Taking care of your Ice Gear durning the offseason can mean the differecne from a great Ice fishing trip and a bad one. Here are some tips to help!
Prepping your Ice Gear for the Upcoming Season
There are two common types of ice gear that give a lot of folks problems the first time they head out on the ice.
The two types of gear are gas equipment and electrical gear. When I talk about gas equipment I’m talking about equipment like snowmobiles, four-wheelers, and ice augers. With electrical equipment it is almost always batteries issues.
Whether it is your ice auger or flasher unit I’m going to show you what I do to combat those problems.
Let’s get started on the battery side with battery maintenance. Caring for your battery in the offseason can greatly impact the quality of performance out on the ice.
The biggest thing is to make sure that your battery is not drawing any charge in the offseason. For example on your depth finder/ flasher unit, you want to make sure that the power leads are pulled from the terminals.
If it’s your ice auger make sure that the battery is not sitting on top of the auger because that’s going to be drawing power from it over time. If you don’t unplug the terminals you will go to use it the first time and it’ll be dead and it often won’t accept a charge at this point because the voltage is too low.
Another thing you want to do over the offseason is to give it a charge a couple of times throughout the year. I try to charge it every three months or so. This will help with the run time when you are out there on the ice.
When it comes to gas engines, engine maintenance is key. Whether it’s a chainsaw, lawnmower, snowmobile, or any engine that is going to be stored for an extended period of time.
When you go to store one of these engines start by emptying or lowering the fuel level to as little as possible and then add a whole can of Sea Foam to it. Run it for about ten minutes to get it through the entire system.
Then once you go to use it after storage you just need to add fresh fuel and you’ll be ready to go.
Everyone I’ve ever shared these tips with is floored by how consistently they work and how much more time you get to spend fishing not fighting with your ice gear.
