New to flashers

Well I am new to ice fishing with a flasher and have had my new 18 on the ice 3 times. What a kick in the pants!!!!! I have a 9 degree trans. on it and I am only in 8 foot of water but have been getting fish to show up and even catching some. I have been using the zoom in lp mode but am confused at times what I am seeing.
> Can green and / or orange lines inside the red indicate fish on the bottom?
> Sometimes everything on the display is calm and the only thing moving is the jig signal then all of sudden there is all kinds of movement and color changes inside the red bottom signal. Fish???
> Does a constant thin green line next to the leading edge of the red bottom signal indicate the outside perimeter of the cone? Weeds? Fish?
> Would a 19 degree transducer be more effective in 8 to 10 feet of water than the 9 degree I am using? I guess if a fish is going to show up at my jig it will show up regardless of the transducer I am using.
> The blue Genz box sucks and I think I need to build a box of my own. Oh well, I’m a rookie.

Congrats! What a cool tool these are.
I got mine last year and it blew me away.

I’m no pro by any means, but here’s what I found.

You often cannot tell if fish are tight on the bottom. They just look like the bottom. Jig right above them and if the bottom suddenly separates into a band, theres a fish there.

Think of the size of your jig and the size band it makes. Any schmuck floating down there (weeds, plankton, whatever) shows too. A lot of times you see a bunch of stuff come in half way down. Sometimes these are crappie and you can get them to chase your jig.

Fish directly below you show strong red bands, outside the cone are thin green bands. Sometimes you can draw in the outside fish.

Don’t be married to the bottom. Draw the fish up a few feet, these are aggresive hungary fish. The fish that will move up in the water will typically hit your jig.

Move A LOT, unless your hitting decent fish consistantly in your hole. I found that you pick off the aggresive fish quickly, and then you get a lot of lookers. When that happens, move to a new hole. I usually drill 10-20 holes and just bounce between them.

Sometimes if you get a looker (a fish that stares at your bait for more than 30 seconds) move up a foot. A lot of times they’ll chase it and hit it. Or if you have a looker, drop down and get another fish to chase it. I find that when a fish comes up to your bait that already has a fish at it, the inactive fish will hit it. I think it’s a poop or get off the pot deal.

Vary your color, bait/plasic, and jigging style a lot. You can see what turns on/off fish.

We were having some fun today. We were seeing how shallow we could get the gills to chase our jig. We were getting fish from 12 feet to come up to 4-5 feet. What a gas.

Anyway, good luck and enjoy.

Welcome. Great to have you with us. Please feel free to share and post all you want.

Thanks, Bill

How To Fish With A Flasher

Welcome to IDA Chunk n duck!

Chambers is right on! (although I would like to know where he’s fishing!!!!

One thing that Mike Finke taught me is “move”. We were fishing for crappies and he had his flasher secured to his 4 wheeler. There were many hole cut in the ice already…and he just wheeled from hole to hole looking for crappies. One he found them…down went the line…up came the fish! It was cool!

Another way (which is going to be harder now because of the snow) is to carry a quart milk jug of water with you. Pour a little on the ice (clear ice works best) and hold your transducer in the water to see if there’s anything down there…works good for finding breaks too.

Good luck! and again, welcome to IDA!

Very good advice there from Chamberschamps