Electronics for Ice Fishing

I have never used electronics for ice fishing and wonder if I am missing something?

I am over 60 years old and seemed to do fine in the fishing category over the years, I do use sonar on the boat to locate structure in the Summer and am pleased with it.

I fish with people that use an fl-8 or fl-18 for ice fishing and I usually do just as well as they do, as a matter of fact sometimes the fish get tangled in there transducers if they don’t pull the ducer up first.

They seem to be lost if the battery goes dead on one of there units, do people get that dependent on electronics that they forget the basics of fishing without one of these units?

To tell you the truth, I’m afraid of trying one of these units as I may get hooked on it and forget what basic fishing is all about.

Am I paranoid?

Ron

I would say your missing alot, but I don’t know where or what your fishing for. How do you know where the fish are? Are you primarily fishing bottom? Do you know where the fish are before you drill holes? Todays electronics are part of the basics of ice fishing. I can remember when my dad took me ice fishing as a kid. I remember measuring out the line depth with our arms and primarily bobber fishing. Sure we caught fish, but would a flasher have increased our catch? I would say it would have. Theres just no way to tell where the fish are in the water colum without having to adjust for depth all the time when you can do that as the fish move through on the screen of a flasher. The best part about a flasher is its ability to shoot through the ice, it saves alot of wasted time drilling holes. I could ramble on some more but I’m sure you will get plenty of responses.

I think your missing out, I fish with a FL18. I used to think like you. There are so many advantages to electronics to name a few, depth, bottom type,are there fish? You can watch the fish come to your bait or you can provoke them into bitting. Which is part of the fun of being out there. Once you fish with them and get onto reading them, it does’nt seem right to fish without it. give it a wirl.

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I think your missing out, I fish with a FL18. I used to think like you. There are so many advantages to electronics to name a few, depth, bottom type,are there fish? You can watch the fish come to your bait or you can provoke them into bitting. Which is part of the fun of being out there. Once you fish with them and get onto reading them, it doesn’t seem right to fish without it. give it a wirl.

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I should of mentioned that I do use a hand held strikemaster sonar for finding depth and structure in the Winter, other than that I’m old fashioned. I guess I just don’t want to be dependent on one of these units. I listen to my fishing partner get frustrated when a fish comes in and doesn’t take his presentation. I always fish 2 different presentations, one on the dead stick and a different one on the jigging rod testing different depths if the bite is slow.

We primarily fish URL in the Winter with an occasional trip to LOW. The resorts are usually up on the depth and approximate areas where the fish are the most active, we try to get away from the crowds as much as possible in the general area and have done quite well on most of the trips we have taken there.

One other thing, I do use a gps once in awhile and there is structure on URL. Weather conditions pretty much dictate if you can get to these areas in the Winter with a wheel house.

Ron

I understand what you’re saying however, your feeling you may become addicted to the flasher is quite true. There have been a couple times that forgot my vex and I just turned around and went all the way home to get it. I will not fish without it. I feel I have an enormous advantage with my flasher. Not only can yout see where the fish are but you pick up on the fish’s mood. I have learned so much about what triggers a bite and what doesn’t from my flasher that fishing with out it is not an option. Just the other day I was sitting out on top of a pile of gills and I knew exactly what I had to do to get the fish to bite. I’m amazed at qwhat little things matter. I would have to hold the bait above the group of fish and flicker the bait, as soon as i saw one coming up to the bait I had to hold it dead still. If I didn’t they were gone in a flash. Its different for every fish in many scenarios.