Question for mobile guys

For the guys out there that are mobile and don’t stop until they find fish, how long do you give an area after drilling however many holes you drill?

I was out tonight, and drilled 8 or 9 holes in an area and gave the area about an hour and 15 minutes. I marked some fish, but nothing was interesting in my spoon and minnow head. A few stare downs and some other fish just coming thru, but not interested.

Curious, how some of you mobile guys go about it.

Kind of just a feel type thing. If I feel like I am in the right area and they will turn on I will wait it out, especially if I’m marking a few fish. If I get the feeling that I’m wasting time or I don’t mark a fish within 5-10 minutes, I move, maybe not far. If I don’t catch fish anywhere, I go home! I tend to drill as I go, 2-3 holes as to not expend to much energy if I’m not positive that I’m over fish and then when I do, I drill more to expand.

Depends on the species. Crappies if not marking I don’t even fish. Drill till I find the sonar light up. Eyes are a little different, agree with above. Confidence in spots, what time of day, etc

Running and moving is fine….except when I’m chasing Walleyes and it’s getting towards dusk. I wouldn’t want to be drilling holes during “Prime Time”. I’d rather set up earlier on what should be a good spot and wait it out.

SR

Crappies and bluegills early in the season I can drill dozens of holes. Especially looking for the more active/larger fish. Perch is a constant move. For walleye I am with Steve and nhamm I totally agree it’s about catching that movement and being there when they feed.

I agree. If you are trying to catch one or two nice walleyes, stick around a bit longer. If you are looking for big numbers of pannies, keep moving. One minute for sunnies and crappies; 10 minutes for an eye per hole.

I drilled 150 holes before catching a panfish this year, if I didn’t mark them I didn’t fish them, soon as I started marking them, I started catching them!

All the above is great advice. One thing you mentioned and hasn’t been touched is your searching set up. I personally use the small Ripp-N-Raps. Just my opinion but I find if they are active fish no matter what the species they will come take a look. If nothing shows up in a short amount of time it’s time to move on. If they do show up but not take it I switch my presentation.

Thanks for all the info guys. This is all good info that I will take forward.

I’ve still got a lot to learn as an ice fisherman, and most of what I have learned is based off of IDO. I am more of a panfish guy through the ice. I generally drill about 10-15 holes, then go back and see if I mark anything in them, and then fish them if I am marking anything. Keep drilling till I find fish, then fish them. Have 3 poles ready to go all set up with different jigs on them, so I can try to find what the fish want once I’ve found the fish.

However, I hardly ever see anybody on the ice drill many holes at all. Most people just drill some holes and flip up their shelter.

IceAsylem nailed it on the head with a good search lure like the rippin rap you can cut down your hole time to about 10-15mins a hole if your not getting any interest move! lol then again it important you know if your on prime EYE real-estate because you going to want to be set up when they move in