Who’s Got The Best Ice Auger?
 

I wont tell you which brand I have because it wouldn’t be fair to bash them. But I have both an 8″ and a 10″ of the same model. Both start and run like mules. Today I almost had a heart attack pulling on cords. Life is too short to fight these things. Enough is enough….

I’m looking for a reliable, easy to start – easy to run unit. I fish a lot of cold days if that matters. Anybody have a brand out there that they’re in love with?

I still use hand auger(6 inch laser) but interested to see if there are any other responses

I am a commercial pan fisherman both summer and winter. My auger of choice was a 6" Nils powered by a Tanaka gas engine. Lots of power and could accommodate a Nils 8" auger for game fish. A few years ago I could see a few of the regulars changing out to cordless DC powered augers. There were some commercial units out there like ION but most of the guys went with top quality cordless drills turning one of the high end augers. I use a 20V Dewalt 995 drill and have a 16" machined SS connector which screws into the threaded shaft that the chuck screws into (have to remove the chuck). The other end of that connector is the same as the handle on a 6" Finbore hand auger and is attached to the auger with a threaded thumb screw that came with the auger. The batteries are 4AH and a single battery can drill well over 75 six inch holes in 20" of hard ice. I carry a spare battery if I think I might drill more than 75 holes but that seldom happens. The unit is very light in weight and is very powerful. I use the side handle on the drill to keep the torque under control. Most of the commercial guys now have a similar setup.

I was told at the propane ice auger may be tough in bitter cold weateher. Have you been out in any real cold weather yet? Any concerns?

I have somewhat of a history with propane in the winter while ice fishing. Occasionally when real cold I'll bring out my pop-up fish trap and use a Mr. Buddy propane heater. I have had some issues with the propane not flowing in extreme cold. I often fish when below zero so I wouldn't recommend using propane for powering an auger. DC power is the way to go and if you can't come up with something like I use then one of the commercial DC powered augers like the ION are the ticket. They will run about the same price as a high end gas powered auger. If you need large holes like 10" and have thick ice then I would recommend using a gas auger. I use 6" for pan fishing and often have up to 3' of ice and my cordless set up works great.

i have a 10" flyte, and regret it now. makes a day of drilling holes looking for crappie, or when the ice gets to being over 3 ft thick, she can be a handful.
The electric ones have become super reliable as long as you can keep your battery warm, and i love the reverse feature for clearing holes of slush.

if i could do things over again, id have an electric 8" , i dont know if there'd be a huge difference between brands.

cheers

I still have the same 8" Strikemaster that I bought 20 years ago. Just put a new blade on it 5 year back. No problems.

My modern day power auger was a 6 inch tanaka powered nils master commercial model. I used it for about 15 years. It always started and over the years I had few problems with it. One day in early spring I was with a bunch of others fishing for gills and crappie in a shallow weedy bay. It was late ice and we were cutting lots of holes. One of the guys had a DC drill like the one in my picture on a previous post. I tried it and could easily see that was the future. The next winter I was all set up with my own. Much lighter to carry, no stinky gas to get on you, no throttle freeze ups, and quieter which turns out to be a great bonus. 99 percent of the time one battery cuts all the holes I can fish in a day easily. I dont use an 8 inch but my buddy goes once in a while for bigger fish like lake trout and he switches the auger from 6 to 8 and it works well but does use more battery than the 6 inch does.

My set up came with 2 batteries. My drill is a Dewalt dc995 20V and it has both a side handle and two 4ah batteries. It is a beast and I couldn't ask for more for a 6" auger. If you need the bigger holes though go with a commercial unit like ion or stay with a gas auger.