Make your ice fishing season successful with these helpful tips.

If you have never been ice fishing, a couple tips will make this season so much better for you. Ice fishing will help you get through the long winter, provide great exercise, put some fish on the table, and/or result in great photos to brag about.

Ice fishing can be much more cost effective than summer angling because ice rods can be super-cheap since they are only a couple feet long. The reel doesn’t do as much as it does during the summer months, so you do not need to spend a fortune on reels.

The first big tip in your area is to hire an ice fishing guide. Like many other guides in the Midwest, I take people out on the ice and show them the fishing process, tackle, baits and strategies to catch fish. By hiring a guide, you can sample some gear and use the guide’s tackle without buying the wrong gear.

A guide will help you learn the species and sizes of fish in the lake so you can have success. In winter, this is very important because ice fishing can be a fish desert and tough sledding for the new fisher.

Purchase good boots and ice cleats. No matter where you ice fish, cleats that keep you from slipping on ice are needed to save your back and limbs. With cleats, you can easily and comfortably walk the ice. Even glaze ice is no match for good quality cleats. A great winter boot will keep your feet warm. Insulated liners and thick soles keep you warm while the ice tries to freeze your toes. A piece of carpet sample or yoga mat (even newspapers) are good to place under your feet while you fish to separate your feet from the cold ice surface.

If you are thinking of going alone, don’t do it—ever! Taking another person with you ice fishing is very important—especially for new fishers on hard water. Ice conditions change, and natural springs, current or even schools of fish can make a dangerous trap for people to fall through. Snow-covered trap doors can form overnight, or late in the afternoon as sun warms the surface. Four to 5 inches of clean, new ice will hold an ATV or snowmobile, and safely hold you.

New fishers should be testing shore ice with a drill or spud bar (a heavy ice chisel which spears a depth-check hole). Get a feel for the depth of ice as you head out, not after you are in the center of the lake, where it might be too late to turn back.

One more item necessary for ice anglers is a pair of ice picks that you wear on a rope. These are to help rescue you should you break through the ice surface, by providing you a grip to pull yourself out. Every angler on the ice should wear these around their necks. They cost less than $20 and can save your life.

Good quality soft plastics like Clam plastics are great for the ice. You do not need piles of lures and many jigs in winter. A tiny tackle box will give you access to most all species. If you want to add pike or bass to your targets, add some tip-ups to your gear. These are flagged spools of line; the flag pops up when a fish takes your bait.

Ice fishing rods are shorter because we sit nearly over the fishing spot, rather than casting. Many are two feet long, and shorter than three feet, and can be less than $20. Don’t get sucked into buying $100 rods and reels if you are just starting out. Try fishing your guide’s or a friend’s gear before you commit. Most ice fishing gear fits in a single bucket for fishing on hard water during the winter.

Ice fishing often requires us to find suspended fish and to fish tight to structures for success. Fish can come through beneath your hole at depths many feet from the bottom at times. Electronics help us see where, when and how deep the fish are coming through. In winter, electronics are used to get the depth right, but also to see when a fish is in front of our bait.

When I first started ice fishing, I fished the old-fashioned way, using only a small weight to present lures or bait at the right depth. As I fished more, I added electronics. Affordable electronics show you when fish are near and will help you refine lure action to entice a bite.

On the lower end, you can afford electronics like Deeper Smart Sonar Pro + (It works in summer, from shore, too!) for about $180. This unit is a rechargeable ball with which you can use an iPad or phone to see fish and save spots. I bought a phone mount to mount my phone and keep it safe from dropping in the hole. Buy a floating case for your phone. I recommend this with a Deeper unit. This is a great entry into electronics and it is very versatile.

If you have a mid-range budget and know you are going to ice fish quite a bit, you can get ice flasher units with a carrying case, battery and ice transducer. These mid-range units approach $450 to $600 depending on features. I use this unit as a portable unit that I can mount on a rental boat when not on ice. I buy one transducer (the signal collector) for winter, and one you can mount on a suction cup to use on a rental boat, converting it to a summer unit. The Lowrance Hook 7 Series also gives me lake maps with depths and GPS features at an affordable price.

If you want to go full tilt, you can easily spend $1,700 to $4,000 on the highest-end electronics. I suggest that you try ice fishing before jumping into these high-end units. They are military-grade and offer detail of fish shape and motion according to what you are seeing.

A word of caution with electronics, as pointed out by world-champion angler Mick Thill, my ice teacher: Don’t spend all your time watching screens. The bite happens a half-second faster in real life than your brain needs to process the bite. If you see it on the screen, that is a delayed signal; you may already have missed it on the rod.

As a beginner or intermediate angler, learn to watch the bites on your rod tip and you will hook more fish. A live action touch will land more fish for you than screen watching. You can definitely go out and catch fish without the electronics; it was done for hundreds of years before electricity was invented.

If you want to try a different, exciting fish species or technique, you’ll find plenty of suggestions in every issue of MidWest Outdoors. Subscribe on our website.