Ice fishing bibs

[GOT1!]

I'm lookin to buy some good ice fishing quality bibs and was hoping someone has some good insight on what / what not to buy. (one review i read said they needed to take off coat and pull down bibs for a pee pee) Thats bad design forsure. I'm tired of draggin myself around with 1 ton of oversized WALLS insulated overalls on, then add 10 pounds of water / ice spray after i punch my set of holes. These bibs seem to cost a fortune so i wanna be sure. So far i think my options are

Vexilar Cold Snap II Bib
Frabill lightweight bib
Strike master

The others such as ice armor and artic armor seem good also, but I'm trying to meet in middle of price/ quality
What do you guys have? that you love or hate
Thoughts????

[npauls]

I just ordered the strikemaster ones and should have them sometime this week.

They were on sale for $90 last week or the week before so I jumped on the chance and picked up the bibs first and then had someone that wanted my Arctic Armor suit so I ended up ordering the jacket as well.

I think any of the ice suits out there should be better then non water proof overalls.

Just make sure that whatever ones you order say that they are 100% waterproof. I found this out the hard way and you don't want to have a suit that you have to do water resistant treatments on every few trips out on the ice.

I would say look at:

Frabil
Strikemaster
Vexilar
Ice armor

Not in any particular order but those are the ones I have found that are all made out of the same materials and are waterproof. I can't recommend the Arctic Armor suit to you because I didn't like it at all. You would think that the price of the suit would indicate what type of quality the suit has but that was not the case at all. Also if you have any types of problems with it you will get almost no customer service from i.d.i. gear. This is the suit that would have to be treated every few trips to keep it sort of water resistant. It still soaked up water and my legs would be soaked after every trip from kneeling down while hole hopping.

Hopefully this helps you out.

[Sea Hawk]

I think bibs are a better idea than one piece overalls. With bibs you can change your parka depending on the weather. As far as brands you may want to check out snowmobile bibs. I bought mine a few years ago at Cycle Works and they are light, windproof and waterproof. They also zip in front if you need to hit the can.

[Gerry]

I have the ice armor suit and love the bibs. They're waterproof and windproof with padded knees and butt so they aren't uncomfortable when kneeling or sitting for any period. Front zipper on the bibs and the legs zip to mid thigh so you can get them on over your boots. I've used the suit for about 5 years now an it's warm.
The only problem I could find with the bibs is there's no access to your jean pockets without unzipping both the jacket and bibs.
Now for the jacket. It's a wind breaker NOT a winter jacket or parka. I would not wear it alone at anything below +5 degrees. You HAVE to layer under it. The good points are lots of pockets and a patch over one breast pocket to hold small hooks for quick access and a two way zipper.

[icefever]

I bought a set of bibs from Marks (Dakota) zippered sides, front zipper and lots of pockets, waterproof. I think they are great for the money

[Kyle]

I have had the grey ice armor for about 4 years and I highly recommend them.

[Kyle]

I have the ice armor suit and love the bibs. They're waterproof and windproof with padded knees and butt so they aren't uncomfortable when kneeling or sitting for any period. Front zipper on the bibs and the legs zip to mid thigh so you can get them on over your boots. I've used the suit for about 5 years now an it's warm.
The only problem I could find with the bibs is there's no access to your jean pockets without unzipping both the jacket and bibs.
Now for the jacket. It's a wind breaker NOT a winter jacket or parka. I would not wear it alone at anything below +5 degrees. You HAVE to layer under it. The good points are lots of pockets and a patch over one breast pocket to hold small hooks for quick access and a two way zipper.

I'm assuming you are talking about the blue ice armor? The grey is the warmer of the 2, and I am always plenty warm.

[jack88]

Love my Strikemaster bibs; paying the $70 in duty from UPS.....well not so good.:mad3:

[npauls]

Love my Strikemaster bibs; paying the $70 in duty from UPS.....well not so good.:mad3:

I ordered mine to the border and have a friend picking them up for me. They are only like $12 for duty and gst when you do it this way from what I have been told.

[Gerry]

I'm assuming you are talking about the blue ice armor? The grey is the warmer of the 2, and I am always plenty warm.

Yep, the blue.
The grey came out a year or two after I got mine.

[GOT1!]

I bought a set of bibs from Marks (Dakota) zippered sides, front zipper and lots of pockets, waterproof. I think they are great for the money

How much roughly are they? do you recall?

Thanks for all the input. The only flaw in the ice armor that i can see , is that it seems to only come as a set and not available as bibs only. I only need the bibs, so maybe if someone needs the parka, it'll all work out. might check out Mark's at the product Icefever was talkin about. Save some money with shipping and duty and spend it on bait and fuel instead.

[npauls]

How much roughly are they? do you recall?

Thanks for all the input. The only flaw in the ice armor that i can see , is that it seems to only come as a set and not available as bibs only. I only need the bibs, so maybe if someone needs the parka, it'll all work out. might check out Mark's at the product Icefever was talkin about. Save some money with shipping and duty and spend it on bait and fuel instead.

I am pretty sure you can order insulated or non insulated bibs separately. I think they just come in different colors then the full suits do.

Check out a few online sites and you should be able to find them. Glen's army and navy comes to mind as one of the sites that I checked out a few different brands of ice suits.

If I remember right the Mark's bibs were around the $160 mark but could be wrong. I also checked their stuff out but with the Strikemaster suit being on sale it saved me a bunch of money to order it.

You can get the whole uninsulated Frabil grey and black ice suit online for $170 from one of the sites also. That is a very good deal on a whole suit considering I have seen it at other online sites for $300.

[slingshotz]

Not in any particular order but those are the ones I have found that are all made out of the same materials and are waterproof. I can't recommend the Arctic Armor suit to you because I didn't like it at all. You would think that the price of the suit would indicate what type of quality the suit has but that was not the case at all. Also if you have any types of problems with it you will get almost no customer service from i.d.i. gear. This is the suit that would have to be treated every few trips to keep it sort of water resistant. It still soaked up water and my legs would be soaked after every trip from kneeling down while hole hopping.

Hopefully this helps you out.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that experienced this. The first year I used them they were incredible and 100% waterproof. Then the second year my right knee would get wet after a while. I called them up and the guy would not believe me that they were leaking. He kept on saying that it's got 8 layers, there's no way they could leak and you shouldn't be wearing jeans underneath due to sweating. It was frustrating to say the least and I couldn't get anywhere with the guy and they were still under a year old. First time I've had a customer service guy tell me I was completely wrong. I'm kneeling, right knee gets wet, left is fine, nothing else was wet, it's not bloody rocket science.

I gave up on trying to get them fixed and just remember to kneel on a waterproof rubber mat now. They are still incredibly warm and waterproof from the auger water splashes though.

[TROLLER]

Retired bud of mine bought the bib and coat from Bass pro and swears by em.

They were not cheap like 300 bucks but if an old guy says they are warm then ya gotta believe. Not sure what the brand name was but they are red in colour.