Skimming an Ice Fishing Hole

Video Transcript

"So, we've just drilled a hole in the ice. Now we want to fish it, but unfortunately, our hole is full of snow, and bits and pieces of ice, so we need to skim out that hole, and you do that, using a skimmer. These are relatively cheap, maybe three to six dollars. Some of them have a little chisel on the end, that's helpful at some times. They can be either metal or plastic. I would recommend staying away from the plastic ones, because if it's cold out, and the ice, the water freezes on the plastic chisel, and you try to get it off, you're going to break your chisel, so always get a metal one. What you want to do, you drill your hole. You want to use your foot to try to get any excess snow and ice away from the hole, and then typically, I just kneel down, and you just slowly start to, start to skim out your ice. One thing that some people do that really doesn't work well, is they try to do it very fast, like that, and all you end up doing, is getting more ice back in the hole than it's worth. You want to just carefully, very slowly move your way around the edge of the hole. Take your time. You want to get as much ice out of there as possible, and it's ok if you leave a few chunks in there, but you do want the majority of it clean, so that it's easier to not only put your lure, or your bait down, but so that it makes it easier to bring a fish up, as well."