The Genz Fish Trap Turns 40
Dave Genz: the Leader of the Ice Fishing Revolution
By Steve Weisman
Dave Genz catches a nice mid-winter West Okoboji bluegill. The Arctic Cat snowmobile offers Genz mobility to get from spot to spot. The Cat carries his Fish Trap, Vexilar, battery powered auger and all of his ice fishing equipment.
Over the past 35 years, I’ve been blessed to count Dave Genz as both a mentor and friend and to be part of the Clam Outdoors pro staff led by Genz. He’s known as Mr. Ice Fishing for his revolutionary ice fishing ideas that brought ice fishing literally out of the Ice Age. It’s hard for me to believe that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the original Trap portable shelter that helped revolutionize the sport of ice fishing. Yup, that’s the portable ice shack that folds over like an accordion or a clam. Look out on area lakes, and you will often spy a sea of blue, the color of the original’s direct descendants marketed by Clam Outdoors since 1992. While other manufacturers have designed their version of the original Fish Trap and have taken their place on the ice, even with all of these other designs, it is the sea of blue that continues to set the bar in ice fishing. In Dave’s words, this is how things happened. It’s quite a story.
A family venture
Dave says, “Ice fishing has been in my life forever. I don’t ever remember not ice fishing. Everything we have done has been about helping make folks better ice anglers. We’ve been working on this for a lot longer, and there were many different prototypes through the years made from materials we could scrape together. But it’s been in the last 40 years that we’ve been making and sharing the Fish Trap with the ice fishing world. ”
A chance vehicle accident led to the ice fishing portable shelter venture. “I was coming back on a fishing trip on HWY 65, heading into Minneapolis. I passed a vehicle pulling an 8 x 8-foot fish house on a trailer. As I passed, it came unhooked and slammed into the side of my car. With the insurance money, that’s where I got the check, I decided to use that money to get started building fish houses.”
It all began in Dave’s garage, and the first ones were made of cotton canvas, metal electrical conduit piping for the moving parts and a wood base. Definitely heavier than the later models, but with nothing like it, those first Fish Traps quickly took off. The Fish Traps brought more angler mobility, and it certainly beat being outside in sub-zero weather. Anglers soon found that the added mobility greatly improved fishing success, and often times fishing a new hole meant a bite.
The building crew included Dave, his wife, Patsy and their two daughters Missy and Kathy. “Patsy sewed all of the cloth on her sewing machine for each trap. She sewed the cloth so that none of the conduit was showing,” notes Dave. “We made five in the first year, 20 in the next and then 80.” At that point, it became too much for Patsy. “Finally, we went to a tent and awning company. It’s funny, it cost us less to have that company make 100 than the 80 we made ourselves the year before!”
Missy and Kathy were young girls at the time and, according to Dave, “They would use their money that they earned to go skating on Saturdays.” Kathy says looking back, “We were both honored to be a part of it!”
Marketing in the beginning was Dave going out and visiting bait shops and showing them what he had invented. “I spent a lot of time on the phone, and I’d go store to store by myself, and when it came to shipping out the Fish Trap, it was the cheapest to send by Greyhound buses. I don’t think the drivers were too thrilled when they had to put those big boxes on their buses.”
The rest is history as the Fish Trap has become the time-honored bar when it comes to portable fishing shelters. Dave does not spend the time on the road anymore, and Missy and Kathy are there to offer continued support as he continues to share his ice fishing knowledge with the ice fishing world. Sadly, the fourth member of the team, Patsy, passed away in early March of 2020.
The author (L) and Dave Genz (R) with the 40th Commemorative Fish Trap.
That’s not all
The invention of the Fish Trap was just the beginning. There is the fishing system (a total logical system of ice fishing), the mobility caused by the Fish Trap, the Vexilar locators to “see” what’s below the ice, actual ice fishing finely tuned rod/reel combinations, the ice specific tiny ice jigs that now include an entire line of tungsten jigs, the presentation cadence (ways to entice finicky fish), the augers (gas powered and now battery powered), the heaters, the clothes…Talk about a never ending list!
Dave continues to work with Clam Outdoors, leading its pro staff and offering to share his knowledge with the fishing world. Videos and books have been written about Dave Genz and his ice fishing theories. He continues to be at the forefront of the modern ice fishing revolution.
The coolest part is how humble Dave continues to be. For him, it’s all about his love for this hardwater fishing sport and sharing it with others. His goal is for everyone to have a positive experience on the ice.
Dave has also been inducted into the Minnesota Hall of Fame (2002) and the National Freshwater Hall of Fame (2011). As an ice fisherman, I’ve learned so much from Mr. Ice Fishing, and I consider it an honor to call him a mentor and a friend.
