In the not too distant past, many ice-anglers felt restricted by the fact they were limited to an 8-inch hole in the frozen surface. That is no longer the case.

With state-of-the-art augers blazing holes through the ice and portable shelters allowing rapid packing and moving of gear, it's not uncommon for someone to drill 100 holes in a day and move 10 times before they find the fish they seek. At the same time, other new gear and technology has made it easier to move your equipment, find fish and catch them through the ice.

Let's look at what's new for this ice-fishing season, and how it can help you be more successful.

ICE-FISHING LURES
There haven't been many changes in the lure lines since last year, but there are new additions to the existing lines.

Northland Tackle, which distributes one of the largest lines of ice-fishing tackle, has added a new color to its best-selling baits. "We added the Super-Glo Goldfish color to the Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon line, which has been the best-selling lure for ice-fishing," said John Crane from Northland Tackle. "It's a plated gold baitfish front and the back is a super-glow red. Another new addition is the Buck-Shot Dropper Spoon. People used to pull the treble hooks off the Rattle Spoons and Fire-Eye Minnows to create the droppers, but now they have one all ready to go with a colored or Super-Glo hook."

Rapala has found a way to take its popular Shad Rap and bring it to ice-anglers with the Jigging Shad Rap. This lure incorporates all the positive benefits of the Jigging Rap into a larger shad-body shape. The Jigging Shad Rap has a more pronounced action, with a slow circle-down motion as it drops. By raising the lure in a sharp "snapping" motion, you can cause the bait to circle faster. A quick "vibrating" motion will also attract fish.

Genz's Fish Trap X

Lindy-Little Joe/Legendary Tackle has a popular line of ice-fishing lures, which is to be expected, since Dave Genz -- the man who originated the concept of mobile ice-angling -- designs them. Genz said ice-anglers are going to find that this season it is going to be all about the Munchies. Lindy's Munchies Tiny Tails come in four shapes with life-like detail. There is the Micro-Mino, the Split Tail, the PinTail and the Mini Spade. "I'm using plastics instead of bait a lot more these days because I've had this combination produce fish better than live bait at times," Genz said. "On one outing, I had perch spitting up mayfly larvae, and when you would lay one of the mayflies on your hand next to a Genz Bug that was tipped with a Munchie, they looked similar. The fish would hit these because we were matching the hatch, and the fish were feeding on these burrowing insects."