New to Ice Fishing - Need advice on setup and what not to get - for Crappie

[LennyB]

My family bought a cabin in Mid Michigan on a 280 acre bowl shaped lake that is loaded with cabbage weeds all the way around the edge out to 12 feet and then drops to 28 feet in the middle. It has a ton of Blue Gill and Crappies. I am thinking about picking up a Marcum M1 flasher to help locate fish in the basin kind of like how the guy in the video below does. Is his technique and setup a good starting point and plan? It will be me, my 13 year old son, and brother-in-law. Also, any recommendations on rod, reel, line brand and size, jigs, trailer, etc.... Just trying to get the basics. Would like good stuff but not crazy expensive. Thanks for any advice.

[TDobb]

There are a lot of options you could go with, but you can keep it pretty simple to start. The M1 from Marcum will work, any flasher is better than no flasher, I honestly would turn around and go home if I forgot my Vexilar, that is how important it is. For a rod, you can use just about any medium light from Ice Blues all the way up to full customs. I know a few people using the new ACC Crappie Stix ice rods this season and they like them, very reasonable price as well. As for reels, every one of my ice setups for panfish uses a fly reel, and nowadays everyone makes a spooler or straight line reel. In ice fishing, line twist is even more detrimental than it is for open water as your jig will sit down there and spin in circles. Years of watching bluegills and crappies while sight fishing has taught me and many others that quality fish will simply not eat a jig that is spinning in circles. The fly reel type reels don't twist the line as it lays on the spool like a spinning reel does, so it virtually eliminates the line twist issue. I changed over before the craze hit, but now the options are a lot more varied.

As for jigs, start with some simple stuff. I like the Clam Pro Tackle (CPT) Drop Jigs, as well as the CPT Drop Kick, Kenders makes some awesome jigs (a little more pricey but worth it). Get some with shorter hook shanks for loading up with eurolarve or waxies, but don't be afraid to try plastics. I fish plastic almost 100% of the time and catch just as many fish as the guy next to me using meat. The CPT Mino, Maki, Jamie, and Matdi are awesome, as well as the Little Atom Nuggie. The Nuggie and Micro Nuggie in black, on an orange or pink jig have accounted for a LOT of my crappies thru the ice over the last 15 years.

As far as augers go, get yourself a 6" hand auger and the adapter to put it on an 18 volt cordless drill. Fast and efficient. You will not need a hole bigger than 6" for just about any crappies or bluegills you will find. And if you do happen to get one stuck in a hole, I will be glad to come out with my old 8" gas auger and help you drill bigger holes, so long as I can fish your lake. I've only ever had one stick in a 6" hole and it was a heart breaker, but I woulda let her go anyway.

[gary_fritz]

For the auger, especially in lower MI, an electric drill/auger is all you need here as the ice doesn't get that thick. I have a Milwaukee M18 brushless drill and will run either a 6in or 8in Nils auger with adapter plate and love it. I have the blue Nils hand augers and their adapter plate but they now sell a convertible auger that has the adapter plate built in and I've heard the blades are slightly different to be more efficient when using with a drill. I get a full day out of two batteries (don't recall the ratings) and I will usually drill a lot of holes. My drill is a hammer drill and the 90° handle helps control the torque from the auger as you drill, just make sure the drill is set to drill and not hammer.

I don't have a lot of experience with flashers but I have 2 FLX-28 that my wife and I use 99% of the time, they are pricey though (we got one cheap at Gander last year when they closed). We upgraded the batteries to lithium which made them very light and they last forever, turned them on last week and the voltage still read 13.2-13.3v after sitting all summer. I have an ice setup for one of our HELIX units and will bring that out sometime, usually when we have someone else out with us.

For rods we use custom rods that were built by Thorne Bros in MN. We also use fly reels to eliminate line twist and I really like it. We went with Okuma Sierra reels because they are small, didn't like other inline options because of the big handles. I can palm the side plate and hold support the handle with my fingers without affecting the spool when reeling in. For line we use 2lb Trilene 100% Flourocarbon Ice. Typically I will run a small fas-snap for changing out lures without having to retie, used to find them in the fly fishing sections but the last time I bought some I found them with all the other terminal tackle like swivels and snaps.

We are still pretty new to ice fishing but for lures we have used some Clam tungsten jigs tipped with wax or plastic. This year I tied up some small jigs that we will be trying out.

[LennyB]

For the auger, especially in lower MI, an electric drill/auger is all you need here as the ice doesn't get that thick. I have a Milwaukee M18 brushless drill and will run either a 6in or 8in Nils auger with adapter plate and love it. I have the blue Nils hand augers and their adapter plate but they now sell a convertible auger that has the adapter plate built in and I've heard the blades are slightly different to be more efficient when using with a drill. I get a full day out of two batteries (don't recall the ratings) and I will usually drill a lot of holes. My drill is a hammer drill and the 90° handle helps control the torque from the auger as you drill, just make sure the drill is set to drill and not hammer.

I don't have a lot of experience with flashers but I have 2 FLX-28 that my wife and I use 99% of the time, they are pricey though (we got one cheap at Gander last year when they closed). We upgraded the batteries to lithium which made them very light and they last forever, turned them on last week and the voltage still read 13.2-13.3v after sitting all summer. I have an ice setup for one of our HELIX units and will bring that out sometime, usually when we have someone else out with us.

For rods we use custom rods that were built by Thorne Bros in MN. We also use fly reels to eliminate line twist and I really like it. We went with Okuma Sierra reels because they are small, didn't like other inline options because of the big handles. I can palm the side plate and hold support the handle with my fingers without affecting the spool when reeling in. For line we use 2lb Trilene 100% Flourocarbon Ice. Typically I will run a small fas-snap for changing out lures without having to retie, used to find them in the fly fishing sections but the last time I bought some I found them with all the other terminal tackle like swivels and snaps.

We are still pretty new to ice fishing but for lures we have used some Clam tungsten jigs tipped with wax or plastic. This year I tied up some small jigs that we will be trying out.

Which size fly reel do you guys think would be good for a panfish reel based on sizes under the Models tab:

https://okumafishingusa.com/collecti...roducts/sierra

[TDobb]

Which size fly reel do you guys think would be good for a panfish reel based on sizes under the Models tab:

https://okumafishingusa.com/collecti...roducts/sierra

Gary, I like that you mentioned Thorne Bros custom rods. My entire arsenal, minus one rod a buddy built and one rod that I built, are all Thorne Bros Customs. My favorite is the 32" Power Noodle with recoil guides on it, absolutely love that rod. I have 8 or 9 of their rods, simply the best of the best.

As for fly reel sizes, I use a 3/4 on some rods and a 5/6 on others. I like the Sierra from Okuma as you can completely back the drag off and even the smallest jig will free fall, at least on my older models they will. A lot of guys use the large arbor fly reels as they don't require nearly as much backing line, and I have several of those as well. The thing I don't like about the large arbor fly reels is that you can not get the drag backed off 100% and you can not achieve that absolute free fall on a jig, but it doesn't take much to pull line out. With the fly reels or the straight line reels you can back reel to lower the jig easily (without opening the bail like on a spinning reel) but if you back reel too fast you can have line stick and start rolling up on the spool backwards. I highly recommend peeling line with the hand you reel with to drop your jig down the hole, and once you get down to the zone the fish are in, then you can back reel to make fine adjustments to the depth of your jig. It is a little slow reeling fish up with a fly reel, that will take a little getting used to, but I think it is a benefit when fishing deep water cause you don't always pop their air bladder and release success is much greater when you don't blow their guts up.

When I fish with the fly reels, I palm them in my right hand and use my pointer finger on the rod handle, and my thumb on the spool of the reel. That effectively makes my thumb the drag, and I have landed 10+ pound northern pike on 2lb test while fighting them with a fly reel. The Thorne Bros Power Noodle rod has a super soft tip and really allows you to keep tension on fish even if they start to swim towards you while you make up ground reeling. I will give a tip on the Power Noodle though, when you are working a jig with it don't try to use the tip of the rod to impart the action to the jig, use the first guide lower than the painted tip to work the jig. It takes a while to understand how that works, but the tip is basically a built in spring bobber, and that first guide is the top of the rod without the spring bobber. Once you get it, it makes sense and it will up your catch ratio. Been using those rods for 12 years now and taught a lot of people how to use them right.

This is a Thorne Bros Sweat Pea sight fishing rod with an Okuma Sierra 2/3


This is my 32" Power Noodle with Recoil guides, you can see the action of the rod. Should note this is a fiberglass blank


And a Quiverstick which is a full graphite rod blank, you can see the difference in how the Power Noodle loads up vs a graphite blank.
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[LennyB]

Thanks Guys

[gary_fritz]

Sounds like we fish with similar equipment TDobb I also hold my rods the same way, it's very comfortable. It is different reeling in with a fly reel but I like it. I've never tried backing the drag completely off to drop a jig, I just peel line off with my left hand (same hand I reel with)

I have the two rods listed, both 32in, the power noddle for small jigs and the quiverstick for bigger jigs. I have the Okuma Sierra S 4/5W reels, looks to be the same size as TDobb posted of the 2/3W.

LennyB, if you are considering the Okuma Sierra, Amazon has them slightly cheaper https://www.amazon.com/Okuma-Sierra-...8-1&th=1&psc=1