Ice rods for open water use?

I have seen a few videos of folks lately using their ice rods and flashers for crappie fishing while fishing from a boat in open water. I don’t own a Helix or Garmin product that allows a unit to go from open water to ice just a couple of Marcum flashers(LX-6 and 3). I am heading north for three days of Muskie fishing but wondering if I need to throw a few crappie rods and the flashers in the truck. Any special tips or tricks you guys have used would be great to hear?

I think its just the ice guys getting the edge off using the flashers, Tom Boley just used his Marcum while sitting on a school of crappies but he used a open water rod. Each his own I guess. Should be a early ice year with the temps we have going on this week.

I have use both my ice rods and my flasher at times in my boat. Now days, my ice rods get used by the Grandkids in the boat and I have not brought my flasher along for a few years.

I like the strike indicator on my ice rods for jigging perch and crappie in open water from a boat. The sensitivity of the rod and strike indicator works in open water just like through a hole in the ice.

jld wrote:

I am heading north for three days of Muskie fishing but wondering if I need to throw a few crappie rods and the flashers in the truck. Any special tips or tricks you guys have used would be great to hear?

I don’t know, but if I was on a muskie fishing trip and happen to find a school of crappies, I’d set the crappie rods down and pick up the muskie pole with this Phantom glider and work it around the edges of that structure.

Yes, unbeknownst to some…a suspended school of crappies is “structure” worth targeting the apex predator.

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Yes. I used to go up to a lake near mille lacs every fall that was chock full of crappies. I brought my vex and ice rods along one year and absolutely slayed the crappies. Probably had 10-15 for every 1 the other guys were bringing in.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

Yes, unbeknownst to some…a suspended school of crappies is “structure” worth targeting the apex predator.

This is true.

You don’t need to bring your ice flasher along. Just jig by the transducer on your boat. You might have to play with the settings to see your lure.

I have a row boat on my pond, I take my Helix and ice rods often and fish crappies