An ice fishing fish finder or flasher will determine water depth, show structure such as brush piles and weed beds, and most importantly identify any fish below your hole. Modern day fishing electronics will clearly mark crappies, bluegills, walleye, and perch. Actually knowing if fish are below you is a huge asset when determining the best locations. Once you have used one I guarantee you will never fish without it.
Years ago a good friend of mine informed me of a large sand pit that was giving up really nice slab crappies. Needles to say another buddy of mine and myself headed out in pursuit of these fine fish. While my buddy was anxious to start drilling holes and get started fishing I was more interested in looking down the holes with my fish finder first
. After several holes were drilled I still wasn't marking any fish. Having a power auger I kept on drilling holes through the ice. Meanwhile my buddy had no faith in my flasher and started fishing. After drilling and checking a dozen or so more holes I noticed the bottom being marked by my flasher was moving. Since the bottom of a lake doesn't move up and down, I realized that I finally found them! After lowering my bait down 23 feet I caught the first slab crappie in just a few minutes, while my buddy fishing a dead hole still hadn't caught anything. After I caught few more slab crappies my buddy was next to me and didn't think I was quite so nuts anymore. The point of this story is simple, why spend time fishing when there's no fish? Using modern day ice fishing electronics you will know for sure whether there's fish in the area or not.
After fishing this sand pit for several weeks and watching these crappies with my ice fishing fish finder I soon realized that in the twilight hours when these crappies were the most active they could be anywhere in the water column from the bottom at 23 feet all the up to 10 feet below the ice. By seeing these fish on my flasher along with my jig I would raise or lower my bait to the fish and presto, another slab crappie. Needless to say after these weeks of catching crappies I was firm believer in my flasher, along with my fishing buddy.
By using an ice fishing flasher or fish finder you can also determine what type of jigging action will trigger the fish into biting. Since a flasher or fish finder will show both the fish below you and your jig simple raise your jig just above a marked the fish and start varying your jigging motion. Maybe the fish want a slow seductive jigging motion or a quicker aggressive jigging motion. The key here is that your electronics will tell you this.
If your like me and enjoy catching as many fish as possible when ice fishing you will certainly want to invest in an ice fishing fish finder or flasher this season.
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