For some reason this year my ice auger is giving me fits.  The blades keep falling off!  For those of you who have ice fished and owned a hand ice auger you know that there is nothing more frustrating than to go fishing and not be able to cut your way down through the ice in order to fish.  That puts you on the bum to get someone else to cut your hole for you or to go see if you can borrow someones ice auger.  Not a good scene either way in my opinion.

Sure, if I see a guy trying to drill a hole and it just isn’t working, I’ll grab up my auger and go and offer to cut him a few holes.  And of course they are way happy that I have offered and even offer to buy me a drink or give me some of their fishing gear or whatever as payment.  I always refuse and just do it because that is the way ice fishermen are.

Well, with my problem this year it has now cost me the price of a new pair of blades!  $35 locally!  I was drilling a hole in Pineview yesterday and my blades cut down through the ice and I pulled the auger up and handed it to Edjukateer so he could cut his and he complained about the way it was cutting.  When he pulled the auger up out of his partially drilled hole, it was missing one side of the blades (there are two on each auger).  I told him it would be down in the ice shavings of his hole.  He removed the ice shavings and there was no blade there.  I looked down my ice hole and there 15 feet below me laying in the mud was that ice blade!  Damn!

I usually come prepared for these sort of things and so we changed out the blades for a new set.  But my mind is saying “Auger building folks.  Please figure out another way to attach those blades so they can’t just come off and float down to the bottom of the lake”!  Now ask yourself if you were an ice auger building company.  Would you want your blades to not fall off after a season or two of use?  Probably not.  So keep building them that same old way.

But, me, as a consumer wants something better than their design.

Today, I got to thinking.  Actually it was the first thought I had this morning when I woke up.  Could I use a plain old every day bolt and use a lock washer and nut and secure it that way?  Is the pitch of the blades such that the bolt head would interfere with the cutting ability of the blades?  I think, they have probably figured out every angle to get me to have to buy new blades when I lose one.  And then I think, if the bolt head is slightly above the cutting edge, I could grind it off and make it work.  I’m setting myself a goal to investigate that today, once all my other “chores” are done.  And so it was, and so I did investigate!

I dumped out my can of bolts and rummaged through the thousands of them and finally found two that had the same thread as the tapped hole of the auger blade.  It happens to be 10X32 (whatever that means).  One of my bolts was about 3 inches long, the other about an inch.  Both went through the mounting point on the auger just fine.  Then I went to find a lock washer and nuts to fit them.  I did not find a nut, but I did find a “wing nut” that fit each perfectly!  I was a happy guy!

So, my new found bolts just happened to have screw driver ends.  One was a phillips head while the other a flat blade head.  So, what else is new?  I can deal with all of this as long as it works.  I put them on and secured the wing nuts down as best as I could using the screw drivers I have and they seemed to be pretty tight.

Then I looked closely at the pitch of the blades in relation to the head of the bolt sticking up.  Using both of my eyes together at first and then independently after that, I could see the heads of the bolts were very close to being even with the edge of the blade, even with the dramatic pitch of the blade mount.  It will be close if not a problem.

The ice is formed down at Willard Bay and so I loaded up the dog and headed down to try out the blade.  At the bay I walked out onto the ice (brave of me huh?  Not really, there had been a ton of people walk out on it the past day or so and there were three guys out there fishing.  I knew it was safe.)  and placed the auger blade edge down and thought about saying a little prayer (but didn’t) and began to turn the auger slowly.  It was cutting the ice!!!!!  I was a happy guy once again.  And I turned it faster and faster until it dove for the bottom of the lake!  YES!  I am a happy, happy guy now!  It worked!  I should never lose another ice auger blade again!

Back home, I hurried and put things back to where they should be and headed to the “Mans Store”, Smith and Edwards, where they have everything you want, if they can find it!  The Holy Cow store!  The Ikea for  Rednecks store.  If any store around will have my 10 X 32 bolts and lock washers and wing nuts they will have them.

Sure enough!  Two friendly guys there found me exactly what I was looking for and all the time we talked fishing and where they were biting and on what were they biting and all of us were excited to hear and see and do!  AND, they are anxious to see if this idea is actually going to work.  I have to give them both a report after my next outing.  And I sure hope my report is going to be a positive one because that time is tomorrow!  With the Grandkids.  Wouldn’t Grandpa look stupid if he pulls out the auger and it won’t cut a hole?

So, here are some pictures of the end result of putting it all together.  Do you think it will work?  Tomorrow will tell for me!  And I’ll report on here if it worked or not as well.  Maybe one of you will find it a useful idea and employ it in your ice fishing adventures!

So, here is a picture of the bolts going through the blades and then through the mounting points on the auger and held with the locking washers and wing nuts.

From this angle, if you look at the sharp edge of the blade on your left and compare it to the heads of the bolts protruding out of the blade on the right it looks like the inside edge of the cutting blade is actually higher than the inside bolt head.  Maybe it’s just the angle of the picture in relation to the blades/bolt heads.  Let’s take another angle look.

This angle shows that the bolt head is actually below the leading edge of the cutting blade.  But is it enough for the blade to actually do its cutting and not be dragging on the uncut ice behind the blade?  Tomorrow will tell.  Let’s look at another angle.

I am thinking that I am seeing the inside edge of the blade on the opposite side of the auger is higher than the bolt head on the inside of this side blade (does that make sense?)  I’m pretty sure I am seeing the cutting edge of that blade over there on the other side and it is higher than the bolt head that is the farthest form my eye on this side of the auger.  HMMM.  This just might work.

Take a look at the setup again.

Well, wish me luck on this one.  The grandkids are counting on the old grandpa to lead them into some action on the ice covered fish pond called Mantua tomorrow and this little blue bad boy must provide!

By the way, isn’t that beer can a nice looking one?  It adds a little color to an otherwise blue and white world!

Bears Butt

Dec. 2011

NEXT DAY!

The fishing was lousy!  MaKenzie caught one bluegill and most of us had a bite but for the most part it was terrible.  A quarter inch of water on the ice met us and before we were done the wind had blown the water from the west side of the lake over to where we were and we were standing in almost an inch of water when we left.  Not the best of ice fishing conditions.

But I must report the ice augers worked!  I was so very happy when they dug into the ice and made for short order holes!  So, I will never lose another ice auger blade to it falling into the lake or stripping the bolt and coming off and any other way that they cause grief and un-wanted fishing time.

So there you have it!  I don’t have to weld the end of the bolt onto the blade and grind off the excess.  Just put in the bolts, add the lock washer and twist down the wing nut!  Done!  Fishing time is good once again!

Bears Butt

Still Dec. 2011

Decided to head up to Pineview for a “first ice of year” fishing trip with Tracy “Edjukateer”.  We were on the ice about 9:30 a.m. and this is what the lake looked like from the boat ramp.

There were a half dozen or so people fishing in and around the boat docks, but no body anywhere else.  We walked that direction and talked with one guy who had been on the lake for some time.  He had drilled a lot of holes and said the ice was a good 5 inches thick.  Lots of fish showing on his fish finder but none taking any bait.  We decided maybe we should fish in shallower water and so we went down the bank and toward the shore.

Fished there for awhile, no bites.  Moved out, no bites.  Moved to the other side of the docks, no bites.  We decided to try one more place.  Just out from a point of land to the South of the docks.  The ice was crystal clear.  Looking down into the water below our feet you could see the brush and moss growing on everything.  There were places where you had nothing to reference how thick the ice was.  No bubbles frozen in down at the bottom of the ice.  Nothing on top except smooth slick ice on top.  It looked like you were going to step right off into 10 feet deep of water.  The very weirdest thing I think I have ever experienced.

We drilled a “test hole” to see how thick the ice was.  Still a good 4 inches, but that did not change the strange feelings we both had about being on that ice.  We slid ourselves out a few more steps and then the ice cracked around us like it was going to drop us into the drink!  We both took quick deep breaths so that when our heads went under we would have some breath in us in order to swim to the surface.  But we did not break through.  Instead we decided to drill a couple of holes right there and do some fishing.  A solid 4 inches of crystal clear thick ice was under us.  The safest ice God makes.

I lost a blade on my ice auger when I drilled my hole and we had to put on new blades.  We fished for maybe another 15 minutes and the sounds the lake was making caused us both quite a bit of anxiety.  I said out loud, “Keep convincing yourself that these sounds are those of ice being made”.  The lake moaned and growned and popped and crackled and some of the cracking went clear across the lake like cracking thunder…..We decide to go somewhere else and not on that lake either.  We headed for Causey Dam.

Knowing the fishing reports for Causey were for slow fishing.  It could not be slower than that at Pineview and we also knew that the ice on Causey was close to 10 inches thick.  Just right for driving “your” truck onto safely.  Notice I said “your truck”, not mine.

We got there around 1 p.m. and scooted down the bank with the bare essentials.   An ice auger, our buckets, bait and a drink or two.  We used some holes that other folks had drilled earlier.  We quickly found the water to be about 20 feet deep below us and that should do for trout.

Dropping the lines down we used small pieces of fresh shrimp for bait and we waited for a bite.  A long time coming but finally my pole started showing signs of a water inhabitant trying to get my bait off the hook.  I set it and it pulled really hard.  A nice fish was on.  It took awhile to get him in and onto the ice, but it was the first every Tiger Trout I had ever caught.

What a beautiful fish.  Notice the hat is off and my bibs are zipped down.  It was a very nice, warm winter day.  Too much for all the warm clothes.

It wasn’t long before Edjukateer changed up his bait and put on a “fairly fresh” minnow and dropped it down.  BAM!  He had a nice bite but missed the fish.  Dropping down again and in short order another bite.  This one softer, but still the indicator that a fish was very interested in his minnow.  BAM!  Fish on!  And another Tiger Trout came to the ice.  Good job Edjuakteer!

We stayed a couple more hours but did not have another bite.  We left the lake about 3:30 and headed home.  A great day to be out fishing!

Bears Butt

Dec. 2011

My wonderful wife picked me up a very nice 4 person ice hut for Christmas this year.  I have never had one before now.  I have been in ice huts before and believe me they make the ice fishing very nice especially if the wind is blowing.  At least 20 degrees warming inside the hut.

This bad boy does not have a lot of windows, in fact it only has two on opposite sides of the hut and they are only about 8 X 14 inches but that is plenty of light while ice fishing.

The hut claims 4 people can fish in it at the same time and I think it will, it measures nearly 7 ft. square and is 7 ft. tall.  Plenty tall enough for most guys.

It weighs in at 26 pounds so it will be a bit cumbersome to take fishing, but once on the ice it will be a great thing to have.

There was a heater with the deal as well….very lucky me!  The grandkids are going to love this thing too and this Thursday we are going out and give it a go!

Bears Butt

Dec. 2011

http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/rockport/rafterbfishchallenge