Are you new to ice fishing and want to get valuable tips and tricks for your first fishing trip on hard water? Or are you an avid ice fishing fanatic who wants to connect to like-minded fishermen in order to chat and discuss your awesome hobby online?
If so, then this little guide is exactly right for you, as it lists the five largest and best ice fishing forums and Facebook groups on the internet!
After having done some research and joining most of these communities, I can assure you that these 5 forums and groups include a ton of valuable ice fishing tips and very active, engaging, and helpful members.
So, without further ado, here they are!
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IceShanty.com
Being an old-school and highly authoritative online forum, IceShanty offers lots of valuable tips, tricks, and interesting discussions about anything related to ice fishing.
The fact that IceShanty’s discussion threads pop up all over Google when searching for ice fishing topics shows that the content that is written in that forum is authentic and helpful to others.
Here are some really impressive stats about this ice fishing forum:
- Established 1996
- Total Members: 88,517
- Total Posts: 3,655,674
- Total Topics: 267,560
- Total Categories: 37
The total number of members even surpasses the biggest ice fishing Facebook community, which is really impressive in this day and age.
IceShanty’s general discussion forum has over half a million posts, so you can imagine the amount of content and knowledge that is gathered there.
I also really like their ice fishing media section, with an ice fishing picture forum (73.000+ posts) and an ice fishing video forum (12.000+ posts).
With this great mixture of written and visual material, IceShanty is a gigantic ice fishing source that attracts plenty of new members all the time.
It is also extremely admirable that this forum is actually 24 years old! Imagine the level of dedication it takes to run and maintain such a big online community over such a long period of time, not to mention to get it to the size it actually managed to reach!
Check out IceShanty.com and see if you want to join this ice fishing forum
Ice Junkies Outdoors
With almost 80.000 members, Ice Junkies Outdoors is, by far, Facebook’s largest ice fishing group.
I find the fact that the admins of this group managed to build such a gigantic group around just one part of the fishing universe, and a highly seasonal one at that, extremely impressive.
This group has a very active community with thousands of posts and questions that are often discussed at great length.
Something that I find very admirable is that this group stresses the importance of being family-friendly, which is something that definitely shows in the way discussions are held.
This makes it a really great choice for beginners with a lot of basic questions as well! You can rest assured that you can both ask all types of questions and receive helpful and friendly answers in this group.
All-in-all, a very friendly and helpful online environment that is not all that easy to find on social media!
Head over to Ice Junkies Outdoors and find out more about this Facebook group
Ice Fishing Fanatics
This is Facebook’s second-biggest ice fishing group, with an active community of over 52.000 members.
I really appreciate the in-depth gear discussions in this group, as there are plenty of posts about the best reels, rods, shelters, and underwater cameras, which make for some really helpful discussions, especially for beginners.
There is also some really good video content to be found here, of actual under-the-ice fishing action. Really cool and interesting footage that you do not see every day!
The group admins also make sure that the community stays clean and friendly, which seems to attract a lot of new members all the time.
Quality and friendliness pay off, doesn’t it, especially on social media. And this ice fishing group embodies both of these features!
Ice-aholics
This last Facebook group only has a little over 7.000 members, but nonetheless sticks out due to its high level of member engagement.
In this group, you can find plenty of posts with dozens and dozens of comments and answers, and members really aren’t holding back on giving helpful tips and advice on gear and tackle.
I recently joined myself and asked a rather in-depth question right from the start.
I was not a little surprised to get a lot of positive feedback and helpful comments from various members, which indicates to me that this group is very friendly and welcoming toward brand-new members.
There is a lot of DIY content to be found here as well, as plenty of members post pictures and information about custom-made rods, rod holders, lures, and more.
Ice-aholics is a really inspirational and friendly Facebook group, and the name is spot-on!
Find out more about this ice fishing community and see if you want to join
In-Depth Outdoor’s Ice Fishing Forum
In-depthoutdoors.com is a well-established and content-rich fishing and hunting website that has its own fishing forums.
Right after the general discussions, their ice fishing community is the second biggest forum on the site. With almost 18.000 topics, it is a vast repository of anything related to ice fishing.
Here, you can get great tips and advice on ice fishing for walleye, perch, northern pike, muskie, panfish, and lake trout. Both the active member community and their pro staff of seasoned ice fishermen make this forum highly interesting and valuable.
Even though forums have a hard time surviving in today’s social media landscape, in-depthoutdoors.com has managed to build its own, on-page fishing community, and the fact that it is alive and kicking is proof enough of its quality and richness when it comes to ice fishing topics.
Such a stand-alone community deserves a lot of respect and has surely demanded a lot of work from the guys. Well done!
Go ahead and check out in-depthoutdoors.com and its ice fishing forum
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- The Best Way to Ice Fish for Northern Pike
Featured image courtesy of Erik Granlund