because fish bite softly in the winter, you may also want to buy attachments that will help you detect the subtle bites of the fish. Spring bobbers, tip-ups and various floats are among the items that will help you know you have a fish on the end of your line.

Videos and audio interview
More ice fishing basics are available in two videos produced by the DWR and in the first part of an audio interview Cushing recently did.

You can see the videos at www.youtube.com/UDWR . The audio interview is available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/multimedia/podcasts.html .