Hole Hopping

[amateurfishing]

2 Questions regarding hole hopping

1. how do u keep the holes from refreezing when not using them or what do u use to reopen them?

2. how do u keep others out/away from your area or dont u? do others ever come in and just start using your holes cause they r there?

[leech~~]

When I hole hop it's usually way away from anyone else and my holes maybe 100's of yards from each other. The whole reason to hole hop is to find fish, so once you find them you can stop hopping and start fishing. Some times there is no reason to go back to the unproductive holes you drilled earlier. If your in some kind of hot area and there are people all over, they may walk up and fish holes you have left. Yes, you don't own the holes in the lake. So once you walk away from them they are open game.

[bassmann77]

Usually when I hole hop I only give each hole 10 minutes at the most before I move so hole freezing usually isn't an issue, but if they do skim over I give it a quick kick with my boot. As far as people that take your holes, you don't own the lake. I try to keep the holes close around the structure that I am trying to find fish. If I do that, I usually don't have an issue. I have seen guys fire 100 holes in a very populated area and get upset when others are using their holes. Just be respectful to others in the area and hopefully you will find fish before others take the unproductive holes.

[Big Country]

I fish a lake by always starting with drilling 15 holes. I then take my sonar and check each hole until I see fish. I work the fish for 10 minutes, then move on if no luck. I go lite. Waxies in my pocket, pole in hand, ice skimmer in the other. I also carry a plastic grocery bag with me to put the fish in that I catch. Yes, you do not own the holes, and I have had people come up and "hot hole" me. Nothing you can do about it. I would personally never hot hole someone, but keep in mind they do have the right. It's something you just have to deal with and have no right to make a scene over in my opinion. BC

[McGurk]

I don't know how ethical this is, and I have never done it, but it may keep a hole "yours". Simply take a tip up with no line or hook on it, set the flag even though you are not "fishing" with it as you have not hook or line, and put it on top of a hole you want to come back to. I know I have a few tip ups that aren't used anymore that I could strip the old line off of.

Like I said, I have never done this and don't know if I would as I like to jump pretty quickly. I know I don't own any of the lake, and I tend to welcome others if they choose to set up near me (if they are courteous about it). "Marking" holes might be unethical but I don't think it is illegal either. Feel free to discuss.

[hookncook]

2. how do u keep others out/away from your area or dont u? do others ever come in and just start using your holes cause they r there?

I look at ice fishing the same as open water fishing. You can only use 2 or 3 holes at a time. Move your meat, loose your seat. It kinda sucks when you go through so much work drilling holes, but when the bullet hits the bone, no one owns the lake.

I've seen guys put tip ups out 1/8 of a mile and get miffed when people "walk in their spread". We hope that the people at our fishing hole share the same ethics as us, but sadly, this is not the case.

I've had guys hot hole me 3 feet away. I had all my gear out, so despite the fact that I didn't like him being there, and he was douchy about the whole deal, couldn't complain.

[Scott K]

I usually hole hop away from anyone else. Once I move from a hole, and if someone is around, I offer the hole up to them. No sense in drilling more holes. It is also a perfect time to start a conversation, and meet someone new. Being friendly has its advantages.

When I hole hop, I will just bust about 10 holes in an area around some structure. I will walk around with the depth finder, and a pole, if I see fish, I drop down the line, if I dont see fish, I move on. I will work those 10 hole for about a half hour, then if they arent productive, move 50-100 feet and repeat.

[shizzy]

I only punch 2-3 holes at a time and only stay at one for 10 or so minutes. I guess if a guy wants to fish a hole I didn't catch any fish out of that's fine by me.

[Eric Wettschreck]

One thing you can do to avoid the "Using my hole" issues is...............

Walk around with a bottle of water, shovel, and a flasher. Clean the snow from the ice, dump a little water on top of the ice, and stick your transducer on the water. If the flasher is of any decent quality it will shoot through the ice. Now, if the ice is 15' thick and full of air bubbles it messes with things.

The whole thing behind hole hopping is trying to locate fish. If your flasher reads through the ice there isn't a reason to even drill a hole. Give it a shot. I've done this a lot and it works well.

[MikeRaetz]

I just kick the holes open with my boot but as for when I find them I scatter things around the area I found them. I will put my auger in one place gas tank in another and my house by the holes they were showing up more in. its a bit over protective but they get the point. Im not a crowd person whats so ever and I have had it many times where people will out of no where start packing up and heading my way so my scatter technique plays a good role. It really depends on who it is though. if its a man or women with some kids I will actually tell them go to right on my hot holes The fish are under so they can enjoy there day

[Mnfisher]

I'll admit, I like to use holes that are open rather than drill my own if I can. I watch what others are doing and if they are hopping from hole to hole (which is done frequently on a small lake I fish), I leave them alone and drill a few holes of my own to hop around in. I've found that I may pick up one or two fish in one hole, then have to move to another, making the rounds and pick up another fish again in Hole #1. Courtesy and respect always.

[amateurfishing]

i have never done this and am just trying to understand the unwritten rules of it...watched a Genz video yesterday regarding hole hopping & he said he does not stay on an unproductive hole more than 5 minutes then moves to next one.

i walk & pull my portable everywhere so i try & stay on smaller backyard lakes. i ice fish just to get out of the house and release cabin fever a little bit. genz said they drilled over 100 holes on Pelican b4 finding fish, just sounds nuts to me, crazy but guess i'd stop @ 10 or 15 & just sit & wait b4 punching that many, maybe walking vs atv/snowmobile makes a big difference.

i do have ducers that read thru ice & bring 2 milk jugs with water to pour on ice & read thru which helps alot but after dumping a gallon of water aound known areas or holes sometimes i just get sick of scouting & decide to drop a line with some noisemakers and see what i can attract. ironically i did catch 2 slab crappies this way last weekend & lost a northern.

i may just have to learn & start small with 3-5 holes or so & learn/make progress from there.

[fishersofmen]

Typically when hole hopping in an unpopulated area you won't have to worry about company although this is definitely not always the case. If you start drilling a bunch of holes in or around a crowd just expect others to jump on in because they most likely will. May as well be waving a flag that says come on over.

[dan z]

I have think if you/I have a scatter of holes I hope that the people in the area keep to there own. I just think that people come on in are lazy people and don't wanna work for there own fish

I've had people set up there portable are my spread. Just not cool in my book.

I may work a section of 50 holes for a couple hours. Depends in were the fish are in the column. Bottom hugging fish get some attention and suspended fish earn more time. May even change lure/ bait.

Kicking holes out stinks but its the only way yo reopen them without firing up the auger.

I do have some scatter tricks like a tip up, rod pop bottle minnow bucket. Bait puck...

[Scott K]

I also think if you are in a ice village, and drill 100 holes, and think you now own that entire area, you are the one being inconsiderate. I have had people drill about 100 holes pretty much all the way around my portable, and my truck. Some as close as 10-15 feet. I voiced my displeasure to them, then went out there and started fishing their holes. They werent happy at all, but either was I.

[Genofish]

+1 for me but I drop a line down in the holes I am not marking fish. I give it a few minutes, if nothing shows up move on.

[slurpie]

Two weekends ago we were looking for new spots and drilled the areas out good to find nothing. There wa three of us we fished the area for a half hour caught nothing and left. Went to next spot not very far away and laughed as some other people drove over and started fishing our holes. It's not often that it happens but like said earlier it's lazy people that do it.

[Fishin4fun_MN]

I grew up in a farming community and spent a lot of time on grandpas farm. This taught me a lot about "Minnesota Nice". You have to look at others on the ice as your friends and neighbors. If I am just getting out on the ice and you are leaving/ hopping, I will be kind and talk to you, ask if anything is biting and if I/we can use your holes. This is ho I hit a hot spot this past weekend.

[blackdog1101]

If I'm hole hopping I will usually drill a line of holes from shallow to deeper, and drop the flasher in each one to find the fish. Once I locate the fish I will oftentimes drill more holes to fish at that same depth. If the fish change depths I can use the original holes to locate them at their new depth.

[Lawrence Luoma]

During tournament fishing (and everyday fishing) we normally drill 10 holes per movement. Take the Vexilar FL-22 with Pro-View Ice Ducer at turn to high gain and check the first hole. If I see fish I turn the gain down and start to fish. Usually, we pull just the first aggressive biters then move onto the next hole. If I don't see any fish I move to the next hole. Once to the tenth hole, then drill another 10 holes. If there is no fish it normally only takes less than a minute to check and then we make a bigger move to a different location. If there is fish we then try to stay on top of them. Usually at this speed there isn't to much time to have your hole freeze over. End up drilling 100-400 holes in a daytime period pretty easily.

[BigDogRob]

I agree! You start ripping holes next to my house and truck...I'll pack my stuff and become a portable machine really quickly! I'll see just how many holes I can hit before you. The thing is with GPS I'm gonna have the head start. Depending on the day maybe I'll take out my auger and stand 2ft away and start filling your holes with chips...while you are sitting there...sounds fair to me. There is more than one spot on a lake to fish. I don't crowd others and I think we can all show the same respect towards each other...

[hamms-scooter]

I fish much like Lawrence, I look for suspended fish or drop a small slender spoon for search bait.

[TruthWalleyes]

I drill plenty of holes, but the vast majority of them aren't within 200yds of another house so rarely is someone using the holes i'm hoping around between.

[Grum]

Parts of this thread is reminds me of the "How close is too close?" thread in the open water section. For me it boils down to common courtesy, however uncommon it may be at times. But I have found that most of the time if you greet someone with a smile and a kind word first, you can set the tone off in a positive direction. If that doesn't work I move.

I remember when I first started ice fishing, I didn't own an auger the first year and if I couldn't get a friend with one to go with, I just had to find abandoned holes. If there is someone already in the area, ask first, you may get more than a hole, but the chance to meet a new friend with common interest.