Sight fishing

[reelbigfish]

  I grew up living on a lake and I used to maintain two large spearing shanties
when I was younger.  There is no greater thrill than watch down the hole when
a large pike or musky comes in like a streek of lightning after your decoy.  Now
I'm in my 50's and I strictly panfish but I still like to look down the hole.  I like
to set up in shallow water (3' to 8' deep) in pockets in the weeds and on dropoffs
and try to jig in keeper panfish.  For me watching the fish I'm about to catch means
less bait stealers and more keepers.  I've seen the water turn black with perch schools, 14" and bigger redears and crappies, and pretty much everything that
swims in a given lake.  It's what trips my trigger.  Anyone else out there like
watching down the hole?

Ted

[Auger]

I like it but my neck and back can't take it much anymore.

[bigredonice]

Most of the places I fish are either too dirty, or it is too deep to sightfish...however, there are two panfish spots that I fish where I can sight fish.  I put the vex away and look.  Pretty cool to watch the marmooska, and all of the sudden there's a black shadow, a white flash, and its fish on!

[hali-man]

I tried it for the first time last year, both for smelt and 'gills.
When you find them it is a real riot, and the bucket fills quickly! 

[icejunky]

I love to watch down the hole, Last season I was in awe watching this monster musky sniff away at my bait but refuse to take it...There were 4 of us fishing in a 6 man shanty and this musky went in circles from hole to hole setting us into a frenzy, but no luck..he wanted nothing to do with our presentations...The Down side, with him around we knew the perch and eye fishing was now bust...

gotta love clear shallow water...unless there are no fish

[PIKEGUY]

Yeah, but I rarely see anything I fish murkier waters most of the time

[C.C.]

I'm with bigred on this one. There are very few lakes I fish that you can see more than 1 or 2 feet and the ones you can I always fish the deeper water.
      Jim

[majormaj]

I had fun one day trying to play "keep away" with my bait from a bunch of dinky perch while the "big one" just sat there and watched.  Darn thing wouldn't take a chance.  Caught a bunch of dinks but they weren't even worth keeping.  Its a lot of fun though.

[perchnut]

I too grew up on a lake, in Wisconsin, and spent most of my winters as a youth staring down that ice hole....I can so vividly remember keeping the bait away from the dinks and putting in front of those jumbos, and watching them just suck on that jig, where if you werent watching, youd never know they had it in their mouths.  And then everything in the hole leaves in a hurry and a big ole pike comes wallowing through.  Now Im on the East Coast and have just picked up ice fishing again last year and am showing this thrill to my two young boys.  Very few days go by all year long when one of them doesnt mention something about ice fishing.   How great is that......

[d_balm24]

It sure is a blast.I watched schools of perch in like 30 feet of water at Simcoe last year, might have even been deeper.Sure is a clear lake and it is a thrill to watch perch that far down.

[Slacktide]

It definitely adds excitement when you can see them! I have a friend that has an all black shack with no windows and it sits right on the ice. We cut a whole about 6ft.x 16in. and you can see bait and togue swim right in. I will never forget the first time I saw one swim in. Its an adrenalin rush. In the lake we fish I think you can see down near 50ft. I have also learned how a small sound can spook them off, even when they are deep. I have also been surprised by how long they will hover there watching your bait.

[FishDaddy09]

I love it! My #1 favorite way to fish! You can learn more about fishing  watching down the hole in one day than in years of watching a flasher.

[big big rdg]

Buy an aqua-vu it will be easier on your back! I also like watching the fish come in and hit the bait, nothin better.

[Pop]

I too love to sight fish, but as mentioned it is very hard on the back and neck.

I have made a camera mount that raises the camera higher and moves it out in front of me more.  When I hook the cable to the down viewing slot, on the tail fin, and hang it in the same hole I am fishing it lets me sight fish by looking just slightly below horizontal and just in front of me. 

This permits me to sight fish and take the strain off of my back and neck.  When I hook a fish I have learned to flip the camera out of the hole, much like I do the transducer if I was using a flasher.

This has allowed me to sight fish a bit deeper than I normally could by letting me lower the camera deeper than I could see.  The only draw back is if the water is murky is hard to see from above and I can’t pull the camera while fighting a fish if it is 8’ or 10’ down the hole.


Pop

[madporider]

its one of the reasons that i bought a camera so when im fishin deep i can still watch the action

[northdease]

my shack has a 2ftx4ft hole in it for spearing. we are usually in 12- 15 FOW in pretty clear water. it is awsome to fish down the hole but just watching the fish come in is pretty neat. it is like watching a TV. especially when giant Browns come in and check out you decoys. i took my video camera with me last year and the picture came out great.

[Lobo]

I love sight fishing ! It adds to the thrill of catching and is very educational at the same time, but be carefull that you don't get to enthralled and forget to set the hook at the right moment ! (Been there done that !) I usually set up my shelter in 8 to 15' of water and keep the windows closed so I can see. But then if you have :tip-up: set you have to open something to check for flags. I just love Ice Fishing

Lobo