Steve Carney

I love having conversations with fellow fishing guides when the subject turns to tipping from clients. There is no doubt some anglers don’t understand the protocol of tipping and don’t understand that it’s part of the process. Others, however, are just plain cheap.

It began as a typical morning on the ice, with all fishing gear loaded and in order. Then, I arrived to my morning destination only to find my auger wasn’t cooperating. I struggled for a few minutes, eventually finding that a bolt had fallen off one of my auger blades, meaning I had only one, not two blades.

Most ice anglers these days are “flasher” people while on the ice. We’ve spent countless hours learning the good and bad of using flashers to mark fish, and we’ve become mostly comfortable with their use.
Lately, the new trend is the split screen combinations that feature a left-side traditional flasher and a right-side graph.

After two months of catching fish in shallow water through the ice in Minnesota, things have changed dramatically. Come February, it’s a deep-water bite. There are reasons for this.

I admit it I’ve been towing my portable ice shacks with ropes for about 40 years.
Therefore, there have been a number of “ghost rides” that my portables have been on as a result, so I figured it was time to upgrade to tow bars.

There is no way I would access a lake without my chartplotter. I remove the chartplotter from my boat in the autumn and install it on my ATV with a heavy-duty ball mount, plug in a 12 volt cord, and I’m good to go.
The chartplotter is an important safety item, especially when you’re heading onto a lake and, more importantly, when you’re returning back to the access. Here are some reasons why this item truly can be a lifesaver.