I don't ice-fish. I like to be able to cast all over the places in long-distance shots
for fun. I don't like sitting there for something to bend the poles for me.
So, on equipment, I have purchased just five reels and four poles. Still hunting for one more pole for the
that Shimano Stradic reel so I can have a complete set for life. Trouts, white bass, eyes,
cats, carps, sturgeons--all kinds of freshwater species, I'd be ready for.
I'll say it like this. I go ice fishing not for ice fishing but for some other meaning to life. 
In the last few years, I've probably bought more fishing gear than I have over my life time of fishing and not even a fair comparison. I'm kind of old school, so not so much into electronics, but then mostly for ice fishing as since that really is the game changer. Gotta have at least a reliable basic flasher unit or two for backup. Basic bait and gas probably cost me more, than the tool and gears ever will. But since I was probably one of the first Hmong ice fishing person, the days of early ice with an axe or hammer are long past. Those were the foolhardy time of youth. Never will I forget the steel drink can, line, and bobber. Oh and you gotta have a rock or two, maybe better with those glass marbles as bait alarm in the steel drink can.
If I die by falling through the ice, well it's a good way to die. To enjoy life to the end. Please do not drag my body out of the iced lake. 