Map Skills
Between GPS maps and Google Earth, my mapping work is never done, I am always looking for new potential areas. That is where the fun is for me, exploration. I set a goal of adding 15-20 new hotspots every year. Some years we make it and some we don’t.
There are a few areas that we probably overfish and I know there are too many to count that we don’t get to either enough or at all. We fish 6 mile and the main bay A LOT and hardly ever make it to Pelican.
I wish there were more hours in the day and more days in the Ice Fishing year, but there aren’t.
On the GPS we are looking for Contour Line discrepancies and anomalies. Anything that looks peculiar: odd ledges, bottlenecks, abrupt drops and any hump especially out on a flat basin.
These are the areas that are going to hold roaming perch.
On Google Earth, we are looking at basically 3 different years, the original map data from 1991, the map data from 1997, and the current map data.
We compare the years and locate: brush, humps, rocks, old farmsteads, dugouts, and anything else out of the ordinary and cross reference those locations with the information from our GPS and decide if it is something that we want to drill or not.
I have found more Ice Fishing hotspots this way than I can count.
Coordinates Review and GPS Study
Along with any new information that we add to our encyclopedia, we are reviewing our information from years past, our perch bite log, our daily fishing journal, all of our records from previous years are being pored over as I write this to have us ready to go, ready to get after it. As soon as we have walking ice I want to be out there searching and most of the tedious work is done, right now!
Yards and Yards of Mono
I am a firm believer in re-spoolling my ice line EVERY YEAR! Yeah, it gets a little expensive, but this is the time of the fishing year where I catch most of my BIG fish, all 3 Walleyes I have on the wall are from ice fishing. I don’t want to miss a trophy opportunity because I was too lazy or too cheap to make sure my equipment was in tip top shape.
Rusty Trebles
Much of our equipment gets abused during the year, we are hard on stuff. This is why I need good equipment and will only buy the things that I have used and found to be up to my standards and can handle my abuse without failing me.
After saying that, there are some thing that are just inevitable. Rusty treble hooks on Varmints and Buckshots being one of them. It is unavoidable but also important to keep the hooks in mint condition, if you can’t hook up, you can’t
CATCH MORE FISH!
Daydreaming!!!!!!
There is a story about the Vietnam POW who improved his golf game while imprisoned by visualizing himself golfing everyday and becoming a better golfer. Call me crazy but I do the same with ice fishing, while sitting working on this stuff I will visualize the Vexilar lighting up, visualize the rod tip, the hook set, the whole process. I truly believe it has me sharper when I get on the ice.
Baitshop Fishing Reports……
Most Bait Shop reports are CRAP!
Sorry, but it’s the truth. Bait Shop reports are like the fortune tellers of the circuses of yesteryear, give such vague information that you can apply it to almost anything. However, I still review the local Bait Shop reports from the past couple years and reference it with my own records and Perch Bite log to stay consistent and pick up on any clashes of information.
The ice fishing game is so reliant on having the best information that we relentlessly focus on just that.
We here at DLFR are gearing up for what is looking to be a banner Walleye and Perch year on the Big Devil’s Hardwater, join us for the journey and……..
HOLD ON TO YOUR ROD!
Good Read,
Thank you