Manual Auger Question

its easy as pie (as long as your blade is sharp)

7" is a good size to have...

takes about 20-30 seconds

A good bet would be to go out on the ice & ask people why they are using what they are & why, then offer to drill some holes for them with thier drill. I know I  wouldn't turn down a offer like that. Like everything else on here I am sure that you will get different opinions. The size of the hole depends on what you are going to mainly fish for, with the smaller ones being easier to drill by hand.I fish in the open & find that the smaller holes freeze up too quick & if you do hook something like a steely or a toothy critter you will have more of a prob. landing it.As far as time or effort,depends on ice thickness & the # of holes that you plan to drill. I personaly use a 8" gas drill & love it. Some people feel that the gas ones scare the fish, but I think that it actualy draws fish to it,at least trout ,perch ,gills,& crappie that I mainly fish for. Although I can't use a hand drill due to health prob., they are lighter & more mobile. Also used hand drills are usualy hard to come by. BTW gas or hand auger,be extreemly careful around the blades.   sam

Seldom we get enough ice around here to worry about wearing yourself out with a good sharp manual. Keep the diameter down and the blades sharp.

You really don't need anything larger than a 6" auger, but it's nice having the extra space that a 8" auger provides.  I use a 6" Lazer when I'm traveling light, and an 8" Nils Master power auger (bought it here on FishUSA) when I'm not.  I used to tease the sissies who needed a power auger...now I guess I am one of those sissies .  When you're covering a lot of ice, especially later in the season when the ice is 15-18" thick, it's nice to have a power auger that can cut through in a couple seconds.

I was always told to treat it as there is no such thing as safe ice. Many moons ago I went through at high point when there was about 13 inches of good solid ice. Some yahoo drilled a bunch of connected holes so he could keep fish alive and never marked the hole after he left. A couple of snows later you had no idea where it was.

Normally it would have probably been ok and refrozen but there was a couple warm days between the time he drilled it and the new snow that covered the hole.  If I had waited till daylight to go out I might have noticed the change in color of the snow/ice and been able to walk around it.

the places I will be fishing will probably not have anyone on them all winter, so phantom holes won't be a problem. I have some honey spots that I kayak into in summer that are almost unfished and there are some nice pike around (supposedly, they keep biting my line off), some big bass and big perch/crappie. I am a catch and release guy, so hopefully the fishing is hot enough to keep my interest. haha.

It would be considerate of you to wrap the skimmer handle with pipe insulation so that she doesn't get her hands cold while keeping the holes free from ice for you guys. Who says guys aren't considerate.  lol  sam

onestring,any more after i left?????

if your going to fish by yourself best thing i can say is to wear a life jacket or have a suit that will float ya and carry some sorta spike things to help ya out if u do go in or tie a rope to a tree and take out with you

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\Picture\Picture 007.jpg

Help for those that need it posting pictures.

http://forums.fishusa.com/m_33830/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#33830

lol.. manual or gas, ya gotta have a hole

and make sure you get one of those gasoline operated sleds to head out onto PI Bay with.. screw walkin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN9rW__S3Gk

fishin with style.. lol

onestring, Use the "Direct Link" on photobucket and then put your hyperlink in between your tags like this:

 
 [image]http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae235/ONESTRING_01/Picture007.jpg[/image]
 
 
 
 

thats absolutly hilarious

yeah it needs its own thread i think