Methods for Using Flashers

[perca]

There have been many positive comments on Vex's and Marcums for catching fish. However, I am looking for input as to exactly how they are used for perch fishing. Once a hole is cut is the transducer the first thing into the hole? If nothing shows do you move right away or do you fish the hole for 5 minutes? Is the flasher primarily used for various lure presentations to the fish? How is a $400 flasher going to improve my current method of punch a hole, fish the bottom and move in 5 minutes until fish are found and what methods have worked for the flasher advocates?

[Paul Waldowski]

A flasher will let you know if fish are present and how they are reacting to your bait. Sometimes a small change in your presentation or fine tuning your current presentation can make a big difference between catching fish or getting skunked. Just because you are not getting bites does not necessarily mean the absence of fish, it just means to might need to change things up a bit.

Many times I have fished the same hole and turned fish on by either adding a dropper rig for more flash, or downsizing jigheads to trigger neutral fish.

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Paul
[email protected]
www.marcum.com

[This message has been edited by Paul Waldowski (edited 10-28-2003).]

[pj4]

the thing i noticed when i bought my FL18 was, first, you will see if theres fish there, second, you will see what depth they are, next you will see where your tackle is compared to the fish( the change in 2 inches can be the diff. in no fish or lots)knowing theres fish there and not getting bites tells me to change tatics, bait, hooks, depth,style of presentation, hell once i changed brands of beer. still no bite, i move on.

[MNice]

Is the best way I know of to find suspended crappies. I once was fishing in a group in about 40' of water and all of a sudden at 20' there were fish. I raised up to the fish and started catch'in a few. Without the electronics it would have taken me a long time to fish that depth.

(whoops, I just read you were interested in perch)

[This message has been edited by MNice (edited 10-28-2003).]

[can it be luck?]

Paul sums it up fairly well. In my pre-flasher days I would always wonder if fish were present or maybe just not in the biteing mood. Drilling and moveing around all day, and leaving with a lot of "questions" unanswered. Flashers took all the guess work out. You can tell if fish are present without even dropping a line! Flashers tell you about the "moods" of fish, then you can apply aggressive or suttle techniques depending on the fish. The slightest change in presentation is all that it might take. Some days the fish are there but wont bite regardless what you do, on these days the flasher prevents you from drilling countless holes in search of fish.....Which you already found. On lakes like Red, almost every fish that came into the flasher 1' or more off the bottom was a crappie or a larger type gamefish. Believe it or not, I think I caught 95% of these aggressive fish. Most fish cruising up off the bottom are biters, raise or lower your bait to the fish and.....WHAMMO! The "visual" itself is pretty neat. Seeing fish, watching your bait drop, seeing the fish rise to meet it, watching the fish and bait signal become "one", feeling the fish on the end of your line, talk about exciting! The price of a flasher will seem very small after you use it ONCE, like most fisherman, myself included, you wont leave home without it!

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http://groups.msn.com/canitbeluck

[Surface Tension]

perca Without writing a book I'll touch on one major benefit that a sounder provides and thats fishing for suspended fish. I can't think of one fish species that spends its life cycle on the bottom. Granted eyes do relate to the bottom much of the time but depending on forage they will come up and feed. Lets say your on the ice after crappies that are suspended over deep water. You can see the benefit of a sounder to give depths of suspended crappies. Now lets give you the ability to see your jig as you drop it on top of a school of crappies.
What about those bottom hugging fish. Why would it be necessary to mark them if your already setup on the bottom. Well as Paul said you can see how they react to you presentation. I'll add YOU can react to the fish as well. Meaning you can take the lure away from a fish making it react like the predator they are. Some fish don't want to be feed they want to hunt.

[wishing for walleyes]

i go 1 step farther. i put my camera down next to the hole i have my vex down and watch the fish react.its awesome

[EBass]

I can't believe no one mentioned this yet.

Flashers are great BEFORE drilling a hole. Get some water (or torch to melt the ice) and a nice patch of clear ice and set the puck down. Turn on the flasher and you can see how deep, suspended fish, and or bait fish without cutting that hole. This shaves of time of drilling and looking. Of course if the ice is real thick or cloudly it doesn't work.

I don't have a camera so this is my eyes underwater. I can't believe I didn't get one sooner. I used to stare at my bobber. I have a FL-18 now and stare at that and watch fish come in suspended or even see them hugging the bottom. I love it.

And the above posts have good info to.

[SpikeRoberts]

I'll add one more possibility created by flashers. With the flasher you can "see" when really light biters suck on your offering. Often these light biters take it in and spit it out and you never knew they were there. With the Vex, I can see the fish and the bait converge and set the hook in instances when there would otherwise be no indication with a bobber or by feel.

[Crappie Killer]

All of the above is very good information. Here's another thing:

A flasher keeps your bait in the zone if you're dead sticking. How many times have you been slaying 'em on one rod, 30 feet of water, only to have it shut down completely. Reel up to check the minnow and you realize your hook's only 10 feet below the ice. The dam bobber stop moved when you reeled in the last fish, and you didn't notice it. this used to happen to me from time to time, until I got a vex. Now I can see where my bait is, and if the minnow's still on.

[This message has been edited by Crappie Killer (edited 10-29-2003).]

[can it be luck?]

Ahhh, good one!

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http://groups.msn.com/canitbeluck

[Ray Esboldt]

EBass,

Good call on shooting through the ice. I however get a little lazy and use well placed gob of spittle. That way I don't have to share my flasher.

[SpikeRoberts]

With chew or without?

[Guest]

I used that approach of checking depths through the ice in the past. Works pretty good.

MarCum has the new LX-i that is meant for just those kinds of situations. Reads through several feet of ice and is easy to use. Another tool that is worth the look.

Good Fishin,
Matt

[email protected]
Catch-N Tackle

[Ray Esboldt]

You might say one could get a decent buzz licking the bottom of my transducer. If you know what I mean.

[Ray Esboldt]

I really dig using a flasher because I can tell the bottom content, easily. Here's an example of why that's important in the winter

I seem to end up fishing main lake basins frequently in the winter for panfish (sunfish, perch, crappie, whatever). You know those lakes, same depth, darker water, fish could be anywhere. The depth is all the same and the fish are cruising, right? Why is one guy hammering 5 fish every 5 minutes and never moving and the rest of us are jumping around like jackrabbits and catching next to nothing? We should all be catching fish, right? They're crusing. He found an edge. Whether he tried to or not, I don't know. But, he's hammering fish relative to me. I need to find that edge, not a depth "edge", not weed edge, but a bottom content edge. Sand turns to mud, mud turns to clay, sand to gravel, something, a transition in bottom content.

These transitions seem to be roadmaps for cruising fish. I don't know why they are, I'm not a fish. But they are. If you find them, you're upping your odds when fishing those vast main lake basins. And, once you find one, if you're willing to drill enough holes, you can virtually map the transition out above the ice. There will be sweet spot on it, there always is. You get one spot where the fish hang out just a little longer.

At any rate, there's no better tool for mapping out this main lake content edge maze than using a flasher. Once you're familiar with how a particular bottom content shows up on your flasher, you're in business. Even if you're not familiar with what the bottom content is, you can readily interpret a change with a flasher without fiddling with any of the fine tuning adjustments. The signal just looks different. Easy stuff.

However, it's much easier to show firsthand than explain in print.

Check out:

http://www.marcum.com

for more information about flashers. I believe they have a live demo video there as well.

[This message has been edited by Ray Esboldt (edited 10-29-2003).]