>>2847200
yeah I ice fish every year as much as I can, its the tits. It's really simple rly once you are confident you won't freeze to death.
non-directly fishing essentials: shelter (doesnt have to be wild but those pop up shelters on sleds you mentioned r great), possibly those hand warmers/a buddy heater in case you need it since its possible to retain your heat but very difficult to get new heat if you get your hands wet or something, an auger (manuals work but are prone to getting bent out of shape/needing sharpening, a used gas is probably the cheapest option but bare in mind weight, king of all options is electric since its lightweight powerful and will make like 200+ holes on a single charge. then you need an ice skimmer to take out any remaining ice/clean holes as needed.
Shelter/Comfort, Auger, Skimmer
fish essentials: if using rods some kind of rod-holder comes in handy. You can easily get ice-fishing spinner rods for like $30-$60 depending on quality and those tend to work great. Its just a scaled down rod & reel set and they aren't "grindy" like old-school ones can be you could also choose tip-ups instead either the type that raise a flag when bit or the type that will be pulled down when bit. I'm personally really fond of tip-ups and find myself bringing in fish by hand even with a rod. Tip-ups at least come built in with a way to secure them, even if that's just jamming the cocksucker down into the snow real nice. Then its just line which 4-8lb is typically what I see being used and tackle + bait. I do jigs with minnows.
and of course some way to transport it all like sled. But in simplest terms you need: way to tolerate the cold and survive in general, way to make & maintain holes, way to put lines down those holes in ways you can reasonably control.
A fishfinder isn't necessary but certainly brings advantages. I use a Deeper just to check the depth. The real fun is in an underwater camera, vid is a pike that checked me out and decided no thx
