It wasn’t that long ago that ice fishing, at least in terms of equipment, was a plain sport. Pack some gear on your sled, fill your auger with gas and oil, climb onto the ice, and start cutting some holes. Some would produce fish, most would not.
Like almost everything these days, those times are gone.
There’s certainly something to be said for the old-school approach. At the same time, technological advances mean that comfort and efficiency in strenuous water have never been easier.
Example: batteries that power our equipment. Some anglers skip them and instead save money by spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on electronics and fancy rods and reels.
As a fishing guide and all-around fishing fanatic, Matt Johnson – who is also the chief personnel officer and manager of several companies, including Clam Outdoors and Ice Team – simply doesn’t work that way. Whether fishing from a boat or on the ice, powering sonar, motors or augers, he takes one variable out of the equation by choosing a battery type. There are several options, but in his opinion there is only one right choice: lit.
“Everything I use now is made of lithium, but for ice fishermen in particular, it’s absolutely the best solution,” he said. “Guys spend $2,000 on LiveScope and don’t think twice about it, and you want to save on battery life? Hurry up. For me, it’s an obvious dunk, dunk.”
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For many anglers, the choice of battery depends somewhat on cost. And there is no doubt that customary gel batteries will not result in such a huge return. But beyond some initial “sticker shock,” Johnson doesn’t see any major downsides. One of the main factors is weight.
“We live in a mobile world and we want everything to be as light as possible,” he said.
Save one for lithium.
“You also get longevity,” he said. “If I want to fish all weekend and not worry about charging the battery, I can do that. I turn on ActiveTarget when I get to the lake in the morning and don’t turn it off until the end of the day. I don’t want to have to mess with charging the battery or worry about it going flat, and lithium allows me to do that.”
Come up with another winning function for lithium.
“Your standard gel and lead-acid batteries lose power and performance (as charge drops),” he said. “Whereas lithium batteries maintain peak performance until they discharge.”
Here are the three main reasons why Johnson is investing in lithium. Take-home message: “We’re pretty spoiled these days and we have these tools, so we might as well use them,” he said.
In addition to being lighter than gel batteries, which have dominated the ice fishing world for years, lithium batteries also charge faster. At the same time, the choice of batteries does not have to be based on the “all or nothing” principle.
Anglers will likely find that lithium is an optimal solution for equipment that requires high power – think fish finders, especially those equipped with GPS or built-in sonar. The same goes for underwater cameras. But plain battery-powered devices like heaters or lights? Gel batteries may be okay, especially if weight isn’t your main concern.
There’s nothing worse than getting all your gear ready and hauling it onto the lake, only to have the battery cut your day on the ice compact.
So whether you cast your lot in with gel cells, lithium batteries, or a combination of both, some best practices remain the same: keep batteries balmy; turn off electronics when not using them; make sure they are fully charged; and make sure you have a spare.
