EclecticGuy » ice fishing

Ice Fishing Tip up Building

EclecticGuy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:47:52 +0000

I like to ice fish several time a year. I’d do it more if I had more time! Several years ago, I started ice fishing with my son’s Boy Scout Troop when they have there annual winter cabin camping trip in January. The camp has a beautiful lake loaded with fish. So, to cut costs, I designed and built a few tip-ups to use. Surprisingly, there is very little information on tip-up building on the web, so here is an article I wrote: Ice Fishing Tip-Up

Hopefully this will help some people get started. Please note, the end of the article is incomplete. However, you really should be able to figure out how to complete assembly based on the instructions and photos. At some point, I will complete this and republish.

Cheers!

The Eclectic Angler now launched!

EclecticGuy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:05:16 +0000

Over the last few years I have produced a number of fly fishing related items out of personal interest. Surprisingly, I get a fair number of inquiries to purchase these items – including tenkara flies, several other fly patterns, ice fishing tip-ups, hand-made brass fishing reels, horsehair fishing lines, Walton’s Engines (aka twisting or furling engines), and custom rods – all by word of mouth. The interest and volume got to the point where I needed to automate the purchasing process and market my “wares” a little. My book, The Reelsmith’s Primer, is also nearing completion and I will offer it, materials kits and materials, custom leather reel pouches and cases, and reelsmithing tools for sale.

Since making these items is just a hobby for me, I intend for Eclectic Angler to be a resource as much as a store. I’ll show people how to make a horsehair line, sell them the hair, or sell them the completed line. My goal is to develop a community around making and using your own fly fishing equipment. The site is no where near complete but I wanted to get the framework and basic design started so I can get feedback and start automating orders.

I’m handling all of the design, development and e-commerce myself using a combination of Open Source, RapidWeaver (all I can say about it is “wow”), GoDaddy, and PayPal. Putting the site together is almost as much fun as building the items themselves! This process has also given me a great perspective on what a new small business must go through to launch a web presence. There are lots of decisions and options and pricing alternatives. I can see why new business people are perplexed!

So, without further adieu, I give you The Eclectic Angler.

Ice Fishing with the Boy Scouts

EclecticGuy — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:46:25 +0000

Every January, our Boy Scout troop heads up to NH (we’re based in MA) to cabin camp. Last weekend was this year’s trip. The cabin is on the waterfront of a large pond. Last year I taught a few boys how to ice fish – we cut the holes with a hatchet! This year I was armed with a hand auger, 3 tip-ups, a bucket of shiners and some other items.

It was an extremely cold weekend, it was down to below 0 on Friday night. On Saturday morning a group of boys wanted to get going so we headed on to the ice. I drilled the first hole to show the boys how to use the auger. The ice was a good 15″ thick. As I rigged the tip-up, the Scouts moved to the next location and drilled the hole. It was ready when I arrived with the rest of the gear. We put in 3 tip-ups. The boys also wanted to do some jigging so we made jigging rods out of some sticks, ice line, a tippet, hook and shiner. We ended up with 7 holes, 3 with tip-ups and 4 for hand jigging.

First catch was a 12″ cat fish caught on the stick. Then FLAG and we had a fish on one of the tip-ups. Unfortunately, it got away as the Scout hand-over-handed him in. That’s part of the learning! Then a few minutes later, another FLAG on the same tip-up. This time, they landed him – an 18″ Chain Pickerel.

We left the tip-ups and “rods” set while we went in for lunch and when we came out, another 18″ Chain Pickerel was on one of the rods. That was the end of the action for a few hours as Scouts drifted in and out of ice fishing and other activities.

Secret Ice Fishing Dance

After dinner, my son and his friend went to check the traps and as he was pulling up one of the “rods” he felt a tug, so he set the hook and carefully brought in a 24″ Chain Pickerel. Not a bad day all in all and a new group of boys experienced some fun ice fishing!