When people speak of ice fishing, they often discuss gear, tactics and where to fish ad nauseum, but very few people talk about the most important part of the activity: the hole.

I’m not sure why this is the case. For it has been my experience that, without the hole, ice fishing success is drastically reduced.

Despite this, there are few articles devoted to the art and science of creating a hole in the ice.

Sure, we all know that the worst way to do it is with your boot. In fact, if you have punched through the ice with your boot, get off the ice. Now! The ice is too thin.

Ice fishing holes, like everything else, have evolved over the centuries.

When ice fishing was first invented, ancient man used to drill holes in the ice by sending the heaviest angler out first. This worked for the most part, but was hell on large identical twins.

Thankfully, soon after that, the spud was invented.

The spud is essentially a chisel attached to a heavy metal bar. No one knows why it was named after a potato. I am guessing that the fellow who invented it really liked potatoes. But that, of course, is purely speculation.

The point is the spud worked well for years. And still does.

There are only two downsides to using the spud. First, you need to watch your toes, which is probably one of the main reasons why no one wears open-toed sandals when ice fishing. The other down side is when you ask a person to pass the spud, you run the risk of having a potato thrown violently at you.

The upside of a spud, however, is that it allows you to create square holes, which the marketing people said allowed you to corner a fish.

Luckily, the manual ice auger was invented soon after. Again, this is purely speculation, but I have always suspected it was invented by retired pirates with rough peg legs who took up ice fishing. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense because you can’t put a square peg in a round hole.

Again, I could be wrong.

The manual ice auger was all the rage for many years because a) it was more efficient to use and b) back in the old days when it was still a novelty, drilling a hole in the ice was probably the most fun a person could have in January. Which gives you some indication how bleak winters were back then.

The round hole was also one of the greatest technological achievements of that time. But only because technology was really moving at a snail’s pace back then. (Never forget, our ancestors used the pointed stick for centuries.)

Ancient ice anglers found that the round hole was a fine passage for slipping fish up through the ice. On the flip side, it was also appreciated by fish that slipped out of their hands. Even so, ice anglers chose to settle on the round hole because it was harder, though not impossible, to place a boot through.

Since then the only real innovation regarding holes has been the size of them and how quickly we make them. Gas- and electric-powered augers have allowed us to drill bigger holes faster.

I suspect one day soon, we will have flame-throwing ice augers, which might mean the end of ice fishing entirely. Until then, avoid asking anyone to pass the spud,