Seriously, wow…! This Steve Hoffman write-up about hardwater tourney pros and their gear hacks is one of THE most interesting pieces I can ever remember reading…’least far as ice fishing goes.

Hoff reached out to NAIFC pro Lawrence Luoma to get some coolio insider info on tweaks he — and most all other ice tourney pros — do to their setups to help ’em catch the biggest panfish in the lake.

Only gonna drop a few snippets below ‘cuz I highly recommend hitting up the full write-up — it’s chock full of waaaaay too many goods to fit here:

> Lawrence: “I competed in my first ice fishing tournament in 2008 at Lake Osakis in west-central MN. My family owned a cabin on the lake for decades and I was confident that I could find and catch enough fish to finish high on the leaderboard.”

> He caught fish but also lost many others, including…some of the largest fish he hooked. The tournament weigh-in proved to be an eye-opening experience as out-of-state teams that only spent a few hours pre-fishing the lake finished in the money.

> “I told them that I was losing fish and they asked to see my gear. I showed them my custom graphite rods and high-end spinning reels and immediately saw that they weren’t impressed. Then they showed me what they were using.”

Modified 24″ HT Ice Blue Super Flex ultra-light rods with Schooley De-Ma Reels. Right now that entire setup would cost you just $10.18 [!!!] on FishUSA. And it’s what the best-in-the-tourney-biz are running…almost exclusively.

> “I was shocked…. I could buy 10 of their combos for the price of one of mine, but their gear was producing better results. I pushed for details and they were like an open book. I’ve never met a group so willing to share what they knew.”

WAY more info in the full write-up here…including a 30-min vid where Lawrence walks you step-by-step through setting up one of those modified tight-lining rigs:

Giant alert!!! Jake Haniak (@homerunangling) cracked this mammoth 13-lb 15-oz (32″) freak in SK — Tobin Lake I believe? Said he missed it on a rattlebait, but it came back and nailed his glow tungsten tipped with a minnow. Boom!

How ’bout Nicole Stone (@nicolestoneoutdoors) camera-stuffing this THICK Lake Winnipeg greenback?! Welcome to the 30″ club!! Caught on a big #6 Rapala Slab Rap in the “chrome blue” color. Congrats!

Some more greenback goodness — this time from Dylan Foui and his fluttery-buttery Clam Peg Spoon:

Apparently there’s still a bit of open-water pig farmin’ to be had in southern WI. Don’t just take my word for it, take @pikedreamers instead. #BroomTail

Sean Moncur (@nowyou_seanme) got in on the open-water action too — soakin’ sucker minnows in central, MN when he struck 30″ of gold. GREAT pic:

Fishing on pressured waters? Or maybe stuck in that brutal midwinter bite?? Try tying on an oversized panfish jig with a minnow head or finesse plastic.

Sounds goofy, but it’s a little trick a handful of #dialed guides have been using the last few years on crowded lakes or in clear water:

The biggest 1/16-oz Drop Jig XL should have enough hook gap if you’re fishing with say a fathead minnow head. If you wanna bump things up to a full minnow — yet still have a super compact presentation — try the 1/8-oz Drop Jig XXL which comes with a #4 hook:

Bonus points: Also helps keep the “dinky” panfish away. Nothing wrong with stumbling across a 14″ crappie or 10″ ‘gill while chasin’ walleyes!

Okay, so occasionally I just gotta vent a few WTHeck thoughts in here…sorta like my kind of fish-therapy when I can’t get on the water (lol).

You might remember my trolling motor rant wondering “when will transom trolling motors have an anchor mode???” Still waiting…. 😉

Today’s flavor: Why don’t all high-end fishin’ electronics come with a lithium battery off the shelf?

Lol not hate, just a few observations:

Lithium batteries are roughly half the weight but twice the power of standard 12v batteries. Means you can run some flashers 40-60 hours without charging! How nice is that for a weekend fishing trip?

And say you have a big-screen graph or underwater camera that usually lasts around 5-6 hours before it dies…. Throw a lithium battery in there and you’d be looking at more like 9-10 hours — means you can use it the entire day!

Oh, and lithium batteries last roughly 5x as many “charge cycles” so you don’t need to replace ’em nearly as often.

Here’s an idea: A bunch of companies sell 10ah to 12ah 12v lithium batteries for under $99 retail (like this Dakota Lithium). So I’d guess a big fishin’ company could get a much better price based on ’em moving a lot of units?

Then charge us fish-heads a little bit more to offset that extra cost and I bet a BIG chunk of us would gladly pay a little more to get all those extra benefits? I mean, we’re already spending hundreds or thousands of buckaroos on some of these units, so what’s an extra $60 or $80 for lithium….

Phew. Okay, I’m done…for now…. Thanks for listening.

This one can anyway…. As seen by northern MN fishing guide Greg Clusiau. #GoneWithTheWind

Ouch! We’ve all been there….

Greg was nice enough to zip over with his truck and snag that Eskimo hub for ’em. His post said, “All in good shape and funny!” Funny is right, but glad to hear there were no casualties…peeps or shacks!

Btw if you’re not a fan of gettin’ down on all fours and crankin’ in ice anchors (for pop-up shacks) by hand, there’s a handful of different options out there…

…like this Ice Anchor Drill Adapter that attaches to any cordless drill — works with any ice anchors — and can even be used to crank in tip-ups:

If you’ve got an Ion Ice Auger, there’s a quick-detach system that converts your auger into an ice-anchor installing machine. Might also be nice for breaking the auger down on back-country trips:

In the end, if you just don’t feel like taking the couple o’ minutes to stake things down (I understand lol) then there’ll likely be someone watching you like their favorite show: