ice fishing set up

I am very new to ice fishing and don’t have a vexlar or anything like thatand I am just wondering what everyone is using to get on pan fish? I have been just sitting with a minnow on a hook and jigging it some and have got a few small ones but nothing worth keeping yet. So any help is appreciated. Thanks

Pickup a used flasher and that will help you find more fish ten fold. You can find a used fl8 most of the time pretty cheap.

I would look for a cheap used flasher, if you look around you can find good deals on something like the showdown ice troller for cheap to get you started.

Try and find a weed edge about 7-10′ little jig with a maggot under a bobber about 2′ off the bottom.

Are you fishing for Panfish, Walleyes? For panfish I would get some tungsten jigs and plastics for bait. Also some Waxies or Spikes are good if you want to have some live bait to help flavor things up.

I use a lot of different types of jigs, but most are a horizontal type, like the Custom Jigs and spins Ratso, or a Flirty Girty. Colors can also play a huge part in what fish want on a particular day. I like Black, Purple, Pink, but others are good to have as well.

Here are my top go to baits.

Little Cecil in Silver

Ratso Black, Purple

Flirty Girty Purple, Black, Red

Slender Spoon Gold & Green

Gill Pill

A wide assortment here

http://www.customjigsandspins.com/

http://www.b-ybaits.com/

As others have said a low end flasher like the Marcum VX-1 will be the best purchase you can make, after that a power auger and a flip over shack.

Good luck and make sure you ask questions, that’s why we are all here, to spread our love of the sport.

without a flasher, it will be pretty tough to get on those suspended crappie bites (which is where you see a lot of those ‘shantytowns’ set up inthe middle of the lake).

I would try to fish shallow weed edges or pockets in the weeds, depending on the lake you will probably be able to see the weeds when you drill your holes.

A good lake map (or navionics on your smart phone) will be a really great $10 investment and help you find the right spots on the lake and give you a good estimation of the depth.

I would either fish small jigging spoons (my favorite are the frostee spoons, or the forage minnow) with just a crappie minnow head, or small jigs with plastics or eurolarve.

We’ve all been in your position, and I remember what a revolutionary day it was when I took my first flasher out on the ice. If you’re going to be serious about ice fishing, I would be saving my money for a flasher – likely finding a good used FL-8 or 18, VX-1, or HB-35 or Lowrance too (my first was a lowrance ice machine that I loved, I just bought an ice-ducer and blue box for a unit I already had – ~$100 invested. I have an LX-7 now, and love the bigger screen and the better separation; but there are a lot of things my ice machine does better).

mojogunter wrote:

Pickup a used flasher and that will help you find more fish ten fold. You can find a used fl8 most of the time pretty cheap.

x2

Can’t catch them if you can’t find them. Presentations are irrelevant if they’re in empty water.

My first year committing to ice fishing the last thing I thought about was a flasher. Put a wish for cash on my christmas list and got a used FL-8. BEST, BEST money spent getting into this without a close second!

I was in your same boat not too long ago. As people have stated. Buy a cheap flasher or a used one. I have a Marcum Showdown for my first new flasher. About 300 dollars. IT has help 10 fold. You go from fishing blind to seeing everything. This would be my first investment if I was you.

OK thanks much for help.