Am I the only ice fisherman left who...

[Cyberfish]

it is all you need really for shallow water panfish, I caught millions with them, until I discovered the schooley reels in the late 1980s, they are plastic and nearly weightless, a nice way to keep your line straight and organized, plus the option to play the fish from the reel. I still hand line them in the shallows sometimes, but I fish outdoors, never in a shanty, and my line tends to find every ice chip to tangle around haha

[CITY LIMITS]

I use my old wood rod sometimes ,like cyber fish had said they work fine in the shallows.

[53orbigger]

I find that I always reach for the jig sticks first for any panfishing. For those of us not fishing with flashers and with tiny panfishing jigs it is nice to not have to search for the correct depth after every fish. With the jig stick you find the depth once then after every fish you just drop the jig back down the hole and it ends up at the correct depth without having to play line off of the reel.

[cavalierowner]

I do mostly what you do.

When I get to a new spot, the first thing I do is attach a lead weight to the end of my line and drop it down the hole til it hits bottom. I then take a rubber band and make 3 wraps around the end of the rod. The first loop of rubber band goes over the line and marks where bottom is. The I start wrapping line on the pegs to get up off the bottom at the depth where I want to fish. Then I mark that by putting the second rubber band loop over the line. If I move up again, I use the third rubber band loop. That way I always know where I am in relation to bottom and can easily get back to bottom to start over trying different depths.