cutting a hole in the ice.

[shancooper]

I have read that cutting a hole in the ice with a chainsaw will spook fish, and I am sure that it will.  But how is a gas powered auger any quieter?  Seems they would spook fish also.

[billditrite]

i think just cutting a hole is whats noisy. the grinding, citting chopping or shaving of the ice and the vibations that makes spook fish more than a gas powered motor on the other side of the ice    just my opinion 

[Pasquatch]

Water transmits sound very easily. On Lake George, my buddy may be 400 feet away, drilling a hole by hand with one of our 8 inch Lazer Augers, you can easily hear a very noticable soun coming up your hole, being transmitted through the water. No doubt it scares the fish.

[Polar]

You can't get around the noise you make.The best thing to do is get there early and blow in a bunch of holes.Then when prime time comes your all set.

[C.C.]

I'm sure it does spook some fish at times but I've had it already when every time you would drill a hole a fish would bite and if you sat there for a while nothing else would bite. Move 20 feet, drill a hole and bang, a fish. A note though this was with stocked trout. It never happened with anything else.
        Jim

[seaweed01]

Many, many times I have seen perch bite in new
 holes as fast as you could clean them out. I'm
sure many of the shanty members have also.

[AD]

My dad has a bottom line fish finder with the side finder on it.     I remember fishing for perch we swivelled it aroudn found which dircetion they were adn how far walked it out, started up the power auger adn drilled the whoel and bam, perch right off the bat after drilling the hole in 14 feet of water with a 10 inch power auger, Im sure it scares some fish, but the same as a boat engine, it doesnt bother others, they just might be used to it,   

[Water Wolf]

I think for walleye it's good to have all your holes cut ahead of time, they can be spooky of the auger, but some fish like pike and perch I feel are quite inquisitive and always investigating something that could be an easy meal.
I remember last winter I had just cut a hole and set my line through the slush. I was cleaning out the slush and tapping my scoop on the ice when the I had a pike strike. I am not sure if I dropped the bait on the fish or it came over to the sound, I will have to look into it some more this winter.
I know you can catch quite a few fish if you bang your lures on rocks while jigging, that has worked well for me in the past both open water and the hard stuff.

WW

[FishDaddy09]

I've been looking down the hole watching fish when some one drilled a hole near by and the fish didn't even flinch (this was with a hand auger in 10 fow ). On the other hand I've been looking down the hole and someone near by moved their shanty and fish took off like they were shot!  The one thing that I've seen scare fish the most is the sound of a snowmobile!

[Iceshanty]

I've seen the same thing fishdaddy. I think on early ice or clear ice the fish are a bit jumpy but as the season progresses they get used to all the activity specially on busy lakes. Sometimes a lake is so crowded with snowmobiles, trucks, augers and people fishing that where are they going to run to when there is no quiet part of the lake?

Another thing I noticed is that even though the fish maybe didn't bolt from noisy activity they sure don't bite as good. Jack Pete and I were fishing a shallow 6' deep spot with a bunch of holes in a 20' circle that a school of gills were holding on. There was a young kid that kept coming over and looking down the holes watching the fish, playing, rolling around on the ice and what not. Well whenever the kid came around by us the fish would stay but he could nearly shut off the bite with all the commotion. Soon as he would leave the action would fire right up again just a min or two after he walked away.

I've been looking down the hole watching fish when some one drilled a hole near by and the fish didn't even flinch (this was with a hand auger in 10 fow ). On the other hand I've been looking down the hole and someone near by moved their shanty and fish took off like they were shot!  The one thing that I've seen scare fish the most is the sound of a snowmobile!

[Fishbreath]

I swear drilling a hole will attract pickeral, It seems like they are curious.

[killitandgrillit]

I USE noise sometimes. On really cold Michigan days, the big dogs will sit down and not move. A couple of high speed passes with the sled seems to get them swimming again. We usually have a few flags right after a joyride.

[Haywood]

We use noise all of the time when Pike fishing.  If is slows down, we drive the truck across the weeds or go over and drill a hole and for some reason, it seems to get them moving again. 

[deadsmelthead]

I,d have to say every time I start driling a new hole a flag goes up or even when i start waling around on the ice one wil fly.. I read somewhere that a hand auger makes more noise than a power auger but i don,t know how much truth there is to it..

[Water Wolf]

I know for sure in shallow waters, snow-mobiles and walking heavily do scare fish. I have seen there reaction on the underwater camera, when they hear these they bolt. If the snow-mobile is going fairly fast it creates a pressure wave ahead of it, I had one guy just miss my shanty with his machine and the water in the hole actually spilled over and moved up and down for quite some time.
I was also watching a group of people on there snow-mobiles all driving in a line from deep water to there shallower tipups, they then turned and did the same thing over and over, I finally asked what they are doing, they said hearding fish to there area, I have never heard of this before. Has anyone ever tried this or had it work?

WW

[Haywood]

Never heard of it, but I am sure it will be illegal in Minnesota soon.  We were fishing, actually doing pretty good for once, started about 2 hours before a snowmobile race and as soon as the race started, it was like someone hit a switch, the fish completely quit. 

[P.I.K.E.]

Many, many times I have seen perch bite in new
 holes as fast as you could clean them out. I'm
sure many of the shanty members have also.

Same thing happens to me sometimes. I can drill a hole in 8 feet of water, look down right away and see several perch sitting right underneath. They seem to like the sound.

[killitandgrillit]

I USE noise sometimes. On really cold Michigan days, the big dogs will sit down and not move. A couple of high speed passes with the sled seems to get them swimming again. We usually have a few flags right after a joyride.

That's exactly what we do, we round the fish up. we run from deeper to shallower, and yes, it works.

[jacksmelt71]

ive seen fishing for brookies in shallow water .if you take a sled ride or dig a few holes the flags start to pop!

[bigredonice]

Making a few loops around the area with a quad when the fishing is slow never hurts.  I have definetly seen days where it made the difference once it got slow.  As for augers spooking fish, it depends on the fish.

[Kodiakman]

I don't know if drilling hole scares the fish but, this past summer it seemed like we caught noticeably more fish when the radio in the boat was on than when it was off.

[2 dogs]

I have read each of the posts here and I am sorely confused about the noise thing. I guess I have come to the conclusion that if they are gonna bite they are gonna bite and if they aren't they aren't and noise has little or nothing to do with it. It is all karma.

[bigredonice]

I have come to the conclusion that if they are gonna bite they are gonna bite and if they aren't they aren't and noise has little or nothing to do with it. It is all karma.

I think you got the gist of it

[Haywood]

I don't know if drilling hole scares the fish but, this past summer it seemed like we caught noticeably more fish when the radio in the boat was on than when it was off.

I have noticed that the fish prefer country and classic rock.  My cousin turned on the pop crap and it was almost instant that the fish stopped biting. 

[FishDaddy09]

I have noticed that the fish prefer country and classic rock.  My cousin turned on the pop crap and it was almost instant that the fish stopped biting. 

Only Bass like country music!  LOL

[dwayne]

ive seen fishing for brookies in shallow water .if you take a sled ride or dig a few holes the flags start to pop!

When I lived up in the north county of NY and did a lot of pike fishing a lot of guys would walk or ride their snow machines around their tip-ups to get the bait fish moving out of the weeds.  Pike would start tripping flags not too long after that.  This worked on days when they were hitting.  On the slow days, it wasn't as sucecssful.