Winter Gear Review

Now that the ice fishing season has wrapped up, here are my reviews of some products I tested out this year.

Showdown Troller…The Troller is a super small ice fishing flasher type depthfinder made by Marcum. The intent of the product is to give people a flasher option that is easy to use when moving from hole to hole when tying to find fish (“trolling”). I thought it would be a good option for wilderness ice fishing where limiting space and weight is important.
Pro: The Troller truly is lightweight as it runs on six AA batteries and is the size of a couple baseballs.
Pro: Its vertical screen is easier to interpret compared to the standard circular flashers.
Pro: I also like the fact it gives you the depth in text in the corner-that way there is no need to do math when looking at the screen (circular models often require you to interpret your depth by multiplying the depth shown by 2 or 4).
Pro: Another nice feature is the option to heat the LCD screen so it won’t slow down when used outside.
Pro: Finally, the cost of the Troller is much less than any other quality flasher. I have seen them for as little as $169.
Con: The screen on the Troller is very small and when you are in a depth at the low to mid point of its 20 feet ranges, it is even smaller yet. For example, if you are in 24 feet of water, you are in the top end of the 20-40 foot range. This means the screen is about ½ the size it would be if you were in 39 feet of water. At 39 feet, you would be using nearly the entire screen. The result of having a super small screen when fishing at the example of 24 feet is that you barely see fish coming up from the bottom to look at your bait, because there is such a small difference between your bait hanging at 23 feet and the bottom of 24 feet.
Con: Additional issues include the AA battery run time of 20 hours. It makes using standard AA batteries less desirable, as you’ll go through them pretty quickly. I chose to invest in rechargeable AA batteries instead. The run time of 20 hours can still be a bit short when you are in the wilderness, though, with no access to the recharger. I had to bring a back up set of batteries on most 4 day trips.
Con: The size of the unit also has its drawbacks-you could easily drop the flasher down a fishing hole.
Con: The unit seemed to struggle to identify fish that were hugging the ice right below your hole. One weekend I used both the Troller and my old Vexilar and the Vexilar identified multiple fish right under the ice over the course of the trip and the Troller never did. It could be coincidence and I just never had any shallow trout come in when using the Troller, but my experience doesn’t support that theory.
Con: The Troller simply doesn’t mark fish as well as my Vexilar does. Fish shown on the Troller were often just the same size as my jig on the screen, which made identify active fish versus interference, bait, and bubbles somewhat difficult. Additionally, I often would get surprise bites from fish I simply never saw come up to my bait.
Final analysis…the Troller is good enough for what I bought it for-walking into the wilderness to ice fish when conditions make going lightweight a critical factor. It performed well enough in those situations. By making sure I fished at a depth at the bottom of one of its ranges (19 feet, 39 feet, 59 feet), I overcame the small screen issue. If space, weight, and cost are your concern, the Troller is not a bad purchase. It should be noted that I don’t have analyses of its toughness or longevity yet.

Active Trax Speaker…Made by Seattle Sports , this little 3 x 3 x 3 speaker plays my iPod and is an am/fm and weather radio. It has a permanent battery that is recharged by plugging it in to the wall at home, by a solar panel, or by a crank. You can also plug your iPod in with a usb cable and charge the iPod using the crank or solar panel.
Pro: The speaker, its connecting cords, and an iPod Nano fit in a provided little case that is very compact and lightweight-it fits well on a wilderness trip.
Pro: Seattle Sports says the battery will last seven hours on a full charge-but it seemed to last much longer than that.
Con: As stated above, the battery lasted longer than the 7 hours stated, but it also seemed that the unit sucked power from the iPod itself. I must say I am not sure about that…my Nano’s battery may be not performing as long as it once did.
Con: The crank and solar power options are barely worth it…the solar panel takes many hours to charge the unit (think days, not hours, to fully charge) and 2 minutes of full cranking only yields about 20 minutes of power to the speaker/radio.
Con: In light of the previous Con, this note is particularly concerning-the Active Trax Speaker no longer comes with the wall outlet charging option like mine.
Con: Like so many cheap radios I have owned, the first issue with this unit was volume control. After a couple uses, the volume degraded into 2 options-loud or off. Not real sure why, but I have had couple units develop this issue.
Final analysis…This unit is really close to being the perfect unit for winter camping and ice fishing in the wilderness. It has all the needed features. Unfortunately, it isn’t a quality unit and its charging slowness makes it an annoyance. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without seeing some major improvements. I am not sure what other options are out there, though.

Texsport Propane Mini-Heater…To make my small flip shack (see below) viable, I needed small propane heater that left room in the house for my depthfinder. I found a Texsport heater as one of the few options. Unfortunately, it malfunctioned on just my 2nd trip of the winter. It would work fine for a bit, but then would suddenly start roaring and the unit would become so red hot that I feared it would melt down or explode. I would shut it off for a bit and then restart it. Again, it would work for a bit, but then over heat a short time later. I was forced to retire it. Interestingly, I had an older heater of this type that was made by a different company. It had done the exact same thing (but not until I had owned it for many years). I am thinking about sending the new heater back to Texsport, but even they send me a new one, I am not sure I would trust the heater enough to take it on a trip.

Modified Mini Portable Fish House…If you recall from my November 16, 2010 post, I had modified my super lightweight, small flip style portable ice fishing shack with several items. Unfortunately, the improvements didn’t result in a drastically more comfortable experience. Extending the snowflaps did block more wind from coming in the house, but strong winds still found their way in-the house’s lack of a zippered door prevents the sealing of the flaps with snow. The reflectix insulation cut for the ceiling did keep the house warmer and held off frost formation, and the rod and drink holders worked great. However, the house has some fatal flaws that mean I won’t be using it too much in the future. One issue is the lack of the door as discussed above. A second issue is the overall lack of room in the house. It simply is too small for a heater, depth finder, and fishing hole to co-exist and it is hard to reach behind your back into the tub to get your lunch, for example. Another major flaw is that, despite its light weight and small size, the unit is harder to pull through snow than a regular hauling pulk or toboggan style sled. This is simply because it is wider at the base-narrowness makes more of a difference than weight. I’ll keep the house around for others to use when they join me, but my search for the perfect fish house continues.

Cooler Storage Chair…Also revealed on my November 16, 2010 post was my cooler that I had modified into a chair and storage unit. I specifically developed it to use in the modified fish house discussed above. My review of this item is a positive one. The chair was comfortable and the storage unit was hard sided, water proof, and roomy. When I took the snowmachine and had a bigger chair and my bigger fish house along, I used the cooler as a table and it was a welcome addition. The best part of the cooler’s storage was my idea of attaching items that are used more often or needed at a moment’s notice (e.g. hemostats) on the outside front panel. This meant those items were always handy. When walking in deeper snow, however, I did leave the cooler at home and lightened the load with 2 smaller softside coolers and a smaller chair.

Rod Tubes…Yet again revealed on my November 16, 2010 post, were my homemade protective rod tubes. Made from clear plastic tubes originally designed to protect fluorescent light bulbs, the rod protectors are flexible and didn’t seem to become brittle when cold. They worked great when walking to the chosen fishing spot. When taking the snowmachine, though, they didn’t seem protective enough. When the snowmachine is hauling the Otter Sled, I tend to pile more gear in and it became difficult to find a spot on top for the rods in their cases. A solid box is still desirable and the development of a prototype is in the works.

Tent Base…I fabricated a wooden base for my canvas tent. The base is made of 2 x 6 treated deck boards that are stood on their sides and fastened in the corners to make a rectangle with the same dimensions (8 x 11)as the tent bottom (there is no floor in this tent). I put hinges in strategic places in the deck boards in order to make sure the base would fold easily in the back of my truck.
Pro: The base worked better than even anticipated. It forms a more defined shape for the bottom of the tent, ensuring you are getting maximum use of the floor space.
Pro: It raises the A-frame tent 5.5 inches, creating a surprising gain in living space.
Pro: The solid base forms a solid wall to throw snow against to seal the bottom.
Con: The base is very heavy-it will only be used when camping right next to the truck.
Con: The base raises the snowflaps off the ground, so you have to have plenty of snow handy to seal the tent bottom from the elements. This makes the base less useful for fall hunting trips or spring fishing outings.
Final analysis…the tent base was a good project. I got almost all the materials from leftover stuff in my garage. I often said that most of my use of the winter tent would be camping right next to the truck, and the base makes it even more comfortable. The base would also make it more comfortable to camp right on the ice if you could drive to your spot. Would I drill holes and fish in it? I’d want to build a floor for it first.