Ice fishing shelter & gear storage solutions

[aiathompson]

Well, I think the ice fishing season is quickly coming to a close in South Dakota. We've now had several days of 50 degree weather and the next 10 days are all well above normal, in the upper 30’s to low 50’s. There was 2” to 4” of standing water on several area lakes yesterday.

Means I should start thinking about storing my new ice shelter in the next couple of weeks. Been thinking about storing it hanging from the garage ceiling with most of the gear stored in it. The auger is on a wall rack so I can start it periodically in the summer.

I thought I've seen sort of storage rack online that you can lower by rope and pulley. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas on these types or other storage solutions and where I could purchase one.

How do you store your gear?

[leechlake]

there is a canoe hoist you can get on line at the A store. Costs $35 and is rated for 100 pounds, I think bike hoists are only rated for 50. Put some eye bolts in rafters and tie it to them with your gear in it.

Also, I quit doing the auger thing where you plan on starting it from time to time. If that works for you it does work but I usually end up forgetting and have issues so I do as D Rock said.

Dump gas, run til it quits, put on choke and run again until it quits, with choke on pull 6-10 times til all the gas is out. I'm not trying to turn this into a wet vs dry storage thread. Just another option for the forgetful.

[harvey lee]

Have a bud who hangs his from the garage cieling And he is happy with it. Always thought of doing that, just never did, put it in the shed.

I also run my auger a few times in the summer, maybe don't have to but i DO.

I am going to store all my fishing gear this summer in the wheelhouse except for the auger. My portable is also going in the back as I have doors so I can slide it in. Then I have more free space for other items in the garage and hopefully no mice get inside the house. I always use a box or better of scented dryer sheets and that seem's to keep the mice out of the portable making nests and eating the cover.

[rundrave]

Well, I think the ice fishing season is quickly coming to a close in South Dakota.

I am not putting my ice gear away yet, we got lots of time for hard water yet. The fishing is gonna heat up with the snow melting.

[BartmanMN]

Do a search for Racor Heavy Lift on the left hand side of this site and you will see a few posts with it, including one with picutures that I posted. I could not link to the page for you since there was some scripting causing my browser to lock up.

It's the way to go if you can spare a little over $100. Try to order from Amazon to get free shipping.

[aiathompson]

[OnAFly]

I put eye bolts in the rafters and hung a 2X4+plywood platform. Holds all my ice stuff summer and some summer stuff in the winter. It takes 2 people to get the stuff up there, but that's OK since it cost me about $10 to make.

I think this year I'll be leaving the auger off it though. I'm going to start it up a few times a summer as suggested this year.