There were eight portable ice-fishing shelters on top of the sunken island where just a few years ago you would have found a half-dozen stationary fishing shacks. I viewed this as a testimonial to how much of an impact Dave Genz has had on the way we ice fish. Power augers were burrowing holes over the top and around the edge of this structure as anglers searched for another potential spot that held fish. Sonar transducers were being lowered into the freshly drilled holes and Fish Traps were being slid from one location to the next. There was little doubt in my mind that underwater cameras were being lowered to the bottom for an actual view of what the structure held not only with regards to the bottom content, but what species of fish and how many were potentially hanging out directly below.
Such is the nature of ice fishing these days. Where once it was a hand auger or a chisel punching a hole in the ice with success relying on a wish and a prayer, now state-of-the-art electronics, portable shelters and rods, reels and lures specifically designed just for ice angling almost ensures a successful outing.
But, you still have to find fish to catch fish and if our summer experiences are any indication of how some spots can be productive while others are not, there is still some thought that needs to be put towards finding fish under the ice as well.
To put together The Profile for a successful ice outing you still need to anticipate where the fish will be relative to the body of water you fish. Panfish and walleyes tend to tightly group under the ice so there may only be a small piece of the structure that is actually being used by a particular species.
Consider big-water perch. These fish are feeding on tiny suspending organisms that move up and down in the water column depending on the light penetration. During low-light periods the perch are prone to moving up onto the tops of the structure where this forage has migrated. In the middle of the day those same schools of perch will be off in deeper water as they follow that forage into the deeper levels of the water column.
Bluegills feed on the same organisms, yet when they find some bug hatches coming from a soft bottom region in the shallows you can find them there.
Walleyes follow the minnows and while a walleye might spend time during the day in a deep-water sanctuary, when the light levels drop and the minnows come sliding out of the cover to feed on a microscopic meal of plankton you can bet they’ll be right there to feed on the minnows.
My point is that there is still a need to search for schools of active fish in the wintertime and that means developing a search method that will put you in a high-percentage area. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be drilling a hundred holes, you may only need a few, but if you don’t find fish on the first try, you drill until you do, no matter how many holes it takes.
There are plenty of anglers that believe the fish quit biting as we get deeper into the season. In fact, the fish just get harder to find. They group tighter, suspend and aren’t always on those spots that were active during the early-season bite. It’s all part of The Profile.
Here is my recommendation for finding fish on the ice at any given time. Consider structure near deep water a high-percentage area. When drilling, cover the entire water column from the top of the structure to the bottom and even out away from it a fair distance. Use your sonar to look for not only schools of fish, but also clouds of forage which will attract fish. Later in the season those deep holes can be great locations but check the shallower edges around that deep water as well.
Green vegetation is always a prime location, especially for pike and bluegills. A good camera will show what shape the vegetation is in and whether fish are using it. Even a few stalks of grass on a sand bar can attract fish.
The sharp breaklines can provide migration paths to feeding flats and are also good ambush points during low-light periods. If you can use multiple rods where you fish set up a dead-stick on either the high side of the breakline or the deeper bottom break. A well traveled breakline is a great place to be when fish are active and moving from their sanctuary to their feeding range and back.
That day I was fishing that sunken island where the other anglers had set up was a lesson in being persistent. The fishing pressure from the other anglers was stirring up the bottom and creating a nice cloud of silt on top and around the edge of the structure. Rather than battle the crowd for a spot where there might be a few fish left I drilled out away from the structure looking for that point where the cloudy water became clear again. Perch and walleyes had moved out to this boundary and after working with my underwater camera to pinpoint fish I was into the action.
Whether you’re ice fishing or open-water fishing there is one variable that holds true for both. You have to find fish to catch fish and that means setting up The Profile that tells you where the fish should be and using the equipment at your disposal to find them.
Adam Johnson is an Aquatic Biologist and full-time outdoor communicator.By: Adam Johnson
