Quinte Fishing

Who makes the best 8 inch manual auger.

Don't do much ice fishing but since the muskie season ended I'm bored out of my mind.

I guess i may try a little ice fishing and I guess things have changed a lot in the 25 or 30 years since I used to walk out and fish Quintie after work. Back then my equipment consisted of a spud made from a metal pipe and a piece of car spring for a blade, a jiging stick cut from 1x4 pine , a couple of Mr. Champs and a pail to sit on.

I hear guys love the Nils brand. I've got a mora swede bore and a fin bore and I like both. Hardto find blades for the one variety though.

If it worked the then, should work now.

there is always an old school guy out on the bay laying down a lesson to the guys with 1000's of dollars worth of stuff, but they don't learn the lesson and go and buy even more stuff to make them fish better.

i'd add a smitty sled and a fin bore 3 auger, it has curved blades and a double offset handle which can be hard to get used to but works good as both hands are used.

Is a 6 inch auger normally big enough?

Horsekiller, If you are hoping for an 18 lb Walleye, like many on Quinte, you had better have at least a 10" hole. A 6" hole is great for pan fish. BATMAN

whichever brand you choose make sure it has an offset handle not inline, makes it much more efficient. 6" might be a little tough to guide a big fish up 8" hole is big enough especially when the ice is thin.

I have an 8" Swede Bore............new blades is like hot knife thru butter. Dull blades on any of them can make for a good workout!! I prefer the 8 inch hole over the 6 as it is a little more forgiving on bigger fish.

My 2 cents

I have both the Swede bore and Fin bore. I can't remember which one I like better, but it is the dark blue model, not the light blue. New blades can be purchased at Canadian Tire, Gagnon's and Sail I believe. You could go with a 6" and drill 2 holes side by side and punch out the centre giving you a decent size hole. The 6" auger is a lot easier to drill when the ice starts getting to be 12-14" thick also.

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There's something wrong with that rod.
It has a bend in it!!!

I used to do this when I only had a 6" auger, but please mark your spot with a branch or something if you do this its incredibly dangerous. A lot of jurisdictions limit the hole size or require marking a hole bigger than 10-12". Iam usually not a fan of more government involvement but this is a rule I think we should have in Ontario.

Nils is suppost to be best hand auger from what I have heard but price is crazy...
I like the finbore III though works well. 8" is all ya need

I have a Nils auger and really like it. On the negative side, it's getting the blades sharpen, I need to ship the head to the states. Starting over again, Id buy an auger that I can simply go locally and buy new blades for it.