Ice fishing with a fish finder vs going blindly

[Big Ice Hole]

My battery in my Marcum died today. I thought damn so much for fishing. Then I thought duh you fished for years without electronics, so I just started fishing like I used to and did pretty good, but I've already ordered a new battery.

[Townie]

Started w/ a Fishin' Buddy lcd unit 20 yrs. ago; later bought x67c Ice Machine and haven't  had to upgrade yet. I'm in the No Sonar Go Home camp-- couldn't  dream of blindly waiting for fish to show up; even fishing known hot spots.

[fishermantim]

fishing "blindly" vs using electronics is like riding a Walmart cheapo bike vs a TREK bike.
Basically you get the same results without having to spend hundreds of dollars.

Unless you started ice fishing (or even just fishing in general) with a fish finder, you miss out on the simple joy of learning how to find fish.
Having the electronics just takes the challenge out of the outing, so that you can see where the fish are and even what kind of fish there are without having learned the hard way.

If you feel the need to go back home or to some store to get your gadget back in working order, do so...because you will have left the ice for more experienced anglers, and more importantly, you have left your spot to them!

I'm not knocking anyone that uses flashers and fish finders, as I do own one myself.
What I'm knocking is the idea that I you can't use them, then what's the use of going fishing?

Do yourselves a favor, and t least try once in awhile to go "old school", so that you don't forget how it's done.


You won't forget it!

[Unclegillhunter]

Well on the dead stick post I said I usually don't use one. I usually drill two holes side by side. Use my flasher to see where the fish are then drop a jig a little bit above the depth and let it sit. Giving a shake now and then. If the flasher would stop working at least I have an idea where they were. And I fished for years before ever getting a flasher, so I know how it is done. Have to say I would rather have the sonar!
Keep it safe! JDL

[Huntindave]

,,,,,,,,,,, to get your gadget back in working order,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I don't consider a sonar unit a gadget any more than I consider my rod and reel to be a gadget.  I suppose to go "old school" one would need to chase those fish into a rock wier and catch them with our bare hands.

I take advantage of all the tools I have at my disposal when it comes to catching fish.  As an example; why should I auger a hole by hand when I have a power tool for the job?  Just to say I know how to drill a hole with out using a gadget?

[3300]

one thing sonar was good to learn from was watching how far up one crank of the handle would bring up a bait on an open face reel i use. so one turn would be about one foot. seeing fish didn't like the pressure of having that bait right on their heads and they prefer to swim up to it, i could see i needed to hit bottom and crank the handle one turn most times was enough and some times one and a half times when they were put off more or stacked some. so a sonar made learning how to fish w/o a sonar easier. when i fish with others who don't have one i tell them hit bottom and crank it one turn and they get fish too.
the worst problem of fishing w/o one is not knowing when to jig or let it sit. jigging brings them in and letting it sit catches them. so you might jig when it needs to sit and scare it away instead.

i forgot my sonar once, went home to get it 2 miles.

i had a hb ice-55 smoke on water (deep purple anyone?) once, it was not fun.

got a lx9 and now it's "fish TV"!

[2Bstreamin]

I have an old but tip top shape Hummingbird Bird Trap portable flasher. I notice the difference in color bands on tje screen and exterior design of the newer portable sonars. Can I still use the Hummingbird and it be useful on ice?

[fishermantim]

I don't consider a sonar unit a gadget any more than I consider my rod and reel to be a gadget.  I suppose to go "old school" one would need to chase those fish into a rock wier and catch them with our bare hands.

I take advantage of all the tools I have at my disposal when it comes to catching fish.  As an example; why should I auger a hole by hand when I have a power tool for the job?  Just to say I know how to drill a hole with out using a gadget?

OK, that's fine but if you auger doesn't work can I presume that you jut won't go fishing at all?
We, as an angling collective, have become too reliant on these gadgets to make us better anglers, but it's just the opposite.
We end up getting defensive and freak out when our gadgets stop working and we resign ourselves to giving up and not even trying to go without.

I learned how to jig without a flasher and the addition of a fish finder was a fun toy.
I will let my friends use it while I jig blindly, and I usually will out fish them in the process.

Once again, I'm not knocking those that use them, but I feel that way too many rely on them as the be-all, do-all of fishing tools while ignoring the skills that are needed more.

Remember, all a fish finder does is show you that there are fish resent.
If you don't know how to fish, then all you havs is a high priced low-def video game!

[TheRock]

I took a trip to a lake about an hour away a few years back, and left my gel cell battery at home after charging it. Rather than not using my vexilar, I went to a local fleet farm store, and got another battery. I then went to the lake, and had a decent day fishing. I will not fish without a flasher/graph.

[Piscato]

Agreed. An underwater camera makes it even better.

[NJChris]

I wouldn't leave my house without my vex or my handheld GPS, for the same reason I have sonar and side imaging and use my GPS on my boat.  There all tools that help you find points, drop offs, structure, fish, and be able to go back to it your next trip. Any good fisherman can read the shoreline and find general areas fish should be, and drill holes until they actually find drop offs and fish. But you save so much time and effort with flashers and GPS. Over the course of a season or seasons your going to catch more fish and have a better understanding of the lakes your fishing. I don't go out and strictly "fish for fun", to me its also the challenge trying to learn new lakes and figure out where the fish are at certain times and what they want, and really getting a bite dialed in and being able to repeat it. Flashers make it easier

Also, saying you do as good as your buddy without a flasher isn't a fair comparison at all, if you still used it to find the spot your both fishing. At that point your just duplicating what someone else is doing. Way different than blindly walking out on the ice without one.

[DakotaElkSlayer]

Spent most of my life ice fishing without electronics...  Back in Michigan, I was fishing places that I have fished my whole life and the species I was after, electronics weren't necessary.  Shallow bays for 'gills and deep water perch...no electronics needed.  Then I moved to the West and started fishing new lakes....electronics were a must.  Deep water 'gills that could be on the bottom or suspended anywhere in the water column.  Trout and kokanee salmon that could be cruising two feet under the ice one day, twenty feet down the next.  No camera....yet, but never, ever leave the home without the Lazer Mag or the ICE55.

Jim

[fishermantim]

I read the post and they only confirm what I had been saying.

You won't go out without your electronics. Why? Because it does the work for you.
Finding the spots you want to fish could be done without the gadgets, but would take more time than we appear to want to take to LEARN where the fish are holding. I had many gratifying outings learning where the fish were holding and what presentations worked best.

The addition of a flasher just made it way too easy to forget how it was done before the electronic age.

Once again, I am not knocking those that use them, but keep in mind that it does take more skill to fish without them.
(Give it a try and see what I mean.)

Just something to consider next time you're out on the ice....

[Unclegillhunter]

First of last week I went out for the first time this season. Just me and another guy out on the ice. As I was setting up the guy was leaving, on his way over to the ramp he stopped to chat. He was a younger guy I think probably in his late teens early twenties. Had a power auger on his shoulder and a bucket with six or seven rods in it. As anyone would I asked him how he had done. Said he hadn't really found them. I told him where he had been fishing usually was good. So I had up graded my fl-18 with a dd-100 it told me I was fishing in 26 fow, not marking any fish on the sonar. The young guy asked if he could fish one of the holes I had cut. I said sure but I was not seeing any fish. We fished for a little while and no fish. While we fished he showed me the ice rods he had been building asking how much my shack cost how much the flasher went for. So anyway as we were chatting I mentioned we were in deeper water than I expected the gills to be in, he wished me good luck said he was going to a small lake he said had some huge crappie, I wished him good luck and then moved a little closer to some trees that from fishing open water I knew was a little more shallow. Moved from 26 fow to 14 fow. Still not right into the trees and the vex lit up like a Xmas tree! Spent the next 2.5 hours catching fish after fish! Wish that young one would have stuck around! I think the young fisherman was in the right place he was fishing what he knew and if I had been fishing lighter I may have grabbed my bucket and went to the different lake. As I mentioned before I had ice and open water fished for years before I ever got electronics. Like 40 years. I am guessing that many of the folks on this site have as well. I can find fish without sonar but is a lot easier with it!
Keep it safe! And if you don't want to go old school don't let anyone bring you down because of it. JDL

[AriettaBob]

Happily, thanks to generous family members yesterday, I never have to make the comparison between having a flasher and not having it again.

[Lrains]

I wouldn't even go out on the ice without a flasher anymore, speeds up locating fish and brings more fish home, without the guess work of am I leaving a hole to early or are the fish at 5ft or 25.

[Gills-only]

I wouldn't even go out on the ice without a flasher anymore, speeds up locating fish and brings more fish home, without the guess work of am I leaving a hole to early or are the fish at 5ft or 25.

.        Or setting in one hole too long trying to catch a fish that is negative!

[Townie]

I read the post and they only confirm what I had been saying.

You won't go out without your electronics. Why? Because it does the work for you.
Finding the spots you want to fish could be done without the gadgets, but would take more time than we appear to want to take to LEARN where the fish are holding. I had many gratifying outings learning where the fish were holding and what presentations worked best.

The addition of a flasher just made it way too easy to forget how it was done before the electronic age.

Once again, I am not knocking those that use them, but keep in mind that it does take more skill to fish without them.
(Give it a try and see what I mean.)

Just something to consider next time you're out on the ice....

Why limit yourself  tho'?  If it gives you satisfaction to sound the bottom with lead weight, consulting old lake maps, pulling up green weeds-- have at it. I'd rather shoot thru ice with transducer before I even drill, view fish / bottom quickly on Aqua Vu, settling on active spots with sonar graph. Soooo much more efficient and saves valuable free time. I don't have years to learn the layout of every spot.

Your posts suggest you do have a problem w/ ice tech; If you feel more satisfaction / pride not relying on gear, that's fine. I've had ol' timers kick my a** w/ their primitive gear a few times, & we all had a good time.  Each seaon I look for any tech edge to help put more and better fish on the ice. I drive a car too so I don't have to walk lol

[fishermantim]

I don't have a problem with using tech to fish.
What gets me is when people seek praise for skills that they don't really have. (sorry if this sounds harsh)

There are more and more gadgets designed to take all the guess work and work in general out of fishing.
Fish finders, cameras, gps combos, automatic jigging rigs and even drones to scout out areas from your car/truck.
Sure, they may have their place and uses, but way too many people rely on their toys to make it as easy as possible to catch a fish. (Not a problem if you are fishing for food.)

Now, if you are taking kids fishing or anyone for the first time, you'd want them to catch fish but would you want them to fish like they were playing a video game? I have taken kids fishing, and I would let them use my fish finder and I would go "old school" to show them that I don't need to use it to catch fish.

Sure, I like using my fish finder, but if I left it at home I wouldn't drive back to get it.

But all in all if we are all outside fishing and having fun, does it really matter?

No, because we are outside living and learning and you can't beat that!

Merry Christmas to all!

[nocod]

When I go perch fishing I go blind, whitefish I use the finder.

[Catfish_hunter]

Bought a cabelas brand flasher about 9 years ago when marcum was making them for cabelas. Made me become mobile to find the fish instead of hoping they found me.

[NJChris]

What gets me is when people seek praise for skills that they don't really have. (sorry if this sounds harsh)

I'll argue this all day long. If you can't catch fish without a flasher, you still wont catch fish with one. All a flasher does is let see what's happening below you instead of standing there wondering. Yes, it makes it easier and you will catch more fish with one, that's the point of using it. But saying a flasher is a crutch for lack of fishing ability is absolutely absurd. You still have to understand where fish are going to be given the lake and conditions, and be able to read a map or the shoreline to generally find those places. You still have to figure out what the fish want to eat. A flasher just lets you get dialed in quicker and waste less time doing things that aren't working.

[Raptortrapper]

Last year I had a Marcum LX7.  It changed my life.  But we ran into some financial hard times over the summer, and I had to sell it.  This ice season, I'm fishing blind again.  But it's been good for me.  My buddy and I have put 2 pike and over 50 perch on the dry side of the ice in two days, and it was all done without a fish finder of any sort.  Did we leave some fish we probably would have caught with a fish finder?  Absolutely.  But we also proved to ourselves that we can still go out there old school, and get it done.  It's a pretty good feeling!

That being said, I'll have another LX7 someday.  Hopefully by next ice season.

[Hottuna5150]

I mostly fish lake trout, which wouldn't be nearly as successful without my striker 4. When I fish brookies or bows though it's less useful since I can usually look down the hole and see bottom.

[jbird68]

Sonar all the way. I usually fish alone. But when friends wanted to fish with me that didn't have sonar I felt bad because they were fishing blind and I was not. Now my 12 year old son really wanted to ice fish with me this year. So I bought the lowrance ice pack so I could use the elite-5 from my boat. I let him use my Marcum Showdown while I figured out the lowrance unit. It helped him stay interested even though we didn't catch anything first time out. I was hoping to fish slot this week while I am off work but the temps have been close to 50. I just don't trust the ice with our lives right now.

[Chris338378]

It's night and day comparing fishing without a fish finder to fishing with one and you'll wonder how you ever caught fish without one.

[fishermantim]

It's night and day comparing fishing without a fish finder to fishing with one and you'll wonder how you ever caught fish without one.

How?

You learned how!
You look for possible structure that is visible, like points and coves, and you do your research before hand.

The toys eliminate part of the learning process, since you don't have to look for it, you just push a button and a machine tells you everything.

Maybe people are so willing to go home for their toy or no go fishing at all because they only know what the toy tells them?

Sure you will get dialed in, see possible structure, schools of fish, etc... but you didn't learn how to find fish, only how to operate a toy so it can find them for you.

One more time...I don't condemn those that use them, but I not as impressed because they didn't "find" them on their own.
Keep in mind that I agree, finding fish is only part of the game...but you have to CATCH them too!

Maybe I need some "on-ice" outdoor therapy?

[NJChris]

How?

You learned how!
You look for possible structure that is visible, like points and coves, and you do your research before hand.

The toys eliminate part of the learning process, since you don't have to look for it, you just push a button and a machine tells you everything.

Maybe people are so willing to go home for their toy or no go fishing at all because they only know what the toy tells them?

Sure you will get dialed in, see possible structure, schools of fish, etc... but you didn't learn how to find fish, only how to operate a toy so it can find them for you.

One more time...I don't condemn those that use them, but I not as impressed because they didn't "find" them on their own.
Keep in mind that I agree, finding fish is only part of the game...but you have to CATCH them too!

Maybe I need some "on-ice" outdoor therapy?

Have you ever actually used a flasher? It's not some magical box that finds and catches fish for you. Believe it or not, you still have to know how to fish in order for it to be useful to you. If you suck at fishing and can't find fish, your still not going to do much better cause you have a flasher. Anyone can find and fish visible structure. Anyone can look at a map and find obvious places to fish. That's not impressive at all, that really doesn't make you good at fishing. Try to find far offshore structure or very sparse structure on a big flat, especially in deeper water without sonar (or GPS). It doesn't matter how good of a fisherman your are or how much you think you know where it is, your going to be doing a lot of guessing and a lot of drilling to find it. There's plenty of structure in every lake that's not on a contour map or even a digital map, how do you find that? Dumb luck? If you want, you can spend more time and energy drilling holes and trying to find structure and fish, but why would you want to? So you can prove to yourself that catch fish without electronics? I've done that for probably 10 years ice fishing, I know I can do it. So why waste my time? Give me one actual real reason why not using my sonar (or GPS) would make me a better angler? Its like being allowed to have a cheat sheet for a final exam, but not using it cause you want to prove you can do just as good "the old fashion way". Really doesn't make any sense

[KevC]

I've been ice fishing "blindly" all my life (age 64) without a flasher. I bought a Jiffy propane power auger 3-years ago which I love, but the ice fishing season in mid-Ohio has been frequently short over the last 3-years and usually kicks in while I am traveling on business. I am hoping this year's season improves tremendously. Anyway, what flasher/sonar system do you recommend as best of the best? Thanks.

[iowapackfan]

I've been ice fishing "blindly" all my life (age 64) without a flasher. I bought a Jiffy propane power auger 3-years ago which I love, but the ice fishing season in mid-Ohio has been frequently short over the last 3-years and usually kicks in while I am traveling on business. I am hoping this year's season improves tremendously. Anyway, what flasher/sonar system do you recommend as best of the best? Thanks.

speaking from personal experience, I recommend a vexilar