How To: Ice Trolling Submerged Points

[wyoutdoors]

Wanted to take a moment to share how I locate target fish by ice trolling when I first hit the ice.

Arriving at the lake around 1 P.M. the good early morning bite is long over, and we're right in the middle of the day. Using the Navionics App for Android ($10), I locate a promising looking flat leading to a submerged point, with deeper water nearby. Fish could still be cruising the flats, hanging somewhere off the point, or out in deeper water. Or it could be a bust and I need to move on and start the process all over! This is what "Ice Trolling" is all about, finding and locating active feeding fish as quick as possible.

With the Navionics app running, I first walk out a line from the flat down the nose of the submerged point giving me a nice trail to come back over with the Strike-Lite II auger. The line of Red X's are my first "troll" and this is an actual screen shot of the Navionics mobile app (I added the X's for the post).



After drilling out a series of holes, sometimes a dozen at a time, I then go back and with the Vexilar FL-20 and starting at the shallow end on the flat begin to fish. I only spend a minute or so at each hole. Dropping a heavy flashy jig down I pound the bottom and lift a few inches to see if I get any marks on the flasher. I'll fish it up through the water column and then let it fall back to the bottom raising a cloud of sediment. Fish it back up and if I'm marking nothing, I'll move to the next hole, rinse, repeat. This particular day the first troll showed nothing. On to the next troll...

The Blue X's are the start of my second "trol". Beginning near the top of the flat/point I first walk out a line following the contour lines of the mobile app, and then drill a line of holes following the saddle to deeper water. Using the same technique, fish out this line of holes the same way. All we're looking for is some activity down there and then we can fine tune our presentation to hook'em up! But again, not much going on, so on to the next "troll"...

I then drill a series of boxes out to each side of the saddle, the Pink X's still searching for either suspended fish, or possibly walleye hugging the bottom in deeper waters. It is in one of the pink holes we finally see this! Suspended fish!



For those of you who may not use a flasher, I have the Vexilar FL-20 set to a depth of 60' (since I'm not fishing over a  60' depth). The mark at the top of the flasher is the top of the ice, the mark to the left of the flasher is the bottom of the lake at right about 48' foot of water. And all those fantastic marks in the middle are crappie suspended between 20' and 30' foot over 48' foot of water that we located with the use of the Navionics mobile app, ice trolling and the Vex FL-20.



Had we not located these fish in the pink holes, we would have continued drilling out to the side into deeper water until we had covered the area thoroughly. Once we covered the water and structure here and found nothing, we would search out other points or structure in the lake and do the same thing. We happened to locate the fish this day in under an hour of ice trolling.

Now it's time to settle in and start taking advantage of this find!



And here is the reward for our little bit of preparation, scouting out a likely looking submerged point, finding nothing, drilling off to deeper water and to the sides of the saddle in order to locate the fish. Without the electronics we very well could have been sitting over a dry hole for quite some time not even getting a light bite. We would tell all our friends the fish were tight lipped or not even around anymore. But with the use of a good topo app, an efficient, light and easy to use power auger, and quality flashers, with a bit of work we can put decent fish on the ice. This crappie is laying next to an 8" auger hole, and his buddies are 20' below us ready to join him!



Hope this helps you put more crappie and other species into your bucket! If you have any questions fire away!

Tight lines to all Ice Shanty members!

- wyoutdoors 

[dangle]

nice presentation wyoutdoors. this explains a nice standard to use, specialty a new lake. I use a similar method. the lakes I normally fish  are much shallower, using a flasher or camera can help locate cover. thanks for sharing.

dangle

[gsppointer]

When using the app, with the cursor that appears on the screen is the tip(point) of the arrow your exact location.  I just always made that assumption but we know what that leads to.  By the way, thanks for your trolling method.  Greatly appreciated.

[idahohunter1]

Very well explained! I will have to use this procedure. I use the app. on my Iphone, that's how we found a good area to fish for Macs at Flaming Gorge this last weekend. Only we weren't as thorough, one hole was really hot and the others were just ok. We got lucky with the first holes we drilled, and didn't have to move.

[kpd145]

Great tips for crappie, I like the use of the navionics app.

[JimQ]

Well done!

Thanks for taking the time to post.  Useful information for sure!

Q

[r3foxx]

When using the app, with the cursor that appears on the screen is the tip(point) of the arrow your exact location.  I just always made that assumption but we know what that leads to.  By the way, thanks for your trolling method.  Greatly appreciated.


When you mark a spot  and then look at the map before you move, the pin appears to be in the middle of the cursor.[When i have marked spots and then return to them its really not that close, maybe 20', so while having this on your phone is helpful its not that great for finding small stuff like brushpiles. Maybe other people have had better results, on my phone its not that accurate even though other gps apps are much more accurate for me./quote]

[tswoboda]

(Image removed from quote.)

- wyoutdoors 

48 feet of water on a point coming off of a flat huh...

 

[wyoutdoors]

48 feet of water on a point coming off of a flat huh...

 

Actually you're correct tswoboda, that is an earlier photo. Congratulations. I was simply trying to offer up some help and advice to to others coming here to learn and improve upon their fishing experience. Some will also show up to be jokers and detractors I guess, this is the interwebz after all. Thanks for adding helpful info for the others. Any journalistic critiques to offer? I'm not a writer nor a photojournalist and I wasn't aware this was being analyzed so intensely, otherwise I would have prepared better pre-trip for folks like yourself. My apologies.

- wyoutdoors 

[wyoutdoors]

Thanks to the rest of you for your kind words!

- wyoutdoors 

[315stickbow]

Great write up and funny commentary 

[bryantukkah]

Actually you're correct tswoboda, that is an earlier photo. Congratulations. I was simply trying to offer up some help and advice to to others coming here to learn and improve upon their fishing experience. Some will also show up to be jokers and detractors I guess, this is the interwebz after all. Thanks for adding helpful info for the others. Any journalistic critiques to offer? I'm not a writer nor a photojournalist and I wasn't aware this was being analyzed so intensely, otherwise I would have prepared better pre-trip for folks like yourself. My apologies.

- wyoutdoors 

I, for one took it for granted that that photo should be taken for granted...  Who gives a flying dung beetle where a photo like that was taken afterall.  Anyways, after reading and re-reading your post, it is probably one of the most informative and actually useful posts I have ever seen involving real strategy anywhere, for any species, hard water or soft for the everyday fisherman.  On behalf of anyone and everyone that sees this and actually puts it to use, we thank you.  Keep it coming.  It's greatly appreciated by those of us who care to actually catch more fish.  Btw, I thought it was a good photo for what it was... nice to not see beer cans and cigarette butts and blood and dead fish and bait guts and crappy HT gear all over the background of everyone's crappy photos all the time... I believe all of us really couldn't care less about the "nice" or "huge" panfish people inadvertently catch anyways... Give me a shot of a fisherman in a hut with clouds and clean ice over that anytime.  Thanks again.

[Whopper Stopper]

Excellent post, very well laid out and explained. Thanks for sharing your technique!

          WS

[Zube]

Thanks for sharing ! Very good info .

[nhdeadhead]

Excellent post man 

[Special]

Well done Well done

[JiggingIowa]

Very well explained, thanks!

[IM-POUNDING- R -U]

Great information!  Tight lines.

[DFresh75]

This was one of the most helpful posts of last year.  I really need to get aggressive and mobile vs sitting and hoping!  Ice trolling is the key.  When fishing with Tony Roach last year he punched a LOT of holes.  Which is why I'm going with a drill setup this year.  9lbs for the win!

[MT-Ed]

Thanks for the super tutorial Wyo!! Question: do fish tend NOT to use places like the cove to the left of your initial transect? Do they prefer working off points or steep drop offs like you sampled? thnx again!!

[SLAYERFISH]

I wasn't aware this was being analyzed so intensely

ANY thing we say on here gets anal-yzed to the nth degreee!

[Shack man Shoney]

Well done. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[SeisMec]

Thank you, well thought out and presented! A+ 

[IFF]

wyoutdoors  Great post.

[Ice_Fly_Guy]

Great post. Any insights on how to attack a creek channel in this manner?

[wyoutdoors]

Thanks for the super tutorial Wyo!! Question: do fish tend NOT to use places like the cove to the left of your initial transect? Do they prefer working off points or steep drop offs like you sampled? thnx again!!

Hey there MT-Ed! If you sit in one spot long enough (as long as it's a decent spot!), something is bound to swim by sooner or later, right? Inside turns, submerged points and other fish holding structure will always produce fish at one time or another.

Think of the "permanent" ice shack or guy sitting on a 5 gallon bucket all day in one spot! This is where "trolling" comes into play. Drill out a pattern on a likely looking structure spot, and see what you have there. Nothing? Move on to a different depth. Look at submerged points, flats leading off to deeper water, heck, check out the deep water too. You'll end up patterning the fish and once found, other similar spots should produce as well, as long as depth, etc. are similar.

Last season we were scouting for perch on a medium-large lake in South Dakota for a group of kids to fish. I ended up finding them off in the basin with nothing else around but flats 100 yds from any shore or significant structure. If we hadn't been drilling, looking, moving and drilling a number of times we would have never located them where they were holding at. The perch were concentrated in a tight 50 yd, on a nematode feed, and the kids had a great fish day!

Have a great ice season!

[wyoutdoors]

Great post. Any insights on how to attack a creek channel in this manner?

I will use this strategy on any body of water. Starting at a likely looking spot, drill and search. If you don't have a decent map of the channel, try to develop a mental image based off the depths your flasher is giving you. Does the bottom fall off quickly? Is it holding steady? Are there any changes in the bottom which may hold the fish's attention? Search areas that my look like bait fish could hold there too.

There is a new Navionics app and equipment out you can map your own areas with during the soft water season. I plan on getting one for next summer and mapping out some smaller reservoirs and ponds in our area. Back in Kansas I spent a lot of time on the river fishing for flatheads, and this would have come in very handy (in the 80's lol).

Tight lines to you!

[masoneddie]

Very good post Wyoutdoors....
A local lake I fish is devoid of any structure to speak of other than weed's from the shoreline out to about 12'...it's like a bowl with no sharp droppoffs anywhere, gradually reaches the deepest water being about 60' towards the middle. Target species are rainbow trout, crappie, perch.
Just curious as to how you would approach fishing a body of water like this. Thank you for sharing your technique with us!     

[wyoutdoors]

Very good post Wyoutdoors....
A local lake I fish is devoid of any structure to speak of other than weed's from the shoreline out to about 12'...it's like a bowl with no sharp droppoffs anywhere, gradually reaches the deepest water being about 60' towards the middle. Target species are rainbow trout, crappie, perch.
Just curious as to how you would approach fishing a body of water like this. Thank you for sharing your technique with us!     

From my experience Rainbows are cruisers, generally just below the ice. The shallows near the weedlines is where I'd start.

Crappies can be found suspended in the flats,  and perch can be found there as well feeding near the bottom.

As bowl-shaped as one may think the bottom is, there will most always be slight variations in contours. Fish will use these as pathways from one area to another. Scope these out or and follow them. Develop a pattern the fish are using.

[captain54]

Perch cruise to, never can sit in one spot and pound them. This is high tech stuff. I'm glad I fish weed beds, I punch 20-40 holes and troll throughout the day,while nicely added slabs and Bulls to my bucket. Just think how many more I would ice with modern technology.