Coffee can

[TV BOY]

I saw some guys useing these at the icefishing challange on Sat. Was it charcoal in there? What ever it was it kept their holes open. I was going to put one together for the Brainerd contest.

Any tips for a ice fishing newbie welcomed.

[Swamp Scooter]

It was on a thread a while ago. They drilled a second hole next to the fishing hole and put the can with charcoal in it. I have not tried it but it seems to work.

Beware though that charcoal does consume air and give off CO. Do not have it in a sealed up house.

[SpikeRoberts]

Yup, a coffe can with burning charcoal is an effective way to keep your hole open. The hot can close to your holes will melt some ice which, in turn, flows into your holes. The warmer water will prevent the hole from freezing up. To construct such a device punch a couple of holes into the side of the can an inch or so from the bottom. This provides an intake for air to keep the charcoal burning with the inch or more cushion to prevent the melting water from flowing into the coffee can. Watch out though, the hot can can melt your fishing line and cause more trouble than scooping your hole would be.

[scotty18]

TV boy, that an old ice fishing trick. Take a coffee can, punch some holes along the sides on the bottom edge, throw some charcoal in it and light. I also use this to heat caramel when I'm bear hunting.

Scotty

[mnfishman]

I actually used it during the Ice Fishing Challenge last weekend. All we did was chip a small channel from our hole over about 4 inches then we chiped out a circle that the coffee can would fit into about 1" deep. This will allow about 1" of water to flow around the bottom of the can.
We didn't punch any holes in the coffee can because it is sitting in water. We used matchlight charcoal and it we started it about 30 minutes before the tournament started. It kept my hole open all day and it reheated my left over pizza as well.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I have used the same trick but I placed a roll of toilet paper in the can,dumped a bottle of isopropel alcohol over the roll and lit it. This will burn almost all day and is smoke free. Be careful though because you cannot see the flames because the alcohol burns so clean. Do not use indoors either!
Cliff

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Cliff's Guide Service
CliffsGuideService-LakeVermilion.com
Lake Vermilion
Phone: (218) 753-2005

[Lucky Eddy]

HERE'S AN OLD TRICK FOR KEEPING HOLES OPEN
Submitted by John Eddy

For those that like to rough it out in the open come hard water, here is an old trick I'd like to share with you. Take a one pound coffee can and drill a ¼ inch hole ½ inch from the bottom of the can. Take 8 feet of ¼ inch copper tubing and stick about 8 inches out of the hole in the can and wrap the tubing around and around the inside of the can with the last foot or so sticking out the top, aiming down. Throw a couple of handfuls of self-starting charcoal in the can and light it. Set the can next to your hole, with the lower end of the tube in the water. The heat from the charcoal will suck up the water, heat it and spit it back into the water from the top tube, keeping your hole ice-free no matter how cold it gets and the charcoal will burn for hours. You can fashion a handle from a coat hanger or whatever.
[top]

[say_der]

Doesn't the charcoal smoke up a portable? Sometimes if the wind is really bad and I can't bank my house enough I end up with the wind coming under my fish trap 2 and my holes don't like to stay open very well. My heater doesn't have enough BTU's to keep up all the time.

So could I use emergency candles in that coffee can instead of charcoal? Those have a 9 hour burn time.

[can it be luck?]

Wow! That sounds cool!

[TV BOY]

Cliff
Does the alcohol need to filled up to the top of the tp or just have the tp soaked with it?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Tvboy,
I just dump in 1 bottle over the tp. This would probably work great with the copper coil trick mentioned above!
I forgot about that one!!
Cliff

[TV BOY]

Cliff, One last question. Is that the big can , or one that is about the size of the tp?