What is the best sled for ice fishing?

[BigFish1]

I am thinking about buying a new or slightly used sled for ice fishing. I go up to Canada a lot and I'm tired of getting stuck with my Polaris Indy. I would just be using the sled for ice fishing with portables. Also, next year I will be putting out a 6' x 10' permanent fish house with it possibly. Looking for opinions! Thanks in advance.

[toughguy]

The AC Bearcat has a huge track and is designed for deep snow and heavy loads. You can get a fan cooled 2 stroke up to a 1100 4 stroke. I would start there --- disclaimer --- I am biased towards AC.

[BoxMN]

I have a 02 yammie venture 600 2-up. Great sled, power, comfort, starts/runs/pulls great (three portables all in line, and gear at times, with two guys on it). Trail riding is great with it. Can't say anything bad about it. BUT... it doesn't have a rear "rack" and that would be nice for ice fishing. If I was looking specifically for ice fishing, I would likely be in toughguys camp. Buddy has one, nice sled for what you will use it for. Good luck!

[fishkins]

I have a Polaris 500 Fan 2-up with reverse, it works very well for me.

I built an auger rack and a steel tube rack for the back, am planning

a side mount for a bucket for minnows, lots of things a guy can do to

trick'em up. If you stay light with your perm you should manage with

a sled until the snow gets too deep.

[leech~~]

Any long track, deep lug, sled with a fan cooled good size motor would be the best. Two up seats are nice because you can always haul a poor buddy along to help pay for the gas!

[MN Mike]

Also, next year I will be putting out a 6' x 10' permanent fish house with it possibly. Looking for opinions! Thanks in advance.

Is that permanent on skids? Pulling a permanent can change the type of sled you could be looking at, quiet frankly, you probably won't pull it far if theres a lot of fresh snow on the lake no matter what sled you have.

I've got a 8x8 straight wall on skids, it pulls really easy as long as the snow is firm / hard or it's on ice BUT get some fresh snow and it piles up in front of the house and stops everything..... then the cus words start to fly!

If you're thinking about pulling a permanent, I would definitely look at a Arctic Cat Bearcat style of sled, 20" track would be a nice plus.

If you don't find a Bearcat style of sled to your liking, take a look at the touring style of sleds, most have a 136" track ( 2 ups ) and nice features. I'm always keeping an eye out for my ' fishing sled ' I want to put together one day. One thing I'm looking for is a Arctic Cat with this style of rack pictured below, my cousin has one on his Pantera and we can drop 2 Marcum LX5's side by side in there, nice way to carry them or other items. You could find this rack on the Pantera's, 2 up Touring 4 strokes and probably a few others.

As far as a liquid compared to a fan cooled, I'm pretty sure my fishing sled will be fan cooled OR possibly a 4 stroke. In my experience in the past with a 2 stroke and pulling my permanent, I've had trouble building too much heat in the engine which eventually cost me a set of jugs and pistons. That sled was a 900 Mtn Cat, I would not look at a Mtn sled or any style of sporty trail sled ( unless it's fan cooled ), these sleds have been lightened up over the years and often one of the places they found their weight savings was bringing down the cooling system capacity. They work fine running on trails or off trail but you start to pull heavier loads with them, it doesn't take long to build heat and cook the engine.

Pulling portable fish houses won't be a problem with any sled but when you mention that permanent, that changes things.

Mike

[leech~~]

Good feedback Mike. I have had about 5 different brands of sleds over the years but never an AC. That Bearcat looks like something I may think about when I buy the next one!

[LunkerCity]

I would find a used skandic if I had the money.

Quote from ski-doo webpage-"Strength, comfort and the industry’s largest track (156 x 24 in.) ensure the Skandic SWT snowmobile gets the job done. No matter how demanding."

There are videos on the tube of a guy backing his sled into 5 feet of snow and driving right out.

[toughguy]

Good point on the Skandic. These are also designed as work sleds. I've heard they can be difficult to locate although I suppose you could order one through a dealer.

[ChuckN]

Like Mike posted the pic of the T660 (exact sled as mine). Since my family loves to trail ride and I have to have a "fishing sled" I eventually ended up with a T660 Turbo Touring. The rear seat is removable and allows me to haul a fair amount of fishing gear in the rear rack. I found out the hard way that the turbo engine is a must for busting through the deep snow and slush.

As far as a 6x10 permanent skid shack, I would hope it's all aluminum. That will take a heavy duty low/high range gear snowmobile to pull and with several inches of snow it would be very tough going.

[minneman]

bought new in 02, this 570 Panther has been an awesome fishing sled, I found a 1.25x136 track to replace the original 3/4" track, what a difference!

[MN Mike]

sweeeet! Kind of what I'm looking for except I would love to have that rack off of the Touring like in the picture above, some Panthers have them some don't, I have no idea why.

Been up to Buffalo minneman?

Mike

[minneman]

Only in my dreams, 1st trip planned for st pattys weekend

[MN Mike]

I've only got 1 trip in so far this season and its going to be a few weeks before I get up there now, I was hoping to have few trips in by now but that's been impossible!

Mike

[CaptainMusky]

sweeeet! Kind of what I'm looking for except I would love to have that rack off of the Touring like in the picture above, some Panthers have them some don't, I have no idea why.

Been up to Buffalo minneman?

Mike

MN MIke, you could always order that rack and I am quite sure it could be adapted to fit other AC models. Might be something to check out.