Plan B-how do you develop it?

Whenever I go out on the ice I always have a plan in place, we’ll call this Plan A (original right haha), and I do my best to work plan A through as much as I can. However, I am really bad at having a backup plan in place when/if plan A fails. Sometimes I fish plan A for way to long hoping that something will happen, sometimes I get frustrated and just start shotgunning holes hoping I stumble onto something (this never works).

So my question to you guys, especially those of you that are the type of guys that always seem to find fish regardless of what everyone else is doing, how do you decide on your plan b and when do you go to it?

Lets say plan A is to head out chasing walleyes on a lake you have never been to or a part of the lake you have never fished. You have poured over maps and have picked out a spot that looks promising, a nice tight inside turn coming up out of deeper water onto a nice feeding shelf. You’ve gotten out there well before the sun comes up and drilled a bunch of holes all over the turn; deep, shallow, in between you have the entire piece of structure drilled out. You fish for 2 hours and haven’t marked a fish in any hole. At this point it is safe to say this is not the place that the fish are using on that particular day or at that particular time. Plan A just failed.

Now for Plan B. Do you find another piece of structure like what you are currently on or do you go to a different type of structure because of your experience from Plan A? Do you stick it out and keep hoping around knowing that eventually fish should be where you are?

Well, I have a formula that helps me transition from Plan A to Plan B. It gets a little complicated but I will try to explain it. First there is a variable we will call EOH. Energy on Hand. Then there is a second variable we’ll call DFF (Desire For Fish). Consider I will never expend more than 10 units of EOH on a given day. Let’s then assume that a standard Plan A consumes 6 units of EOH. If Plan B requires less than 4 units of EOH while my DFF is relatively high, I will pack up all my gear and try a new species or location. Pike are usually my backup plan as they are a bit easier, in my opinion, to locate and target.

One mitigating variable has to do with what I will call the trickle impact of returning EOH while executing Plan A. Should sufficient food and beverages be present during this plan, a slow recharging of EOH and DFF can indeed increase. But beware, the older you are and the further you are from a boat landing, this consumption of energy can also trigger IBS thus requiring a hasty exit to the nearest boat landing. Again, a 7 gallon pail lined with a garbage bag and a pot lid can be employed to mitigate the pressure but can lead to a severe case of NSFF (That Not So Fresh Feeling) as getting a proper cleaning on the ice can be challenging.

My deciding formula is EOH + DFF / IBS or NSFF = Plan B Determination. Is this helpful?

haha JD thats good I like that.

Jd,awesome!lmao.

Kent, what may be even funnier, is that I really do use this “formula” to determine whether to continue fishing or not. There are other variables I chose not to include, in the interest of simplicity, such as FOFB (Frequency of Fish Biting), JIF (remaining Jack in Flask), COH (Cigarettes on Hand), TOT (Temperature of Toes), BOH (Bait on Hand), AL(Available Light), QOC (Quality of Companion) and FFOS (Frisky Factor of Spouse). But as you can probably attest, that last variable is complicated and dramatically affected by COG (cleanliness of garage).

Despite the wonderful backup plan that JD poses, he did mention an important part of it though… Will you be willing to catch another species or are you desirous of maintaining the onslaught of the original target species???

Look at the structure that you are fishing??? Are you on a body of water that will allow you to fish that targeted species all day with the ability to catch said species. If so, then I would look at a change from weeds to rock or vice versa… Are you looking at a transition time where the fish are leaving the shoreline structure and starting up on the main lake structure??? Those would be some of the things I would look at to start or have a plan B… Other wise you may be looking at trying these variables during each of the low light periods assuming that is the prime time for your target species…

All for now, gotta put some guys on ice…

Mark

Mr. Winston and Mark nailed it. I try to drill this into people that just sit on a spot and pound salt. Set time limits and don’t get sucked into insanity (doing the same thing over and over expecting different results).

One of my all-time favorite days of changing from Plan A to B to C was fishing with Mark Benson. Started out on steep breaks for smallies. That didn’t develop and we hit probably 10-15 spots with little cooperation. Plan B was hitting a shallow weedy bay for hammer handles just to get a little action and decide on pursuing our revised plan. We pulled off of Plan B for our revised Plan C when Plan D came into the equation. Marked a heck of a lot of fish across a mud flat while on plane at 45-50mph. Spun the boat around and killed tthe motor. Grabbed a cranking rod and started marking fish. Told Mark we were on them and about 5 seconds later Mark stuck a 20″+ eye on a crank. We continued to put on a remarkable magic show for all the boats around us. I can’t tell ya how many eyes we clobbered on cranks, but it was most definitely a highlight of the year. All because of starting out with Plan A for smallies and migrated through bass, pike, musky, and finally walleyes. In the words of james Holst ” This is just soooo much fun”

haha that’s great JD!

Hilarious!!

I’m a hole hopper. For a morning plan A, it’s drill an abundant amount of holes and fish them until I’ve transitioned into daylight.
I’m always thinking about plan b while working plan A. JD’s algorithm plays a part on choosing plan b’s location.

Last week Christmas day I made it to plan E and ran out of GAS (give a poop).
Plan a: 30 holes along huge reef, covering the depths.
Plan b: 30 holes on a different part of this same huge reef

Completely dumbfounded and already over a mile from walk on access, plan c progresses back towards landing drilling 30 holes up to. On top, and around a hump in a basin.
Nada
Plan d: basin fishing, 20 holes over a few hundred yards to a shoreline flat, close to access.
Plan e: 20 holes along shoreline flat/break.

I marked 1 fish that day.
A for effort. Lol

Ice was crappy that day and all the areas I fished were out of the current. I wasn’t going near the current.
Haven’t been fishing since as I’m recharging the batteries so to speak (actually hanging with my daughter) and Sunday I’ll be back there, trying a completely different part of the lake in the current.

Can’t always catch them… But that was a first for the amount of effort I put in.

Good question and great answer, JD; good stuff right there.
I usually have Plan A and then maybe B1, B2, and B3. Sometimes,depending on conditions or plain old hunches, you get a feel for what might work when you are out there that you can’t get when you are planning. Pike are usually a solid B for me.

I’m going to steal GAS.

Last couple years I’ve been spending a fair amount of ice weekends on Gull Lake. Plan A almost always fails if it’s for walleye. Yeah, I kind of suck on that lake.

There’s usually variations to Plan A that I have an idea before I out out(time permitting). Shallow before sunrise, deeper after the early morning.

Plan B is usually about weather or confidence. I’ve got a couple of confidence spots to get on gills and an occasional crappie. Before I go out I’ll know how stubborn I am. If I really want to find the walleye, it will be variations on A. If not stubborn then I switch to Plan B aka confidence spots for panfish.

There is always Plan C. No fancy formula like JD but some of the same variables. Plan C turn ice fishing into ice drinking and have a good time with your friends.