When you get to a spot you want to fish and you drill a grid of holes do you check them with the fishfinder before you fish them? I have heard people say they will not drop a line unless they are marking fish. I have experienced not marking fish but when my jig makes its way towards the bottom and I start jigging fish will appear off the bottom. Thoughts/Opinions?
Then again sometimes the first hole you flash, there’s tons of marks dancing. Now do you hole hop or stay to play?
Anyway I always start off with dropping the lure down the hole and jig. Once I figure that the fish aren’t moving that much or they’re roaming too much, then I just only drop if I mark fish.
Species specific.
Good question 89.
If you would have asked me last season my answer would have been yes I would fish a hole without marking a fish.
This year with live scope, Nope. and it’s actually hard for me to not drop a line in. I’ve always got to a spot, drilled a hole, set a line and then start searching.
No reason to do that now, but I worry that going out in the future I may not locate any fish and spend a day just searching.
Will I actually be fishing then?
Good question 89.
If you would have asked me last season my answer would have been yes I would fish a hole without marking a fish.
This year with live scope, Nope. and it’s actually hard for me to not drop a line in. I’ve always got to a spot, drilled a hole, set a line and then start searching.
No reason to do that now, but I worry that going out in the future I may not locate any fish and spend a day just searching.
Will I actually be fishing then?
In the future there will be no fish to catch after every one gets live scope. Lakes will be depleted
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Good question 89.
If you would have asked me last season my answer would have been yes I would fish a hole without marking a fish.
This year with live scope, Nope. and it’s actually hard for me to not drop a line in. I’ve always got to a spot, drilled a hole, set a line and then start searching.
No reason to do that now, but I worry that going out in the future I may not locate any fish and spend a day just searching.
Will I actually be fishing then?In the future there will be no fish to catch after every one gets live scope. Lakes will be depleted
Until then, I cant wait till I get mine
I drop a line and check. As stated, sometimes there won’t be any marks but they show up when the bait gets down there. If I’m catching fish in the first hole I stay there.
In the future there will be no fish to catch after every one gets live scope. Lakes will be depleted
That’s what they said when the Green Box came out – LOL 
-J.
After drilling a grid I try the last hole drilled quick if no takers (panfish) then I drop a tip-up and continue.
In the future there will be no fish to catch after every one gets live scope. Lakes will be depleted
Ain’t that the truth…unless it gets too warm for ice of course. 
Then again sometimes the first hole you flash, there’s tons of marks dancing. Now do you hole hop or stay to play?
Anyway I always start off with dropping the lure down the hole and jig. Once I figure that the fish aren’t moving that much or they’re roaming too much, then I just only drop if I mark fish.
It depends on the quality of the fish you are catching.
When you get to a spot you want to fish and you drill a grid of holes do you check them with the fishfinder before you fish them? I have heard people say they will not drop a line unless they are marking fish. I have experienced not marking fish but when my jig makes its way towards the bottom and I start jigging fish will appear off the bottom. Thoughts/Opinions?
Like everything in fishing it can be rather complex right? It likely depends on the water people are fishing. Some lakes have larger structure than others. Most of the lakes in my area are small. Guys fishing bigger lakes have to fish different.
I will drill a grid of 20-30 fish in an area, I usually fish holes with something heavy that fishes fast. Fish will often move in once a lure is in the water. You drill a grid with the holes 20-30 feet apart doesn’t mean your holes are going to end up right on fish.
Drilling can draw fish at times and blow them out at others.
Bite windows change too. Early and late season I find a lot of panfish suspended not so much in the mid winter lull outside peak feeding windows. I will often get the majority of my bites even from panfish coming of the bottom.
I live in Iowa and ice fishing panfish. I have a KDrill and I start off by drilling 10 holes. I then go check those holes. If I don’t see any fish (seldom) I will drop a line down a hole or two to see if there are any around. If nothing, start over. I fishing small ponds and lakes that I know pretty well, so normally I can find them after a few rounds. If a lake I can’t find fish, I have drilled 100 in a day .
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Good question 89.
If you would have asked me last season my answer would have been yes I would fish a hole without marking a fish.
This year with live scope, Nope. and it’s actually hard for me to not drop a line in. I’ve always got to a spot, drilled a hole, set a line and then start searching.
No reason to do that now, but I worry that going out in the future I may not locate any fish and spend a day just searching.
Will I actually be fishing then?In the future there will be no fish to catch after every one gets live scope. Lakes will be depleted
I don’t think that will be the case. It comes down to responsible sportsmen and women taking care of the resource.
Electronics can’t make fish bite and you still need to figure out a presentation that they like.
Lastly I’ve lost count of the number of people I have fished with who have the newest electronics available and are clueless as to how to properly use them.
You can’t buy your way into being a better fisher person. It takes time on the water and the ability to learn what the fish are telling you.
It depends. Fishing basin crappies in a spot I’m pretty confident I’ll find them, pretty likely I’ll keep looking till I mark fish. If I’ve searched pretty thoroughly and haven’t found anything then I will probably fish some to see if I can call them in, but don’t waste too much time fishing dead water.
If I’m shallow enough that my cone is small or fishing something like walleyes where you’re not going to constantly mark fish, you really gotta fish the hole for a few minutes to see if anything shows up.
We drill in areas we hope to find fish. And like Dave genz used to say. If you spend more then 3 or 4 minutes at a hole with out a mark or action, you are just wasting your time
I’m in the no mark move on camp. I find that often those marks that appear only after dropping a lure and pull up off the bottom are often small perch or smaller sunfish and crappies. I also found that active fish almost never hug the bottom tight.
As far as will electronic improvements have a negative impact on fishing – I think it already has. Far to many average or less than average fishermen who without modern electronics would struggle to catch fish, who now can much easier catch a limit of fish. This is why I think a decrease in Daily limits is needed. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against the use of technology by anyone who wants to use them ( Myself included )
I drill a string of holes, usually spaced by 10 paces, and 15 holes. Spacing depends on structure. Then i go along with depthfinder and an aggressive lure that drops fast and work the holes very fast. (This is just to see marks that show up when dropping a lure, not necessarily the lure i’d use to fish the specific species…)
If a pattern starts to emit where i’m not marking fish at all i move faster and skip fishing and just use the depthfinder in each hole, then drill another string, repeat.
If i get to 150 holes, no fish, i go home.
Usually before i get to 150 i’ve marched several main structure areas and just struck out.
If I am shallow, near weeds, I am for sure dropping a line. if you figure the cone with of the average flasher is 1/3 of the depth, if you are in 9′ of water, you can only see 3′, I like to throw a jig down quick to see if something enters the cone quick, but will not stay long if there are no fish.
I would also use a heavy tungsten jig to get down there fast.
My wife and I leap frog. I drill 2 holes, 1 for the flasher, and she drops in, then I walk 25 steps, drill 2 for me. If we don’t see anything, we repeat. We only stop if one of us in marking fish within the first minute. We use a locator bait, and they often appear as the bait is falling. The longer you sit looking at nothing, the less likely an active fish becomes.
If you spend more then 3 or 4 minutes at a hole with out a mark or action, you are just wasting your time
So are all the wheel houses and permanent shacks mostly wasting their time then? Not like they hook up to the truck and move if they don’t mark or catch fish every few minutes. Heck, some seem to park in one spot for weeks at a time.
Probably drinking and watching football. 
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
If you spend more then 3 or 4 minutes at a hole with out a mark or action, you are just wasting your timeSo are all the wheel houses and permanent shacks mostly wasting their time then? Not like they hook up to the truck and move if they don’t mark or catch fish every few minutes. Heck, some seem to park in one spot for weeks at a time.
Wheel houses are not hole hoping.
Correct?
Hole hoping is running and gunning searching and fishing multiple holes.
Wheel housing is setting up camp on a spot.
Probably drinking and watching football.
So are all the wheel houses and permanent shacks mostly wasting their time then? Not like they hook up to the truck and move if they don’t mark or catch fish every few minutes. Heck, some seem to park in one spot for weeks at a time.
I watched “Grumpy Old Men”- that seemed to be pretty much the whole point of fishing in a shack.
When I fish, it’s usually my brother and I. We get to a general area we want to target. We set up the flip over with holes and he gets the heat on, the rods out, and the flashers going. While he’s doing that I use the Navionics map on my phone to start drilling a grid. Depending on where we are it’s usually around 50 holes now that I finally switched to the Kdrill. He usually will start with the first holes and I’ll start at the last ones and we’ll work towards each other. We used to be no marks no drop. Now we’re kind of give it a minute or two and move on.
On the lake where I live if I’m fishing panfish in deep water no marks I don’t bother dropping a line. In my experience your wasting your time dropping a line to nothing but maybe a small perch. In shallow water I check every hole because you just never know with the cone angle. Never spending more than a minute or two in each hole. If there’s fish in a hole I’ll camp there unless they are small.
What I prefer to do in 20′ of less and 5′ of visibility or more is drop the Aqua-Vu down looking for sunfish, bass, and pike. So far this year I just am not finding fish other than some perch. I’ve seen zero bass, 1 pike, and two sunfish.
I watched “Grumpy Old Men”- that seemed to be pretty much the whole point of fishing in a shack.
Great movie
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