By Louie Stout

Ice anglers are getting their wish - frozen water before the holidays.

After last year’s abbreviated season, the hard-water dunkers have been champing at the bit, which was quite evident during Clear H2o Tackle’s recent Open House for ice anglers.

Remember when ice tackle was simple and you could carry it all in a five-gallon bucket?

That’s not the case now, as winter fishing has gotten about as high tech as it is for open-water anglers.

Of course, you can still sit on a bucket, hold clunky $5 ice rods and stare into holes without any knowledge of fish being nearby. That method still produces a fair share of fish, but modern-day equipment will get you around more fish and make you a more efficient ice angler.

For example, today’s ice anglers are arming themselves with software-driven electronics, underwater cameras, specialized rods, reels and lures and utilizing them within the comfort of heat-retaining portable shanties.

Here’s a closer look:

Electronics: Portable fish finders like the Humminbird Helix 5 ($500) now include GPS to help you pinpoint the same hot holes each year on a lake regardless of how far they are offshore. The Helix includes mapping that displays lake contours and sonar that marks fish swimming within a few feet of your lure.

Underwater cameras also have become a growing trend among ice anglers, said Brian Hensley at Clear H2o. You can drop a camera probe into a hole and identify the size and species of fish under you on the camera’s screen.

“The sonar will tell you fish are down there, but the camera will clearly display the type of fish,” he explained. “You can even watch fish take your bait before your bobber even moves.”

The AquaView Micro ($249), one of several brands offering the technology, is a popular one that is lightweight and has a 3.5-inch screen.

Ice augers: Drilling holes once took forever but newer versions slice through the ice with less effort. You can still get a good manual auger that requires muscle, or you can add an adaptor ($15-$25) that connects to your cordless power drill and converts a manual auger into an electric.

If money is no object, step up in price and get one designed specifically for cordless ice drilling. These versions are lighter and much quieter than gas-powered augers.

“Probably the hottest trend in drills is the ION Electric ($575) that comes with a lithium battery,” says Hensley. “The battery lasts for a long time on one charge.”

Rods and reels: Remember the little plastic spools that served us well as reels? They’ve been replaced by “inline” mechanical reels that manage line better and allow you to drop a bait to the bottom with less effort.

Surprisingly, one of the most popular models, the 13 Tackle Free Fall reel, sells for a whopping $109 yet dealers can’t keep them in stock. Less expensive versions can be bought for half the money and still perform remarkably better than old-school methods.

In rods, inexpensive fiberglass sticks are being replaced by dainty and highly sensitive graphite rods. Hensley says the Tickle Stick ($49.99) that tapers into a built in, spring bobber-type tip has been a hot seller this winter.

If you have good rods, you can get inexpensive add-on metal spring bobbers ($2.50 for two) that fasten to the tips but techy titanium versions ($10 for two) are said to be more sensitive.

Jigs: Traditional lead-head jigs ($1.50) continue to sell, but tungsten versions (under $3) of equal weight are much smaller and tend to trick finicky fish into biting better.

Shanties: You won’t find many hard-corps anglers standing on the ice on a brutally cold day. However, lightweight, portable shanties make it possible for them to fish comfortably regardless of the elements. Today’s shanties, offered in one, two or four-man sizes, come with thermal shells to keep the heat in and block out wind. You can get a one-man unit for $300-$400, or step up to a deluxe model that provides places to store extra batteries, bar lights, comfy seats and other creature comforts.

All shanties collapse into a sled for hauling all of those new gadgets across the ice.

Do you need to spend a small fortune to catch fish through the ice? Of course not.

But there’s no doubt today’s trendy gadgets will make it easier, if not more enjoyable.