Since the beginning of the ice tournament circuit that I fish, I have been using the new Ice Gator electric auger.
For years after seeing them in action, and hearing all the complaints about electric augers on the market, I never saw myself running one of these in competitions, much less fishing for fun. You get 20 or 30 holes per charge, you have to plug into a machine’s outlet, and they are slow.
When my tournament partner called me up in December and said we would be running Ice Gators for the upcoming season, I really wasn’t all that impressed with the idea. I run a 7 inch drill bit on the Attacker head, where many run 6 inch on the Seeker head. That meant I would have to use the heavier unit.
This is what I learned about the Ice Gator after fishing three tournaments, and about 30 “leisure” trips on the side. I get about 300 to 315 rpms, which is faster than my old Mag Express power auger, which when finely tuned gets about 178 rpms. I actually liked the extra weight of the 12 volt, 12 amp batteries, call it a confidence thing, but it seemed like it bites into the ice faster than my old power head. While folks are choking and pull starting their gas augers, I am on my second hole. By the time they have waited for the auger to warm up, I am on my fourth hole. This is a huge advantage on the circuit not only during the tournament hours, but also in finding the fish during the days prior to the event. I can cover more ground during prefish than a conventional gas powered auger.
Batteries in cold weather? Not a problem. On the thickest ice I went through this season, 28 inches, I still got 63 holes out of one set of batteries. It took me less than 4 minutes to change out a set and keep on drilling the rest of the day. In fifteen inches I had well over a hundred holes drilled on one set of batteries in Illinois, and I quit for the day before the machine did.
My outlook is this, the Ice Gator can only get better in the years to come. Battery tech is jumping forward by leaps and bounds; longer life, lighter weight = more holes drilled.
