Manual Augers

[Poppa]

Good Morning all. I live in Central Ontario and its just been this weekend that we have had enough ice (not alot yet) but enough to walk out on to fish the hard water. My question is: I'm looking for a new auger and was wondering the advantages and disadvantages of the manual augers on the market? Any recomendations would be helpful in making up my mind.

Thanks

Poppa

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have a nils master and love it. When I bought the power auger it came with a hand auger attachment. The gas auger part is very light, so I only drilled a few holes with the hand auger to see how well it would work.

I have also owned the Mora hand auger and they work fine. The strikemaster Lazer hand augers I have used did a fine job as well...

[bgreen82]

i have used mora and lazer, and the lazer(what i have) is very good for a hand auger. ive heard nils are great too. all hand augers are gonna get tiring in more than 8" though. key is to find your spot quickly cuz you dont want to be drilling too many holes with any of these... unless you bring friends to drill some that is.

[Thomas]

I have 8" Lazer - it's lot of work getting through 11" of ice - wished I bought the 6" Lazer. The blades are staying sharp. Last year I bought a cheap hand auger and the blades went dull after about drilling 50 holes. I don't know if its true, but Nils is supposed to cut holes faster.

[trapperdirk]

Quote:

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Good Morning all. I live in Central Ontario and its just been this weekend that we have had enough ice (not alot yet) but enough to walk out on to fish the hard water. My question is: I'm looking for a new auger and was wondering the advantages and disadvantages of the manual augers on the market? Any recomendations would be helpful in making up my mind.

Thanks

Poppa

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Well I have a Nils but the finbore 3 is also a good handbomber Poppa and readily available in central ontario as well as the replacement blades .

[Poppa]

Thanks for the info. I borrowed a Finbore lll from a friend and went out for about 2 hours this afternoon on Clear Lake about 3 minutes from the house. Primarily Splake (and Smallmouth Bass season closed). There was about 6" of ice and the Finbore cut through it like butter. Not much effort and really quick. I cut a few more holes just to make sure the first one wasn't a fluke. All the holes cut quick and clean. I was impressed.

Unfortunately I didn't catch any fish and nothing showed up on the Lowrance. Tried the holes I had cut for 15-20 minutes each with no fish showing up in them either. So I packed it in and went to check another lake about 5 more minutes away. Stopped and talked to some friends on Gull Lake and they said it had been good earlier but had died down. Nothing for the past hour. They had caught 4 Lakers but all in the slot (15.7-21.7). About 6 Herring or Cisco and lost 2 Whitefish at the top of the hole. Two other guys had caught 3 Lakers, 1 over the slot and 2 under. So tomorrow I'm going to head out in the morning and stay all day. They said there is about 4-5" of ice where they were fishing but only 2-3" about 100 yards away. Its been a slow start for South Central Ontario this year. Lake Simcoe was wide open until last Monday but has started to freeze around the edges but the center is still open. Haven't heard how they are doing for perch or pike in Cooks Bay or Pefferlaw area. Scugog has 5-6" on the shorelines. A sledder went through the ice last week. Driver and passenger got out Ok and the machine the next day. Only word on Bay of Quinte is that it is open.

Thanks again for the info.

Poppa

[trapperdirk]

Are you fishing the Clear lake south of Emsdale and North of Novar Poppa ? If you are you can try my Nils if you wish because I live in the area but that Finbore 111 you tried as a handbomber does cut with the best that I've seen . I haven't tried handbombing my Nils but do have the handle for it to handcrank but just been using it with the powerhead .

TD

[Poppa]

No trapperdirk, the Clear Lake that I am referring to is about 8 miles SE of Minden in the southern part of Haliburton County in South Central Ontario. So many lakes with the same name makes it confusing, Thanks for the offer to try the Nils Master. Haven't seen one except in pictures and I can't find one in any of stores I've been in or called. The Finbore lll worked well and I think I may pick one up. A number of the local stores carry them so parts and blades should be easy to get when they need replacing. I usually use Locktite to keep the bolts and nuts from falling off and of course down the hole. They never fall where you can find them.

Good Luck fishing.

Poppa