Feb 3rd crappie weekend

[Icemanjay]

Just got back from a great weekend of ice camping with a buddy in the Parry sound area. Was nice to finally try out my new set up which ended up working out great. Caught a few crappies too! The bite was really light so we worked hard but ended up with quite a few keeper sized fish. It was on a lake I’ve been wanting to try for years and finally did it! Great food, great times and managed a few fish so definitely a win. Heading back in a couple of weeks and I already can’t wait! I’ll try to post a couple of pics..

[Icemanjay]

The set up

[Icemanjay]

When they started to cooperate…

[Icemanjay]

Fox headed to check out our tip up then circled around to check us out

[Icemanjay]

Dinner

[Winterfisher]

That setup is intense. Beats my flipping a 5 gal bucket upside down and sitting in minus 20 with 30 km/h wind. Would like to try winter camping someday, looks like a blast and seems like you have it all figured out

[simcoeslayer77]

Nice set up! Looks like you had a blast. Great report and pics. Enjoy the eats

[shagdrrotten6969]

A nice crappie time for sure. Your hut looks huge. Is it an otter vortex lodge? What is your heat source, wood or pellets? Brand of stove? Thanks for any and all replies.

[crappeeeman]

Nice crappie. My favourite

[Icemanjay]

Thanks for the replies guys, thought it was about time I posted something that wasn’t a question haha! Shag, the tent is the pro resort and the stove is a Deerfamy bought from Amazon. We’ve been burning wood and these fuel blocks from Canadian tire that are just small enough to slide through the door. The wood is much easier to regulate and how we cook. It’s quite a bit of gear but I have 2 smitty sleds that pull it all out just fine.

[Perch_master]

That's awesome!!! Congrats Jason on that looks like a ton of fun out there. Great to see those nice fish too. I've been really trying this year to figure out Parry Sound/Muskoka area crappie and this is motivating to see. Thinking about heading up that way TMR and giving it another try. Thanks for the post and really happy you made it out!

[Limacharley]

I'm envious of that set up. That would work well for moose hunting too.

I'm assuming that model of pop up has an opening for a chimney?

[Mike33]

What a great setup Iceman. That little stove looks pretty compact- is it collapsible/does it disassemble?

[Icemanjay]

Thanks guys! The stove is very compact but doesn’t actually collapse like some do. However the two side racks kinda fold up as a handle and the legs fold up. The pipes fit inside the stove as well so it’s like a little box when you’re transporting it. It didn’t come with the two elbows so I had to buy them separately. I really didn’t have much info to go off of other than trying to copycat some stuff I’ve seen on YouTube, and I’m still learning it so please take my info with a grain of salt as I’m no expert. There’s some things I can contribute though for anyone thinking about trying it out. I had to burn the stove for quite a while to burn the paint off. I did a burn in the backyard then noticed a bit of a smell the first couple of times in the tent. As far as the compatibility with the tent, I got that tent because the windows are fastened with Velcro so I can take the window right off and replace it with a stove Jack the same size with Velcro sewed on to fasten just like the original window. I made this out of this felt welding blanket material I found on Amazon. It seems to be holding up ok so far but it can stretch fairly easy so time will tell. I tried out this fire proof wrap that you can put around pipes to add a layer of protection but it caught fire so don’t bother with that lol. I ended up adding a heat deflector made of a piece of tin that wraps around the stove pipe and sits about 1/4” off of the pipe that can be adjusted with screws and it seems to work really well. Don’t know if it’s necessary but why not. Also as you can see I hung a welding blanket behind the stove to protect the tent. I could totally see this used for a moose hunt as well! Another thing to add is that I find with the fuel blocks it’s hard to regulate the heat and hard to cook on. But the block just fits in the door so I like it at night to last a while but I may just switch to firewood full time. We were adding blocks every couple of hours but don’t know if a big chunk of wood would last longer. I think maybe after they’re all gone I’ll just use firewood moving forward.

[Icemanjay]

Also I’ll add I saw silicone stove jacks for sale, they’re a bit pricey but look really good. I decided to go the home made route, we’ll see how it does.