Using All The Resources

When you’re limited to an eight-inch hole to fish through, you have to use every resource available. This starts well before you get out on the ice.

Lake map computer cards can be purchased now that show bottom contour in detail and these “chips” as we call them can be installed in a hand-held GPS and this can put you directly onto a spot. Let’s say you want to fish an inside turn that has a wall of weeds that ends at a dropoff into 20 feet of water. You used to try to get close to the spot and drill a bunch of holes and use the sonar to pinpoint the location. Sometimes you got lucky and found the spot right away. Sometime you didn’t find it. With the new GPS and map chip showing you bottom contour navigation you go directly to the spot.

Lake maps today have never been better. Some now have contours every foot. You can pick out rocks on the bottom on these maps. It pays to look for potential hotspots well before you get to the lake and then once on the water, or ice as it is, you use the GPS to put you right onto that spot.

Now I know some of you are thinking that this means you don’t have to drill as many holes, and you’re right, to a certain extent. But drilling is your way of covering as much of an area as possible. Like I said, you only have the benefit of an eight-inch hole and winter fish are not always cruising around. In many cases you have to go to the fish. This means drilling whatever holes are necessary to find fish. That may be one and it may be one hundred. But I do admit that using the GPS to pinpoint your location means drilling fewer holes to find a spot and drilling more holes to find fish.

When I do find fish I mark the spot on my GPS. Not my hand-held GPS, but on my sonar/GPS combo unit. I’m using the M68 by Lowrance which is a combination LCD sonar, flasher and GPS. With this unit when you find a spot on a spot on a spot, which is often necessary when targeting fish under the ice, you can punch in the coordinate on your main sonar/GPS unit. With that coordinate in place you can go right back to this spot anytime you want.

The sonar is your ultimate resource. It tells you what you have from top to bottom. You know if you have fish between the bottom and the ice. You can see vegetation. You can tell hard bottoms from soft. You can tell if you’re on a breakline by checking a few holes in the area. The sonar is what allows you really fine tune the location based on all the data you can acquire from this unit.

So you are on a productive spot and now it’s finally time to drop a lure. Your resources now revolve around attracting fish, and then tricking them into tasting your bait.

Attraction can consist of flash, color, glow and rattles. In some lures you can get all of the above. Remember, attractive lures will generate bites, but it always pays to have one rigged with just a hook when the fish don’t want a lot of extra metal in their diet. I do use a Super-Glo hook though, because I like that little bit of added incentive.

One of my favorite lures for perch, walleyes, crappies and pike is the Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon. These come in Super-Glo finishes so you get all of the attractors in one lure. If there are any fish within visual range of your presentation they will always come swimming over to take a gander at the bait.

So use all the resources you have at your disposal to get back some of the advantage you lost because you’re stuck to that eight-inch hole. You’ll discover why ice fishing has never been more fun.