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CLICK PLAY to Watch the interview with Dave Genz "There are getting to be more and more people now that enjoy going out on the ice in the wintertime and catching some fish. " — ROGER SCHERPING Electronics were the next piece of the revolution puzzle. "The 30-foot depth finder scales came out, the Vexilar FL-8. We hung that transducer down the hole, I lowered my lure, and I saw it on my flasher screen. I knew that was a major breakthrough in ice fish- ing because I could now see what depth the fish were at and what level the hook was at." Genz says mobile ice fishing really began when the spoon ice augers arrived from Sweden. "We suddenly had an auger that we were drilling holes with instead of chop- ping. The spoon auger made it easier to drill more holes and move around, which allowed us to start catching more fish in the middle of the day. Then in the 1960's power augers became more available, which allowed us to be even more mobile. "As time went on we realized that the more holes you wool jackets. As time went on there was Carhartt and snowmobile suits. Then came the first Gore-Tex suits. They were uninsulated rain gear. I saw this as some- thing I wanted to wear out on the ice because I could kneel without getting wet. That was the inspiration for IceArmor clothing." Other innovations to make ice anglers more suc- cessful continued to follow from Genz's experiences on the ice. drilled, the more fish you'd probably catch. So our crude way of ice fishing had given way to "trolling" through the ice. We could actually know if there was a fish there, move on, and keep looking until we found a fish." Ice fishing clothing was the next big improve- ment. "As a kid I wore a lot of military clothing and heavy "The gear that we used when I started ice fishing was a stick with a point on the end of it with a couple of pegs on it with line wrapped around them and a bobber on it. In the 1960's we started to get these fiberglass rods that were probably a foot to three feet long, and as time went on we got graphite fishing rods. With our electronics we knew we had to adjust our depths quickly, so then we started using reels on our rods. that enjoy going out on the ice in the wintertime and catching some fish. Ice fishing is just going to keep gaining in popularity as we make more products to make us more comfortable and more successful out on the ice." "There are getting to be more and more people now THE ICE ANNUAL << ICE TEAM.COM 35 >>