I've sold all of the flashers, portable shacks and power augers along with all of the ice rods and many of the reels and much of the tackle. I still staff for JBlures a little and have a full line of JB's ice tackle so if I really want to go, I take a 5' ultralight rod with some 2 pound nanofil line with the box of JB stuff, some of MY plastics and a hand auger and stand out on the ice. I fished very successfully on the open ice for many years without all the bells and whistles when I was younger. I didn't have any of the fancy fixings. It was colder then too. After staffing for many of the companies making shelters, augers and electronics as well as tackle and rods for many years I just wanted to get back to basic fishing. Basically, the more crap it takes to fish, the further away from fishing ice fishing gets. I'm confident doing it like I did years back. I know people today who turn around and go home if they run out of propane for the heater or if the battery goes dead on the flasher. These people simply don't have any basic fishing skills period or they could figure things out when technology abandons them temporarily. There are a lot of people on the ice today who call themselves die hard ice anglers, but take away all the technology and creature comforts and they can't find their butt with both hands let alone fish.
I'll still slip out for a couple hours of fishing on the ice occasionally and usually have fish that night for dinner. I know the areas I choose to fish and I understand that fish I am after and that my friends comes with a cost of $0.0 in technology but it does take years of experience. Part of that experience is knowing when to stay off ice.
And Tommy.....open water fishing in the winter makes those ice anglers look like whimps, which of course they are.
