Early season spots, and question on flasher use

[minnygriff]

How do you guys first determine what spots to try in the early ice season? Do you just hit your top open water spots, or do you head straight for deeper water once the water freezes?

Secondly, I finally grabbed a new flasher (ICE 35) and was wondering how you utilize it. Once you drill a hole or two and drop the flasher, do you wait until you see activity below before fishing that hole, or will you sit on a spot for awhile in hopes of waiting for fish? I'm tempted to just keep drilling holes until I find some fish, otherwise I feel like I'm wasting time. Thanks for any input.

[tyrant]

why fish where there isn't any feesh ??

I move if I don't see or catch anything in a short period of time. That time is dependant on temp. ambition ect.....

I've moved from a spot in 15 min before.

Watch videos on youtube and read the manual. Will save you time when you could be covering water to find fish.

My $.02 Only

Take the time to read this,

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb..._gr#Post2714133

[BartmanMN]

For Panfish, punch holes and fish the ones that have fish marked in them. For Walleyes if you are on a piece of structure that has produced before, you may be able to call them in with a buckshot spoon, but it is at least nice to mark some bait (dink perch) etc.

If you are super shallow, there is a chance your auger can scatter the fish, so you may want to circle back and check your holes again.

[tearin' lips]

Typically the spots where you last caught fish in the fall are good areas to start. For example tomorrow I will be heading out to where we found some 'eyes in October and adjusting my game plan from there.

As far as flasher use it depends on what you are fishing for and the depth of the water. I typically drill 10-15 holes to start and move around a bit. If you are fishing panfish they will typically be suspended and easy to see on the locator. However, walleyes will be somewhat harder, if I am fishing walleyes I will drop a jig down for a minute or so to see if there are any fish in the immediate area.

For whatever species I typically am not the kinda guy to sit and wait for something to happen. If I am not graphing or more importantly catching fish, I pull out the H20 and start drilling and searching until I find fish.