Keeping Your Hole Clean

[JBMasterAngler]

For as long as I've ice fished I've always had a nack for scooping the slush out of my holes until it is completely 100% clean. Just watched a show recently where the guy purposely keeps his hole filled with slush so it looks more natural for the fish below. Is he on to something? What do you guys do? Am I perhaps too much of a perfectionist when it comes to this? He was fishing for trout, so of all species that would make the most sense.

[fishinfey8]

Funny you asked this...I know an OLD timer that has done some pretty crazy (but clean/harmless) stuff in his day, and I know that every story he tells me is true. He is a great christian guy that wouldn't hurt an ant. Anyways he was out spearing one bright sunny day when the thought crossed his mind, "I wonder what the spear hole looks like from a fishes perspective." He said it wasn't five minutes after he cranked the heater to max, took off his clothes, untied the spear, tied it to his wrist and took the plunge! He said he was under just long enough to get a good look at what it looks like "from the bottom up". His answer I would've never guessed...it was a big dark hole (who da thunk?)! He said that it was quite bright everywhere and then there was a big dark square where his shack sat! Now there's a guy that is and has some nuts, and maybe a few screws loose too!!

[JBMasterAngler]

He's alot more dedicated than I am. Suppose you take away the dark house...I for example always fish outside, never use a portable.

[fishinfey8]

If you're fishing shallow for trout, on a crystal clear lake, on a bright sunny day then maybe. If it's cloudy, I doubt it looks much different than the bottom of the ice.

[crawler harness]

I caught the same the same show. He was doing it because they were fishing in 3ft of water. Also when the drilled their holes they drilled them at an angle downstream so the head of the trout would come up the hole easier.

He said why he keeps slush in his hole was to reduce light penetration to the bottom.

[Twins Guy]

saw the same show. amazing trout they were pulling up!

i am a perfectionist too and try to keep my holes ice free because i fish with very light lines and jigs and they will hang up on any little bit of slush/ice but this show defintely got me thinking.

tg

[bobbymalone]

if you are sight fishing or spearing the dark house lets you see down the hole.

anyway you look at it nobody seems to have any problem catching or spearing fish on clear lakes or turbid lakes, sunny days or cloudy days, day or night, inside or out, or with their hole completly clear or full of slush.

don't try and make it complicated, just go fishing.

[gr82fish]

Whew! Some of these subject headlines get you thinking "Censor, Censor"...until you read them. LOL.

[Gunflint Guy]

Baby wipes. But keep them in a pocket near your torso so they don't freeze when fishing.

[Jim Almquist]

Baby wipes. But keep them in a pocket near your torso so they don't freeze when fishing.

[MnIceman]

My brother-in-law used to ice dive. I asked him the same question. He said they always dive with a rope so they can find their way back. He said you could not see the hole and the rope looked like it was going right into the ice. The hole they dived out of was open to the outside. Also I know an old Bombadier driver from up on LOW. He experianced going thru the ice with a Bombadier and a few fisherman . He said he was able to radio where he was and got the fisherman out before he went under the ice with it . He said that he could not see the hole he went thru except for a floating cooler, and he swam to the cooler. Another Bomber was in sight when he made it to the surface and the fisherman pulled him out. This happened before those deaths a few years back when the insurance companies started implementing the floatation systems on all of the track vehicles at the resorts. So I would not worry about leaving slush in the holes.