Its that time of the year, like the Christmas ornaments, your local tackle stores will be bringing out the ice gear soon. Each year it seems like the product hits the shelves just a little bit earlier than the year before. The reason being is that they want you to get fired up and buy early, just in case there isn’t a really good ice season.
Really its okay with me, ice fishing is one of things that really never leaves me. When its 90 to 100 degrees during the summer, I long for cooling my heels on the winter’s iced up lakes. At the end of last season, I made my list, and checked it more than twice. For the past two weeks, I have been getting things in order for the North American Ice Fishing Championship held in Dec this year. Its a long trip to Alexandria, MN, roughly 14 hours, and I have left things behind before. This year I have to be packed ahead of time, I will be working up at the Bass Pro Shops for an Ice Team event in Auburn Hills on the 8th. We leave for MN on the 9th.
At the end of the season I picked up a few items. Auger blades, Strikemaster smokeless oil and few odds and ends. There are some new jigs (paint jobs) available at Your Bobbers Down this year in their tungsten Fiska line up. Picked up a cold weather Cold-Snap suit from Vexilar . This year Lindy has/will have some new spoons on the market. Like the Buck-Shot Rattle spoons from Northland , these will have a rattle incorporated into the spoon.
There are some more items I will be looking at it as the season comes closer, like I said, there is a list. Before heading out to actually pick these items up, check with your local retailer on the phone, to make sure they are in stock. No sense in a wasted trip, and while some of the product is hitting the shelves, more will be coming in the weeks to come.