need help catching panfish without a flasher

[Townie]

Start saving for electronics (LCD sonar is cheaper than flashers). Really, as important as rod & reel... Blind fishing is prehistoric 

[TeeBugg]

Prehistoric lol ill tell that to the guy who blew my buddies doors off fishing without electronics the other day :p

[Townie]

Prehistoric lol ill tell that to the guy who blew my buddies doors off fishing without electronics the other day :p

It's happened to me many times also--  yet fishing's too slow w/out seeing fish on the graph. Can't waste a minute out there...

[BigJoesFishing]

Start saving for electronics (LCD sonar is cheaper than flashers). Really, as important as rod & reel... Blind fishing is prehistoric 

with prehistoric methods if it works why change it? and with prehistoric methods comes big prehistoric fish  lol

[fishermantim4]

Fish shallow water where you can see the fish react to your jig fish small jigs and jig very aggressively for a few seconds then slowly lift get lots of hits on lift

[Townie]

And a camera is better than sonar in shallow depths  i.d species and cull out better fish. Watch reaction to jigging presentations. Another invaluable tool.

[ship of fools]

with prehistoric methods if it works why change it? and with prehistoric methods comes big prehistoric fish  lol

because it would work better 

seriously if someone is good without a flasher they will be way better with it   

[dabills]

I'm just getting started thanks for these tips cuz I won't be using a flasher from the onset.

[fishermantim]

so.....if you don't hav electronics you stay home?
If your gadget dies during the day, you pack up and leave???

That's the impression I'm getting.

I fished for years before getting a Showdown ice troller.
Before that I would jig with baited jigs and plastic rigged jigs.

My method? Start at the bottom, and jig a little, moving rod tip no more than an inch in the process. The motion is transmitted to the jig and it works if the fish are there.
If not, come up a foot and repeat the process, stopping every 15-30seconds to see if a fish has been watching your jig. (That's when the strikes usually happen.) If nothing happens, move up another foot and repeat...etc. When you reach the surface (or as shallow as you want) reverse the process going back down to the bottom in one foot increments.

You will find any fish in your area using this method, and you may draw in larger predators as well.

I tell my neices and nephews that I fish with, that if we are getting bites and they suddenly stop biting, JIG EVEN MORE because something has moved in that probably eats the fish we were catching.

That's how I end up getting 2-3 lb bass and pickerel on 2-4 lb. test line on an ultralight rod.

[Townie]

My 1st sonar unit was a fishing buddy-- barely suitable for ice fishing but I used it for years until I had the $ to purchase a x67c. Of course you can jig without sonar but ice fishing is challenging enough not to employ electronics. Too tedious hoping a fish shows up; & too laborious drilling unproductive holes IMO.

I WON'T go icin' w/out sonar. & As I stated, a camera will put even more fish on the ice than sonar  These tools only can help. For example my cordless drill/auger set-up wore out this season and it's greatly reduced
my success rate fishing from limited holes...

Have fun either way!

[chuckieobrien1966]

A big mistake by a lot of beginners is using to heavy of line, try using 2 lb test line.

SO TRUE 

[masoneddie]

Lots of great advice here, and all will help you.  Having a couple of rods set up with different offerings can be very deadly. I've seen on many occasions how they snub some offerings and inhale others. If your baiting the hook, sometimes spikes or mousies will work better than waxworms. Sometimes plastics work better than bait, colors can make all the difference, as well as your jigging technique and quality 2lb./3lb. test without coils is a must IMO. It's fishing....and half the fun of it is figuring them out. 

[fl18guy]

sometimes smaller is better, but not always. My biggest perch came on a tiny gill pill. Perch was 14 1/4 inches, But opposite about my crappie, came on a 3in minnow. Try doing as flyers do and matching the hatch. I have found when perch are feeding aggressivly it dosent always matter what you throw at them, just how fast you get it back down to them.

[panfishman13]

i bought a flasher, just a simple vexilar FL-8, before the season started last year; and let me tell you, it was the best purchase i have ever made as far as ice fishing goes.
that said, i won't quit and go home if i forget my electronics or the batteries die. my main use for them is just to tell me whether or not there are actually fish where i'm fishing.

here's an accidental study i did to figure out if my vexilar was really doing what it professed to do: help me catch more fish.
last season i got off work, threw my gear in the car and blasted off to the ice. once i got there, i realized than in my rush to get fishing, i had left my flasher charging back home. so i used that day as a benchmark. i used every trick in my book to find and catch fish on a relatively small pond full of aggressive, if small, panfish. i totaled 23 fish that day, including a 9" perch and a 7" green sunfish, both very good specimens for that particular pond. i moved often; as soon as the fish stopped biting, i packed up and shifted to a new spot. if i didn't have a bite in 5-10 minutes, i moved again. targeting spots i had previously memorized as spots with good transitions, bottom content, structure, weeds etc. i fished around 15 spots that day, and changed lures 3 times. i was using spikes and waxworms for bait.

i returned the next day at the same time, this time toting my vexilar;
i remind you, this is the same pond, at the same time of day, with the same weather conditions, and i fished using the same holes i had drilled the day before. the only thing that changed was the presence of a flasher.
i shifted spots 7 times, caught more than 77 fish including a 12" bass, two 7" perch, and a sturdy 8" bluegill, i also hooked what felt like a good sized catfish that managed to spit the hook after stripping off almost my entire spool of line. i changed lures 12 times, and stuck to waxworms after discovering that the spikes were getting refused.  i discovered that glow lures were very effective at attracting fish, but failed to get many bites, so plainer colors were the best choice.

in short, i LEARNED much more than i had without my vexilar, and that allowed me to change my presentation and, as professed, catch more fish.
yes, you can have a successful day of fishing without electronics, and it's how i spent the majority of my life ice fishing. but catching more than 3 times as many fish as i did without electronics speaks volumes for the usefulness of electronics on the water.
if you can't afford one, save money. you will not regret it. until then, utilize depth maps, GPS units, memorize spots as i have, or just hop from spot to spot until you contact fish.
you can be successful for panfish without electronics, but you will never regret having them along.

[thewyler]

Get one of those old fashoned rods the type that you wrap around the pegs rig it up with  a bobber like the type that have the pegs, one of those tiny jigs that come free with some kits and you might wanna add a tie about 15 ft from the jig then find an area that looks promising. Jig a hole for 10 minuets then move to another until you hit the jackpot  and the tye will let you know when your getting too deep

[stripernut]

With or without a flasher I have always found the key to catching pan fish is to move, move, move until you locate them.

X2