spud bar

[bigtruckderbuck]

A few days ago one of the guys I own a fish house with decided to use our spud bar as a pry bar and busted the end off. He opted for a cheap replacement initially, but as one friend put it, "we would be better off using toothpicks to chip our holes out, so lets return it and get something worth more than the $5 he probably spent on it".

We regularly chip through 12+ inches of ice in 8 holes, so we are looking at quality and speed more than price. With this in mind, does anyone have any recommendations?

[federline]

Well, it's not a spud bar but a chipper blade auger, like a jiffy or an older Strikemaster Mag 2000 or 3000 might do it nicely if you don't mind the fumes. Otherwise, for $20 I bought a beefy double-pointed self-storing spud bar at Galyans a while back, and I've seen them elsewhere, maybe it was Gander Mtn. It's self-storing in that is screws apart in the middle and slips into its other half for transport. It's fittings are beefy like 3/8" thick and welded nicely and is painted green, and has an aluminum blade guard on it. I've also thought about sharpening up one of those thick steel T-bar fence posts a guy drives into the ground for wire fencing, too.

[Bob_D]

I have not used one, but the Jiffy Mille Lacs looks very impressive. Anybody use this?

[frabillfisher]

I have also looked into these and jsut about bought one but my auger got fixed in time, but they do look mighty nice i think I'll add one to my list for next year...like bob asked any one use them?

[kslipsinker]

I purchased a Jiffy spud a couple of years ago as a early ice tester. It is a nice bar. Well worth the money. I view all of my fishing equipment as a long term investment. You buy junk, you get junk.

[Slave to the Slab]

if you are just looking to re-open holes, we just use a swedish spoon style "auger". looks like half a cup on a handle. normally you can find them cheap at garage sales, but good luck finding one of them this weekend! they also work great for re-opening holes that have shrunk due to really cold weather (like now) - hope that helps!

[GrouseHunt'R]

I would suggest making your own if any of you know how to weld. You can purchase some hydraulic pipe and find a chuck of steel and fab a tip out of that. I had one made for me and it is just awesome. This thing has so much weight behind it, might be a little heavy for some, but man does it go through the ice.

[efgh]

there is a guy in this area who makes chizels out of the tappered leaf spring off of half ton pickups, the blades are two ins. wide and 10 ins. long, 7/8 in. shaft 4 feet long and tappered on the top with a D ring welded on it, problem is you practilly have to promise him your first born to get one.

[smashingpike]

Does that Jiffy bar have much weight to it? I've heard they really cut through the ice nicely. Can anyone say if they are better than a normal spud?

[Wables]

I built two last year out of 3/4" thick AR wear plate and 3/4" Dia. steel shafting. Great spuds but heavy! The weight really helps drive them into the ice, and you can use them to pry up your shack.

[hurricanemark]

I have welded one, I made it out of a tubing and placed a 5 inch round stock inside and it acts like a dead blow hammer. It does not bounce and it double hits. Should patent it.

[blkfrg]

I have had a Mille Lacs spud bar for a few years and think it is great. Very sturdy. Use it mostly for checking ice thickness early in the season, but have opened some holes with it and it chops thru inches of ice like butta'. My brother has had a home made, leaf spring variety for as many years as I can recall and it works excellant also.

[bigtruckderbuck]

Thanks for all of the input.

I decided to pick up a mille lacs 2-piece ice chisel last night. Although I saw it online for over $70, I found the same one at gander for $45.

I tried it out at the fish house last night and I can't say enough good things about it. We previously had a fairly heavy spud bar, and it took a few minutes and quite a bit of effort to do a good job chipping out holes through 10+ inches of ice. With the mille lacs chisel, I opened the first hole in about 30 seconds. It worked so well that I even enlarged all of the holes in the house with very little effort. Unless there are other spud bars out there with similar blade designs, I can't imagine that anything else compares.