Here’s some advice on how to use one piece of equipment to double or triple your ice fishing success. Flashers can make a cold day on the ice turn red-hot!
With the hard water season in full swing I wanted to touch on my favorite piece of gear for the ice, a piece of equipment that I never leave home without…the flasher.
When it comes to ice-fishing, a flasher is one of the most important pieces of equipment in an angler’s arsenal. It can open up a whole new exciting world of fishing for you, not to mention double your triple your success overnight. Flashers are electronics that are easy to use, compact, rugged, and built to withstand the harshest elements of winter.
Flashers can quickly tell you the depth of water you’re fishing, if there is any structure or baitfish present, locate your jig, and identify the fish that you’re looking to catch. They work great on forays for trout, perch, crappies, bluegills, walleyes, and any other species of fish. Once you spend a day using one, you will come to the conclusion that a flasher increased your catch tenfold and here is why.
The most understated advantage to using a flasher is actually seeing how the fish are responding to your presentation. If you are jigging and you see a fish approach the offering but it doesn’t strike, you know that you have to make an adjustment, such as change your bait, change/downsize your lure, or change your presentation (jig more subtly or more aggressive). Making and figuring out that right choice is what fishing is all about!
A very important part of fishing is to keep the offering in the strike zone, this is where fish will take the offering. As soon as you mark them on your flasher, lower your bait so it is suspended slightly above targeted fish. Once you have the lure positioned above the fish, give it a quick jigging action, then pause a few seconds, watch your rod tip, and wait for the strike. If they don’t bite, give the offering a jigging motion while moving the bait up in the water column. This causes the fish to instinctively think that an easy meal is swimming away and they will usually follow and take your offering. The key is to watch the fish and its reaction on the flasher and try to fool them into striking by keeping your bait close.
Flashers will also show active fish that suspend off the bottom. When you see a suspended fish, keep your lure in the zone slightly above them and be ready because about 80 percent of active fish will slam the lure, this is because they are in feeding mode.
A flasher is great for showing you the mood of fish. Every outing can be different, even on the same body of water. Fish will sometimes move quickly and bite fast; other times they will be lethargic and very hesitant to strike. When you see fish rejecting your offering, then you know that its time to make a change. The key to this is dependent upon what you see on your flasher and how you interpret that information.
The main manufacturers of flashers are: Vexilar, Marcum, and Humminbird. There are many different styles, models, and designs out there nowadays to fit different anglers needs and desires. I personally use a Humminbird ICE 45, which I love, but if you’re in the market for a flasher I urge you to do your research and play around with the different makes and models out there – what works great for my style of fishing might not necessarily fit your style.
If you are like me, an average Joe looking to catch more fish, then flashers can give you a big edge on the hard water. Ice-fishing of all kinds is a lot more simple when you can see what is going on below the surface of the ice. In any fishing situation – shallow or deep water – and with any species of fish, a flasher is a lethal weapon to use to shortcut your road to fishing success.