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Maybe what really makes a fisherman great is not his ability to use technology to make him better, but to master his own ability til he has the confidence to say he doesn't feel he needs to become any better. Don't get me wrong... I enjoy the technology or I would never have been able to start this thread. I just don't feel that I need any type of sonar to make me better. My personal limit is 20 to 30 fish/trip. That's enough to clean at one time. I get 2 meals outta that for my family. One to eat fresh and one for the freezer. I do that pretty much every time I go out. No sonars needed. I can understand the guys that use em for the thrill of the screen lighting up when a fish comes for his last bite. I will admit there is a bit of a thrill watching it happen. But to say one needs it to become a better fisherman? That sounds naive to me!! As someone pointed out, "the guy doesn't know how to catch fish! It's not that the flasher didn't help him." It's an interesting point because weather or not the guy can catch fish or not we may never know. But let's say he can't. The only thing that's gonna help him get better is honing his skills as a fisherman. It's funny. When a guy uses a sonar unit and doesn't do very well, they say well it was a slow day or that guy can't catch fish. But when you light em up you say oh I couldn't have done it without my flasher!!! Come on guys!!! Have a little faith in yourselves. Everybody has the potential
Ship of fools... No I don't use a hand line. I scoop until all the water is out of the hole and then I just grab them with my bare hands.
Well chez, I sat with a guy who fished with one and he showed me exactly how it worked and what the jig looked like and when a fish came to check it out and.... To my amazement.... He even caught a nice perch right before my very eyes!!! However.... I'll always remember before walking off the ice with a limit of gills( panfish enhancement lake limit of 20 per specie) and 4 big perch, the count for that fellow was 6 perch and three barely legal bluegills and he was already on the ice when I showed up there. So although Iv never personally stuck one down any of my holes, I'm not totally ignorant to how they work contrary to what everyone seems to think.
Flashers don't help me much. If you are in deep water, work the hole through the entire column
Icewagon, we get the fact that you don't like or want to use a flasher and that is fine. NO ONE said you can't fish or can't afford one. If you CHOOSE to fish without one that is your CHOICE and the right way for you to fish. I have been ice fishing since 1996 and didn't have my Showdown, or flasher as you would call it, until 2012 and caught lots of fish over the years. A lot of people here use flashers, love them, and wouldn't fish without one while others like yourself don't use or like them. Neither group is right since it's a matter of personal preference. It's just like augers, some like gas, propane, electric, and hand crankers, no one is right and no one is wrong it's what YOU LIKE and what works for you. My point is don't start a p*ssing match and then get you lines in a knot when other people give their opinion and you don't agree with it. If you're happy that's all that matters and accept the fact that people don't agree with you.
The reason I use my flasher even in shallow water is this! My son and I where fishing last Thursday in 9 fow, getting gills all day,they would come off the bottom and chase till about 5.5 fow,the bigger(at least I think would hit) the smaller or less active fish would sink down,then at dusk crappies came in and we put on a show,they where only 2.5- 3 fow under the ice. In the 30 minute flurry 31 slabs where iced. I don't think a guy without a flasher would have caught one,because he would be fishing under them. I fished 40 years without one and always got fish,the last 14 years with the Vex has been FUN and I still always get fish,now I know what there doing and how they react to certain things. No the average guy that goes ice fishing twice a year does not need one,or a power auger,of 8 boxes of ice jigs,15 jig rods,15 tip-ups or all the rest of the crap we buy. This really isn't a p---ing contest,it's just an opinion if you like old school go for it,I'm not telling you or anyone to buy a Vex or anything else,you fish your way and Me and a lot of other guy's will fish our way. Yes I CAN GO OLD SCHOOL and still get fish,but I CHOOSE NOT TO. Lets all get along and ice fish,not many days left till its gone.
20% of the guys catch 80% of the fish! Most of the time
I fish with an underwater camera everytime out and one mistake I see allot of guys with vexs make is moving to quick to there next hole. Not allowing things to settle down. Most of the time when me or my fishing partner walks around on the ice to take a leak or get a flag, all those fish that were on the camera scatter and it takes some time for fish to move back into the area. Except for some dink gills. Then I'll talk to these same guys later that day n the only reports they'll have is for smaller fish. However in the right hands, in my opinion flashers can help you catch way more fish. That's why I recently ordered a showdown dual beam. So maybe u didn't have to check all ten of those holes that quick. Just sayin. By the way I fish in 14fow or less maybe this don't matter in deeper water.
