Summer 2025

BONKER’S WORLD (CONT.) SUMMER ISSUE

Well, maybe some sort of gear regression would be useful, what if I regressed to using the ubiquitous five gallon bucket? Sounds good, but not everything would fit. I started perusing the ice fishing gear manufacturing web sites looking for a solution. I’ll tell you what, they are not minimalists, well, at my core neither am I, but if I want to continue to fish on hard water I needed to cut down. I finally found an item on the web site of one of the leading manufacturers. It was a gear design holds two rods, two tip ups, an ice scoop, a pouch for a small box of jigs, a pouch for a small box of spoons and tip up supplies, a very small pouch for extra batteries for my heated gloves and a couple of other features that I still haven’t figured out, but they are there just in case I do. That still left the fish finder and some sort of seat. Sometimes it takes a rock to the side of my head to see the obvious. The fish finder can go inside of the bucket and maybe if I peruse bucket seats on the interwebs I can come up with something. I was about ready to order a set of cool bucket seats for a Jeep I haven’t owned for about 20 years. I showed the screen to my wife and I got that look which brought me back to reality, so no bucket seats for Jeeps I no longer owned were ordered. caddy that fit around a five gallon bucket. This brilliant

What I did find though was a very comfy looking extra thick seat that swivels and snaps on the bucket like a lid. Wow, things were looking up. I might be making this gear reduction dream into a reality. How would I carry the waxes, spikes and butter worms? Well, like I always did, in a pants pocket but this time I’d use what is called a bait puck so they wouldn’t squish when I sat down. Minnows were going to be a problem. How was I going to carry a minnow bucket if I was going to carry the five gallon bucket in one hand and the ice auger in the other? I solved that issue by going to the local Goodwill store and purchasing a one gallon insulated jug with a handle. I can hear you wondering which hand was I going to carry my makeshift minnow bucket in? Neither, I drilled holes in the handle and used a shoulder strap from some long ago discarded tool bag to turn it into a Bonkerized minnow bucket. The only thing left to ponder was what do I do with the fish I catch? A few years back I actually purchased a long mesh bag that fit into an eight inch hole in the ice where the maximalist would keep the fish they caught. I pondered and I pondered until I was pondered out and couldn’t come up with a solution. I thought about a safety pin type stringer or the piece of rope type stringer but how would I hook it to the ice? I could bring

along a battery powered impact wrench, the appropriate socket and impact adapter to drive a lag bolt into the ice. I think the bucket has plenty of room for it but that adds weight. I decided just to go without the fish bag or stringer hoping a solution would reveal itself. Yeah, who am I kidding? The chances of me actually catching a fish, let alone one that is keeper sized, is like purchasing winning lottery tickets twice in the same week. The gear list that once needed a large sled has been whittled down to a five gallon bucket with the comfy seat, the ice auger and an over the shoulder minnow bucket. worms in the fridge and I can get minnows on the way to the lake. Now I just needed some cooperation from the weather to give me four inches of safe ice. The ice finally got fishable about the third week of January. There was still open water on Lake McBride but there is a small county park about 30 miles north that I wanted to check out, so I put my five gallon bucket with the gear caddy, my drill with the auger attached and my minnow jug in the truck and headed north. About 45 minutes later I crested a hill and saw the small lake apparently frozen over with just two people on the ice. I was glad to see the ice and glad that My gear was sorted, I had waxies, spikes and butter

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