Plan Your Success

[Matt Johnson]

What are some of the things you do to ensure a successful day on the ice?  I've always been a big advocate for "doing our homework" before we hit the ice.  The Navionics App for my phone gets a workout in the winter months, especially as I sit around with friends talking fishing, or just on the couch in between plays watching the Vikings (ok, this weekend was tough).  Plus I just like to look at new lakes and dream about future potential trips, too  

 

What are some ways you plan for ice fishing success?

[Wanderer]

My planning is usually all about expanding on places and techniques I’ve learned about either the last time I was out or have learned about since the last time.  For example: @Tom Sawyerhelped me better understand shallow water pan fishing last year and icing some cats.  It was fun!

 

There is a never ending bucket list of lakes to try that I haven’t gotten to yet; species to learn more about and new to me techniques that I’d like to work on lakes that I’ve already been on but think I could improve success.

 

Don’t get me wrong - I love to catch fish as  much as the next person, but I get more satisfaction out of finding something new than just going to a known spot time after time to rip some lips.  Usually this means more mediocre trips in terms of numbers but when I find the new honey hole it’s all worth it.  

 

The thing is though, there’s pretty much always something in the bucket for dinner when I get home.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Wanderer

[leech~~]

I didn't take the name Leech for no reason.  I go to HSO and FM in search for new ideas and lakes to try from others. It's fun not only reading reports to get info but looking between the lines for other clues to how, what their using and where.

Location on Avatars, threads their posting in, lake they've talked about, bait stores they stopped at, Bar's they go to for lunch all get you ever closer to what lake they may have been on?  And back grounds in pictures. Please always make sure you take a nice back ground picture when holding up your fish! The best is posting pictures of your locator unknowingly with the lake name on the map or GPS cords showing!

Some may call it creeping, I call it mining for gems!   

But seriously, Dec 11th will mark my 10th year on this site and I have learned a great deal from you all-Thanks!

I've learned even more by going fishing with some of the folks on this page. I wouldn't mention any names because I don't want their heads to explode! Walleyes I have never had an issue fishing but I leaned a great deal about Laker fishing and better techniques for panfishing through the ice from folks on this site by going out with and watching them. I will have to say that Panfishing with some of you can be a bit tiring, running around drilling holes all over jigging plastics at a million miles an hour when all I wanted to do was relax have a pop and watch a bobber all day!    

 

I know by checking the page that shows members and who's on-line that there are 100's of people reading this site and members who joined years ago that have not made one post yet.  Please stop being a "Leech" like me and do some posts with info and reports!

I need some new blood to suck ideas from! 

Edited December 4, 2018 by leech~~

[Getanet]

For me a "successful" trip is about being comfortable and having fun - I don't get out nearly as much as I would like, so I had to quit basing my success on whether I caught any fish or not. For a short outing, that means making sure I'm warm and that all the various batteries I need are fully charged.  But for a weekend trip with buddies it's all about the food. I like to be the resident "chef" so I spend a lot of time planning the menu and making sure not to forget all the ingredients and utensils that are necessary.  If I left it up to my buddies we would probably be eating a pack of cold hotdogs they grabbed at the gas station.

 

 

 

[smurfy]

5 hours ago, leech~~ said:

I didn't take the name Leech for no reason.  I go to HSO and FM in search for new ideas and lakes to try from others. It's fun not only reading reports to get info but looking between the lines for other clues to how, what their using and where.

Location on Avatars, threads their posting in, lake they've talked about, bait stores they stopped at, Bar's they go to for lunch all get you ever closer to what lake they may have been on?  And back grounds in pictures. Please always make sure you take a nice back ground picture when holding up your fish! The best is posting pictures of your locator unknowingly with the lake name on the map or GPS cords showing!

Some may call it creeping, I call it mining for gems!   

But seriously, Dec 11th will mark my 10th year on this site and I have learned a great deal from you all-Thanks!

I've learned even more by going fishing with some of the folks on this page. I wouldn't mention any names because I don't want their heads to explode! Walleyes I have never had an issue fishing but I leaned a great deal about Laker fishing and better techniques for panfishing through the ice from folks on this site by going out with and watching them. I will have to say that Panfishing with some of you can be a bit tiring, running around drilling holes all over jigging plastics at a million miles an hour when all I wanted to do was relax have a pop and watch a bobber all day!    

 

I know by checking the page that shows members and who's on-line that there are 100's of people reading this site and members who joined years ago that have not made one post yet.  Please stop being a "Leech" like me and do some posts with info and reports!

I need some new blood to suck ideas from! 

and here i thought LEECH was your handle cause you had vast knowledge of leech lake, or leeches!!!!!!!! i use these forums for learning different things too.  also to find out ice and snow conditions, but i gotta admit thats been nonexistant for the most part. one is building my confidence in using plastics. the other was the reminder here to get my locator batteries charged by new years weekend. my spear is already sharp for this weekend!!!!!!

[monstermoose78]

A positive attitude is all I need for a successful trip. I have had horrible days for catching but the day was successful as I learned a lot from those trips. It’s all on how you look at it @Matt Johnson . 

 

On one of my most successful trips I never put a line in the water myself but I focused on my nephew. He caught piles of tiny gills and now loves ice fishing that was one of my favorite trips of all time.

[blue_healer_guy]

Mine used to be trips with buddys, drinkin, fishing and getting the most fish we could.... Dont do that anymore.  Just want to go now with 2 grown boys and listen.... Be amazed how much you missed when you were with your buddys.

 

[Wanderer]

Here’s my plan for the day:  my wife will be working a double, so why not shake the first ice cob webs off?  Getting the gear ready this morning for some fishing after work.

[papadarv]

My success planning starts in March after the ice season close. I get great satisifaction out of building, modifing, creating, inventing new to me ice fishng stuff bridging the gap in anticipation to the start of the next seasons. Pretty and fancy not real important, functional counts. Over time i built my very light weight wheel house, a 1080p rotating wireless camera, a $10 modified auger that will compete with K drill and many others. My latest just finiahed endeavor was petting a 65gb sim chip micro 1080p camer on my Li/Ion headlight making hands free high res. video recording up to 4 hours on my 6ah battery set. Catching fish is secondary.

Doesn't get much better.

[Getanet]

1 hour ago, papadarv said:

My success planning starts in March after the ice season close. I get great satisifaction out of building, modifing, creating, inventing new to me ice fishng stuff bridging the gap in anticipation to the start of the next seasons. Pretty and fancy not real important, functional counts. Over time i built my very light weight wheel house, a 1080p rotating wireless camera, a $10 modified auger that will compete with K drill and many others. My latest just finiahed endeavor was petting a 65gb sim chip micro 1080p camer on my Li/Ion headlight making hands free high res. video recording up to 4 hours on my 6ah battery set. Catching fish is secondary.

Doesn't get much better.

 

Are you the guy who built a small windmill with a car alternator to power his ice fishing house?  Someone posted that a few years back, with pictures, and it looked ingenious. Would probably take hours to sift through the archives to find it.

[papadarv]

10 minutes ago, Getanet said:

 

Are you the guy who built a small windmill with a car alternator to power his ice fishing house?  Someone posted that a few years back, with pictures, and it looked ingenious. Would probably take hours to sift through the archives to find it.

Was not me but might be something worth looking at next summer. Nice alteranitive to charging my batteries and 86 the generator.

Edited December 5, 2018 by papadarv

[rundrave]

10 minutes ago, Getanet said:

 

Are you the guy who built a small windmill with a car alternator to power his ice fishing house?  Someone posted that a few years back, with pictures, and it looked ingenious. Would probably take hours to sift through the archives to find it.

 

I think that may be this thread?:

 

If not, if you go to google and search for this: windmill site:https://hotspotoutdoors.com/forums you will get some other results

[Getanet]

That is the one. Many Gracias.  I had found a few other related threads, but all the pictures had been removed and any links to other threads were dead.

[rl_sd]

On 12/4/2018 at 8:31 PM, blue_healer_guy said:

Mine used to be trips with buddys, drinkin, fishing and getting the most fish we could.... Dont do that anymore.  Just want to go now with 2 grown boys and listen.... Be amazed how much you missed when you were with your buddys.

 

 

 

Yup.... What he said ^^^^^^^^^^^