Oh how I enjoy stirring up conversations in the fishing world. There’s enough info here to get anyone started without a second mortgage or selling one of your kids. Hope no one got me wrong, I do fish alot and I have been fortunate to fish from some of the nicest boats in great places with great people, many of them you and folks like you.
I fish cheap. I’ve got about $500 into my boat and $2500 into my tow vehicle, plus a hand-me-down canoe. I’ve got a couple old portables, a second-hand FL-8, a 30-year-old Mora hand auger, and a 20-year-old Jiffy.
The fish know none of this. I don’t skimp on bait, terminal tackle or jigging rods. From a fish’s viewpoint, my offerings are identical to the offerings of the guy with the side-finder and the 21′ Ranger who is slip-bobber fishing with his Loomis rod and Stella reel (!)
This ain’t a fashion show. Despite what has happened with ice fishing and fishing in general in the last 20 or so years, the truth remains. Find fish and give ’em what they want, and you’ll catch fish. In a way, it’s more rewarding, too. When you talk to the guy at the ramp who has a 100 grand into his rig and you did better than he did it’s like the old Twinkies winning the division against higher payroll teams.
so to answer: hand auger, two jigging rods,a tip-up and some local intel and you’ll be good to go.
I search for deals,at times it means going without something for awhile and walking into alot of stores and looking without buying.This past week I picked up a 150$ rod for 50$ and just yesterday came across a small hardware store with the smallest fishing section I have ever seen but found a good stash of blade baits for 99cents each I didnt buy all of them but I am going to…Thats another thing I do is look most places people dont.Grabbed 20 Salmo’s a few years back at a small bait shop that were half price so instead of 8$ a piece I payed 4$ I bought them out.I may not spend the most on the latest and greatest gear but I get buy and when I find super good deals I will throw down a chunk of change.Alot of things are priced so High cant justify the price for thee product,I think 90% of fishing gear is priced more way more then its worth to me anyways.
It doesn’t take thousands of $$$ in gear to catch fish, but it doesn’t hurt either.
Watched several episodes from season 7 & 8 again this morning and more often than not, James Holst & Crew @ IDOTV keep things simple for the average angler. Thank you for a fantastic show! 
I started ice fishing in 2005, and still don’t have everything to fish all styles (for instance, I still don’t have an underwater camera or a good handheld GPS or a flip over style portable), but I am happy with what I do have and would recommend a similar order of purchases for others:
1. Ice rod combo and a small selection of lures (2005) (With these, you can go out on a popular body of water and either find a recently used, but abandoned hole, or go up to a group of anglers and ask if someone would drill you a hole close by). Hell if you had just these, and put a post on this forum, I am sure that someone will let you tag along.
2. Used Hand Auger (2006) Doing it again, I would buy new and small diameter. (The new is because mine came a bit dull and it took me about 20 min and a workout to punch a hole, small so that you can punch a bunch of holes and find a piece of structure). (I did not have access to it at that point, but the Navionics app for $10 a year will tell you what big structure is around, but I have found that the actual location might be 30′ off, so you still have to explore a bit before you can get really accurate waypoints) I relied on open-water knowledge from fishing in the back of people’s boats from a BASS club.
2. Nice bibs (2007) (When I am cold and wet, I do not enjoy fishing very much.) (I also found a $20 pair of Neoprene socks worked adequately when I did not have a good pair of waterproof boots)
3. Flasher (2011) Major game changer, I bought the FL-8 Genz Pack on sale, but they are pricy. Prior to that I would just always be fishing 1-2′ off the bottom, which I basically still do, but now, I know better how fish react to my presentation
4. Hard-core big Auger (2013) (Being able to punch a lot of holes helps you stay mobile, find structure, and spend more time fishing)
5. Cheap Frabill Portable (2014) (This was a X-mas present, and I think it was gotten off of Amazon for $170). I only use it if I already know where I want to fish and am fishing a low-light situation (or if it is crazy cold). I could do without it and if I had to do it all over again, I would save my money and holdout for a high quality flip-over style portable which fits better with my style of fishing.
Future Purchases:
1. Handheld GPS with high quality chip. (I am starting to get dissatisfied with punching a hole to find out that the structure that the Navionics app tells me is there is about 30′ away.) This morning, I was on a metro lake (Calhoun), the Navionics app told me that there was a 14′ ledge where I was, I punched a hole to find that I was still in only 5′ of water over a crap-ton of weeds. I do then throw down waypoints on those holes so that I don’t have to hunt so much in the future.
2. Otter or Clam Thermal flip-over portable. (The Frabill works fine for a ‘home-base’, but it is huge (despite being only a 2-person) which means that it is difficult to warm up. It also does not have a insulating exterior so basically acts as a nice windblock. Also, if there is any wind, it needs to be anchored down which makes it much less portable than I would like.
3. Camera. (I would like to see how my jigging cadence leads to lure movement, and what species I am seeing on the flasher). Don’t think that I would use it a ton, but would be fun for my daughter to use while out with me.
4. Snowmobile. (This is for when I can more readily get away to the north woods for the weekend. Maybe a 10-year goal.)
I obviously did not include many smaller purchases as I have collected a ton of lures, rods, reels and such, but you can get those one at a time over the years as you learn new techniques and fishing styles.
Whoa, I wrote a lot. It was fun going down memory lane.
-Mike
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