Ice troll-er or squatter, some where in between, what do you do.

[silvercliff_46]

I'm no troll-er, drilling a hundred holes a day is way to much work for me.  On the other hand I'm not crazy about sitting in a permanent shack, moving once a month if your lucky.

I usually pick out a  likely piece of structure drill some holes along the breaks (deep to shallow) fish for 3-4 hours working the contour or weed edge.  If nothing happens, and  I am ambitious enough I will do it again.

How about you?

[jethro]

If I'm fishing a 6 trap lake, I'll usually drill no more than 12 holes for myself all day. And base camp rarely ever moves. I don't have a hardside, but I stay put most the time.

[Garnet]

where i set up is where i stay.  the lake i fish is a good 70%+ shallow weeds.  So no matter where you set up your going to be into some kinda fish. 

[C P]

I hole hop until I find some active fish. Its nothing for me to go out and drill 20+ holes a trip.

[pfscott]

The lakes I fish the most, the fish are usually at a given depth, so it's punch a few holes, find the fish, and set up the hardside. As long as the fish follow their usual pattern of returning just before sundown, I don't move more than a few hundred feet all season. Well, that's what worked last year anyway.

[codewordcs1]

Run and gun when I can. Keep moving till you find the active fish. I'll drill as many holes as it takes. There's a few spots that I do fish that are featureless where it's a matter of sitting and waiting for the fish to move threw but usually I drill a lot of options and hop around. 

[pirkaus]

It depends on the lake I'm fishing.
There are certain places where I know where the fish are and stay put.
Other places I have to "hunt" by drilling as many holes as I need to find fish.
When fishing with a large group we tend to stay put.
I guess that makes me "some where in between"
Pirk

[Grumpyoldman]

Currently a squatter. Set up the shelter as a warm up shack. Usually stand or sit outside it and use it as a wind break.     

[jeepsw1]

If it's a lake i know, i will tend towards being a squatter, since i have a good idea of where fish/structure will be, if it's a new lake, one i don't know so well, i'm run and gun to learn the layout and where the fish stack up.   Went out on a boat yesterday to a lake i traditionally just ice fish.  Found lots of new info on where fish are in the lake, some real nice crappie and yellows, so i'll be moving from my"squatter" area to this area this coming season.

[skulldugary]

Troller here.....keep moving...If you are'nt catching fish out of one hole....Why stay and fish it?

[lefty2053]

I pop a few holes right off. I fish one no morethan 20 minutes. If no fish I move to another hole. I move around as much as it takes to find fish. I looked at a lake map last year and saw a shallow area i thought I would try out. It looked like if I just went out 40 feet I would be in around 12' of water. Well I ended up poping about 25 holes each about 20-30 feet apart until I found 11' of water. By this time I was about 200 yards from shore and then just moved to an area I knew more about. I poped 4 holes there and started catching fish.

Short version, I move a lot and only just last year bought a flip over. I stay outside of it anyway.

[DasRottweiler]

I pop 3 -4 holes based on my GPS (previously fished spot or one found and marked in softwater). I drop the Vex and see if anyones home. No?, keep drilling up to  8-10 more holes. 3-4 at a time. I usually don`t fish til I see fish on the flasher and I don`t set up my one man til I catch fish. By the days end, I may have as many as 20 or so holes punched. This is on smaller water-on larger water , multiply my numbers by 2.

[UP jigstick]

Ice troller here, when fishing pannies. That is of course until I find some active fish. Then it is settle in and have some fun. If I'm fishing eyes I tend to post up on a single piece of structure and stay put a little more.

[fish fanatic jr.]

No fish on the marcum more holes will be punched.

[surflizard]

Both I guess. I swiss cheese a section over structure that produces for me, anywhere from 20 to 40 holes, check and mark holes with active fish, set up the portable and the camera for the boss, then I run and gun the other holes ! Gotta feed the Jiggin Habit !

[duckbuster]

I'm a mover and a shaker. Drill tons of holes and keep moving, however I never leave fish to find fish.

[adkRoy]

I hit a different lake every weekend.   I set up the portable for the wife, put out tip-ups, then drill holes all round them for jigging.

[bmxrider11976]

keep it moving!!  if i dint catch a fish in a hole i drilled within the first 5 minutes, I'm on to the next one! i usually cut about 10 to start and start to branch out from there if I'm not catchin them.

[ice dawg]

For me it depends on the weather to a certain extent. If it is -20 with a 20 mph wind I will find the structure I would like to fish, set up a shelter and mostly stay inside. Some lakes I fish have large flats with very little structure on which I will target Perch. When on this type of lake I will drill holes and drop my camera down for a 360 degree look around on the bottom. I keep doing this until I find Perch with the camera. I will set my shelter up here as I can be confident that Perch will school through the area periodically and can be called in by jigging a fairly large spoon a few feet from the bottom. I will also drill about fifteen holes in a circle around my shelter and spend some time walking this ring of holes and jigging them. I also like to use my ATV and move around quite a bit if the weather is decent. In the area where I live most of the places where I fish have little structure since they are creeks that were damed up during the WPA days and have mud bottoms so I end up traveling to natural lakes and sloughs.

[richstick]

I drill as many as I need - however, it's rarely more than 50 holes.  I don't t tend to to have alot of time to fish though, probably 4-5 hours at a crack, so I drill and move until I get on active fish.  I will very happily leave fish to find fish - I have much better luck by moving to the active fish than sitting there attempting to turn negative fish into biters.  I will target a structure/area/break and pop 10-12 holes to start and go from there.  Somedays you get lucky and just drill a few, some days you drill and drill and never really get onto the fish...

[inHISgrip]

I Like to set up a base camp on a a spot that i know will produce fish 70% to 80% of the time. Then i can run and gun for a few hours if i want to then come back warm up  and see if the honey hole has turned on yet.  I tend to fish the lake i know the best so its hard not to just go back to the spot that know i catch something. just for the hope that i will find a new spot.  Especially down here in Nebraska the season is short and 90% of the time we are walking. Not a a big fan of walking and drilling holes all day to only catch a few.  I do like the find the edge of the weeds on the early ice and then work deep to find the EYES.....

[Iceassin]

Both...depends on the lake I'm fishing. A familiar lake, I know right where to go. Drill half dozen holes or so and bounce around between them. A lake I don't know too well, I walk and drill until I find them, then set up.

I prefer sitting outside of shack unless it's too cold...I like being able to move around and looking at the surroundings...nature if you will

[Bout-Time]

Im usually fishing the same lake 95% of the time, so I set up the hardside in a spot that I know produces. That spot happens to be the northeastern tip of a point that offers a long 4 foot deep flat that drops off to 28-30 feet to the north around to the south east, and Ive got all kinds of options in the general area of a 100 foot radius. I only move it 50 feet or so to get fresh real estate or when the melting around the shack gets too much for my liking. My shack is probably 350 pounds or more, with less than ideal skis, so Im not into pulling it around by hand in deep snow too often unless I have to. (need a snowmobile or build a new, light traveling shack)

I tend to move south along the edge of this flat using both tip-ups and rods, working the flat and dropoff in many depths. Sometimes I use the same holes for a week. I branch out from this dropoff slowly, in a mini fan pattern throughout the week till Ive got 10 good holes to choose from. Walking 4 steps east or west can change my depth by 6-8 feet, so I dont make big moves very often once Im settled in. I usually have at least 8 holes open during the day to switch around to with 4 tip-ups and 4 holes to jig out of.

I guess Im a "crawling squatter" or a "crabber". LOL

[ice dawg]

My hardside has wheels and follows me home so I seldom fish the same place twice unless I stay in it for a few days in which case it seems to drift around the ice at times. It is also nice to be able to cruise around the ice with a portable and have a warm place to spend the night.

[squ1rr31_]

It's not uncommon for me to punch 15-20 holes on a lake or pond, I pop till I mark fish and then fish till they're gone then keep moving. If I'm not feeling ambitious I will throw the shanty up and move every couple hours, but usually I'll stay till the fish don't bite anymore.

[Bout-Time]

My hardside has wheels and follows me home so I seldome fish the same place twice unless I stay in it for a few days in which case it seems to drift around the ice at times. It is also nice to be able to cruise around the ice with a portable and have a warm place to spend the night.

I wish mine had wheels. LOL

Im looking around for a rotted out camper or just a boat trailer to build a sleeping shack on. My plan is to have 3 hardsides at my disposal in the near future.

A big, wheeled shack built on a trailer or camper frame of some sort that is at least 6x12 in size. This one will be the "Presidential Model".

My 4x8 that has served me well is named the "VIP Model".

A small and light 40"x 5ft traveling shack I can easily go mobile with. This one would be dubbed the "Gypsy Model". LOL

[da man cave shack]

Sit iin the shack were its comfterble.

[SDFlagChaser]

troller, while fishing perch, we might drill 100 holes, easily.  usually for walleye it will be around 50 holes

[walleye tattoo]

Run a structural brake insert camera see no fish, move repeat.

[hnd]

my fishing buddy is more of a "lets set up shop and be done" type of an ice fisher.  i'm a runner and gunner.  i'm always off looking for new structure to fish.  for me there if we aren't catching hogs, they have to be there somewhere.