Winter is beginning to set in, and as most of my readers know, I don’t let the cold and snow keep me from one of my favorite pastimes — fishing. While you can still hit some open water on rivers and streams, I’ll concentrate most of my time on frozen lakes. When I was just a kid just getting into ice-fishing, I had my doubts that you could actually catch fish in the dead of winter, but it didn’t take me long to find out that you can have some pretty good action standing on a frozen lake. I still run into people who find it hard to believe that fish are often active feeders even with a one-foot barrier of ice, but the fact is — they still eat even in that bitter cold water.
As always, of course, to be successful on the hard water, the first obstacle you must overcome is to know where to look, and like any fishing experience, that can be a daunting task at times. I will say this, however, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that when looking for potential fishing spots on frozen lakes, you can probably narrow down your options and head for the deeper water. Most fish species will head to the deeper water, which eliminates a lot of water; that’s a good thing because your ability to move about and fish on a frozen lake is far more limiting than when cruising in your bass boat.
While heading to deeper water will likely put you over fish, the next question is how far down in that deeper water will you find them? That brings up another question, “How deep is deep?” On some lakes I fish, I hit bottom at fifteen feet, and on other lakes, I may be looking at a depth of 20-30 feet. To further complicate things, fish will often suspend at different depths; for example, it’s not unusual to find crappies or bluegills suspended at fifteen feet while fishing over 20 feet. You may even find several schools suspended at several different depths.
When I started ice-fishing back in the 60s we didn’t have much to work with — no electronics — so, we explored the depths by dropping our baited fishing rigs down the ice hole and working different depths until we got some hits. Once we got a strike, we would continue dropping our lures and baits to that same depth until the action stopped, and then we were off on another search. The process worked, but it could be very time-consuming trying to constantly locate the best depth to fish.
Well, things have changed from the “old days,” and like everything else we find in life, technology has ushered in some interesting and worthy devices such as sonar devices. Some of the earliest sonar utilized a simple round screen with numbers around the screen indicating the increasing depth. A mark would indicate the bottom, and any thinner lines above that would indicate a fish or schools of fish. These units are still popular today, but other companies have entered the market. I have a Humminbird sonar unit that allows me to use the flasher type screen, or I can switch to a continuous graph that shows the bottom contour and marks that indicate fish. If I have the unit set close to the hole I’m fishing in, I can actually watch my lure drop down into the school of waiting fish. By the way, that action may often result in a strike, but it is by no means a guarantee you’ll get a hit.
The bottom line is if you want to have more success, or at the least be successful more quickly, you should look into purchasing a sonar unit that can be utilized in ice-fishing situations. There’s a lot of equipment available today for those who want to get into the activity of ice-fishing, but to be honest other than an ice-fishing rod, the next thing I would want to accompany me on the ice would be that sonar unit.
In the days to come, we’ll take a closer look at what is needed to put fish on the ice and maybe even into the skillet.
