Ice fishing basics

Two Autumns ago, my most frequent fishing partner, François, and I built an ice fishing cabin.  It is a modest thing, 4' by 8', two plastic chairs that François picked up from the side of the road, a little stove, a lexan window in the front, and another in the back.  We fish with "brimbales" which are most often referred to as tip-ups, but should really be called tip-downs, since they tip down when a fish bites.  the lines are heavy braided lines, mostly so they don't break if they happen to get stuck in ice, at the end of the line there is a 1/2 oz weight, and about 6-12" above the weight, there is a loop in the braided line, to which we attach a short leader (about 6") of mono or fluorocarbon with a #6 hook.  We fish with minnows which we buy from a guy down the street. Sometimes we fish with short ice-fishing rods, but we've had more luck with the stand-alone tip-downs.