Clam Drill Plate Review

With the ice season complete here in Iowa, I always like to take a minute and think about some of the new equipment I used over the past season and what my impressions were of that equipment.  Obviously when you commit to buying a product and it looks so nice and shiny in the box when you first purchase it that you are going to like that product because you chose it.  But the real testament is how the product holds up over the course of the season and what your impressions are at the end of the year. 

One product I put through the paces and tested the past two winters was the Clam Drill Plate.  I had used a cordless drill/ice auger combo the previous four years ice fishing but once the ice would reach six to eight inches thick, I would switch over to using my gas auger for the remainder of the season.  I knew that running a cordless drill/ice auger combo all season long would require a quality drill, batteries with enough power to run all day long, and the Clam Drill Plate which would reduce the amount of wear on my drill and provide a more ergonomic way to hold the auger combo.  With those requirements in mind, I settled on the Dewalt DCD995 brushless hammer drill with two 5 amp hour Dewalt XR batteries to compliment the 4 amp hour battery I had previously.  I also purchased the Clam Drill Plate but not the Clam Conversion Kit Combo as I already owned a 6" hand auger, so I was all set.

Assembly was quite easy; minus getting the chucks off the drill, but once I took it to a local Dewalt Repair Center they had the chucks off in no time and I was all set.  With the newest model of the Clam Drill Plate; you no longer have to remove the chuck from your cordless drill, which is an added bonus.

I knew that cold weather was a detriment to battery performance, so I took a small soft sided cooler I had and used that to haul my spare batteries.  I would also throw a few of the charcoal hand warmers into the cooler and it did a pretty good job of keeping the batteries warm while out on the ice.  Another option of keeping your batteries warm would be to carry them in a coat pocket, but I felt carrying three batteries on me at all times was a bit much and opted for the soft sided cooler.

I'm not going to attempt to tell you exactly how many holes or inches of ice I would get per battery, because frankly I did not keep that close of a count.  What I can say is that in two years, I have never ran through all three batteries except for prefishing for a few tournaments when I was down to the last battery.  Conservatively guessing, I would say I cut between 140-160 holes each of those days through 12-14" of hard ice with the 6" auger.

I also ran a 7" Lazer auger on my other Clam Drill Plate and I am happy to report that it worked flawlessly (as I had expected).  You certainly will not get as many holes per battery with the larger diameter auger, but I didn't expect to considering a 7" hole has a 27% larger area than a 6" hole.  The times I opted for the 7" auger was when I was in search of larger quarry and wanted the larger to hole land those fish.

True to my word, I used my Clam Drill Plate every time out in the last two years minus the tournament day of the 2015 Team Extreme West Okoboji tournament.  That day, I wanted to sight fish those gin clear waters out of an 8" hole and opted for my gas auger. 

Below I gave a short break down of the requirements I feel you need in order to use a cordless drill all season long.  It should be noted, that most of the winter I was only cutting through 10-16" of ice.  I do not have a lot of experience using this set up with thicker ice, but reports from friends who have used this set up in thicker ice has been very encouraging.

Requistes for successfully using the Clam Drill Plate

Quality Drill: You really need to use a quality 18-20 volt drill to make this system work to it's full potential.  Lesser quality drills will not cut nearly as many holes or will quit working all together.  I opted for the Dewalt DCD995 hammer drill as it has the internal components to handle this kind of work, plenty of torque, utilizes lithium batteries which really cut down on weight, and accepts larger 5 amp hour batteries.  There are plenty of other good options out there besides Dewalt, just make sure that they have a good amount of torque.

Quality Batteries: If you plan on cutting more than 10-15 holes per day, I would suggest getting a good set of batteries for your drill.  If you have old batteries or ones without much capacity, you will get frustrated at the lack of performance your set up has.  Also remember to keep your batteries warm, a cold battery will not last nearly as long as a warm battery.

Sharp Blades:  No different than a gas or standard hand auger; if you have dull blades, it will not cut as well.

So why use a set up like the Clam Drill Plate over your standard gas auger?  For me, it came down to three things.
-No messing with gasoline and no issues with cold starts.
-Weight reduction.  The clam drill plate is about 10 pound lighter than my StrikeMaster four stroke gas auger.  You're looking at around 15 pounds with a 6" auger including the Clam 16" extension.
-Speed.  The 6" setup I used is much faster than many of the gas augers I have encountered.

In my opinion this system is really a no-brainer for guys who are looking to shed some weight on what they carry out on the ice, no longer want to deal with gasoline powered augers, and who might only drill through two feet of ice at most in a season.  So if you're in the market for a new auger; you might want to check out the Clam Drill Plate, I certainly has served me well the past two seasons.

One last piece of advice if you decide to run this kind of set up.  Do yourself and your back a favor and get the 16" Clam extension.  Without the extension, the set up is pretty short and you will be bending over when drilling holes.  The extension is much more ergonomic and a real back saver.

7" auger (left) and 6" auger (right)