If you happen to have an attention deficit issue similar to mine, I think I may have an option for you to pick-up where you’re constantly leaving off.
Let me explain the scenario.
Through the season I’ll try my best to stay on top of fish locations. However we all know that 20 yds away can be the place to be, or even 100 yard radius from the spot-on-the-spot from my last outing. This scenario is where the “Hole hopper mentality shines.
So how does an angler grace his presence in more than one location at a time?
The answer to this is simply put as “unattended lines”. Of course when I say unattended, I’m referencing the legal type at legal distance. These techniques are typically deadsticks, bobbers, and tip-ups. The problem with these is that they are quite cumbersome and time consuming. I absolutely will not fool around with tip-ups when I’m eagerly running the lake to find the best bite of the day. I could easily waste an hour or two dedicating excess time to the unattended techniques I listed above.
Heres the scenario:
You drive your ATV or snowmobile miles a day, following the guidance of your GPS to get you to areas that are productive. You reach your destination and STOP(after all, its where you caught yesterday). You punch your ten holes to test the water and fish those ten holes in a matter of 10 minutes with no prevail. Your next move is to grab the auger and rip another 20 holes into the ice sheet and continue to expand your location radius.
But what about back by the ATV? Curiousity sets in; should you have stuck it out? Certainly not if there was no action there. I wouldn’t have dropped a tip-up there; thats just a pain.
I’ve a simple solution to maximize your surface area presence.
Think of that ATV or snowmobile you’ve been driving around all day as your permanent ice shack. And why not rig it up?
The answer is a rattle reel or dead stick. The Rattlesnake reel from catch cover is great for this because you can attach it to many different points on your ATV snowmobile. When you’re finished with your location you can reel it up, fold it back, and be ready for whereever your gps may take you.
Doing this allows you to continuously fish the location your ATV or snowmobile was stopped at. It really gives an advantage to the situation of locating fish in large structural areas.
Pictured is my ATV and the manner in which my rod holder and Rattlesnake reel are mounted for any particualr trip on to hard water.
