What would be your first purchase?

[walleyeking19]

I was out fishing with my dad, and I saw a guy pull up and start trying to drill through 20+ inches of ice with his hand auger. I went outside quick and drilled them with my power auger for him. I saw he had a ton of rods and a vexilar in the back of his suv. But it got me thinking.

Would you buy a vexilar/marcum or a power auger first?

[TooTallTom]

I bought the auger first. But I'd rather relax than catch fish.

If I had it to do over again, I'm honestly not sure what I'd do. Maybe be patient and get a good price on both used?

[hart0670]

I was just facing that same dilema myself and bought a Marcum flasher first. Thus I am left to try and find friends with power augers to go with, but I think what it came down to was just that, so many friends of mine have power augers that I can just use my flasher with them, whereas fishing without a flasher and watching them catch more fish with theirs was just too frustrating.

[Rick G]

Hands down flasher. I would rather chop through 20in of ice with a dull butter knife than to go without the flasher.

[tsande00]

Some of those newer hand augers are pretty nice. You can get through 20" of ice with a Lazer hand auger pretty easily.

I would (and did) go with a flasher first. The best ice fishing is early in the year anyways before the ice is thick enough to drive on.

[Stringerless!]

Gotta agree with Riverfishingmiss ! At least I could read through the ice and tell if fish were there before I started chiseling.

[BoxMN]

Hands down flasher. I would rather chop through 20in of ice with a dull butter knife than to go without the flasher.

+1

I got flasher first, and fished with others who had augers. Then I got auger(s)... hehe...

[harvey lee]

I remember when my father would chiesel 4 holes through some thick ice to take my 2 brothers and I fishing. I look back now and realize what he did for us working that hard.

I would take the flasher and a good sharp chiesel or find another to cut my hole for me.

It may take me longer to cut a hole but I am sure the fishing would be better with the flasher.

[magnum mike]

I have offered to cut many holes with my Jiffy after watching someone struggle by hand. I have had to rely on the kindness of others when we had auger troubles.

How many guys on the ice can you ask to borrow their flasher?

[motley man]

Fished many years without flasher, but power auger is only way to go in drilling very many holes. I can find the area to fish, but drilling all the holes with hand auger thru 2 feet of ice is another thing. If one of you has depth finder your good. If you fish alone and don't have depth finder just look at map and find area to fish and move around. Biggest thing is getting to a area that looks good and searching around for different depth changes.

[pulleye16]

I was out fishing with my dad, and I saw a guy pull up and start trying to drill through 20+ inches of ice with his hand auger. I went outside quick and drilled them with my power auger for him. I saw he had a ton of rods and a vexilar in the back of his suv. But it got me thinking.

Would you buy a vexilar/marcum or a power auger first?

Let me ask you this, if you saw him cut a hole with a power auger but sat there on this ice without a flasher, would you let him borrow that?????

Flasher hands down...cause people will always help you punch a hole through the ice but no one would ever let you use their flasher!

[Slabasaurus]

Would you rather get tired hand drilling only to find no fish on your flasher and wonder if you really want to drill another hole somewhere, or would you rather get through the ice, fish a hole for 20 minutes, then move and redrill if you're not on any fish?

that was what I was thinking.

But then I found a deal on a H-bird Ice 35 and an eskimo Mako so I picked em both up.

[amateurfishing]

Since ice fishing is all new to me and i tried it twice last Feb with a handful of bought used equip including a hand auger, I vowed my next purchase be a used affordable gas auger, that said i was nieve in thinking how easy ice fishing would be. my next major purchase (brand new cause I could not find what i was lookining for used at the price i wanted) was depth/fish finder. If u have access to power auger, may not b as important, but i was not gonna take 1/2 hour to hand drill thru 1 1/2 feet of ice again. So far with this being my first true ice fishing season i have only bought 1 item brand new, showdown troller fish/depth finder. My 1 man flipover, gas auger, 6 rods,4 tipups were all used @ $300 total. Did spend $30 in new lures @ FF though. Not only am I brand new and still learning all of this, but cannot see buying new on any item in my life that will only use 3-4 months every year. My boat is the same.

[tsande00]

Would you rather get tired hand drilling only to find no fish on your flasher and wonder if you really want to drill another hole somewhere, or would you rather get through the ice, fish a hole for 20 minutes, then move and redrill if you're not on any fish?

that was what I was thinking.

But then I found a deal on a H-bird Ice 35 and an eskimo Mako so I picked em both up.

Often times you can check depths and for fish without even drilling a hole. You just dump a little water on teh ice and put the transducer down. Works pretty slick unless there is a bunch of white ice.

[tsande00]

If u have access to power auger, may not b as important, but i was not gonna take 1/2 hour to hand drill thru 1 1/2 feet of ice again.

A hand auger with sharp blades should only take a few minutes even to get through 18" of ice.

Personally I have used both good blades and dull and believe me, I've been there strugling with a junk auger for 30 minutes trying to punch a hole through the ice. Not to mention how sore I was the next day. A good set of blades will go a long ways! I can get through 18" in no time at all with my brother's lazer hand auger.

[mixxedbagg]

Auger. I can catch fish without a flasher. I can't catch fish without a hole.

I've ice fished Minnesota for about 10 years. 9 of those without a power auger, 4-5 of those without a Vex. I just targeted easy species in easy places when I didn't have the Vex and still caught fish. Without the power auger, I would often hang it up from mid-Feb through the end of the season because it sucked to drill through feet of ice, especially if I wanted to move around at all.

[piker007]

What auger??? I would rather stay home than fish without a flasher!

[joneshat11]

What auger??? I would rather stay home than fish without a flasher!

+1 I wouldn't fish without a flasher, but then again putting out some tipups and drinking some beer is better than watching the outdoor channel. Lazer hand augers are on sale for $65 everywhere. I say he could just skip out on some rods.

[jBohmer]

I am not sure if I would go fishing without either. But if I was going with someone who had an auger and my flasher was not working... wel I guess I would think twice about going then as well. So I guess I would have to get the flasher first.

[Chef]

It should be mandated that those with power augers drill holes for those who don't

[fishinfey8]

It all depends on what type of fishing you enjoy, and are going to do the most of. If you like watching tip ups for northerns, than a power auger should be your first purchase. If you like catching suspended fish, crappies, bluegills etc. than a flasher would be your best bet. If you like walleye fishing that could go either way.If I had to do it all over again, I would first get a nice,used sonar unit and a nice, used nils hand auger. Then I would save up for a power-head that I could put on the nils.

[nate larson]

I bought my flasher first. I had a lazer hand auger that worked pretty dang good but I often fished people's old holes after they left. I did that for one season and then I bit the bullet and bought a gas auger. If I had it to do over again I would have done it the same way!

[McGurk]

While I have both had people cut holes for me and cut holes for other people, I would have to say relying on another person to drill your holes while you stand there with your flasher in your hand does not make sense. Get a good hand auger (less than $100) and get a used flasher or maybe a Marcum Ice troller or VX1.

You can always drill a bunch of holes and hole hop with a bobber or tight lining, but you can only do so much fishing out of a couple of hand drilled holes no matter how nice your flasher is.

[ted4887]

Yeah, definitely the flasher. Although, i bought both right away.

[hamms-scooter]

I bought my auger first. I was one of them guys that was against having sonar... thought I did fine without and I did. But now I do great knowing the hole I'm fishing has no fish in it I can move on. Anyway bought the auger first.... for 168 bucks brand new