By Jerry Carlson
The snow flurries drifted through my headlights as I pulled into the bait store parking lot. The morning was still in that half light period, lost somewhere between darkness and sunrise. Judging from the cloud cover, it would stay that way longer than usual this morning.
I was in the process of buying bait when the rest of the crew arrived. We had a sizeable group meeting here to try to cash in on the lowlight crappie bite that was taking place. According to the reports, the fish were hanging several feet off of the bottom in 40 feet of water.
Once back outside, I unloaded my four wheeler, strapped my FishTrap onto the back rack, my StrikeMaster onto the front, and drove onto the ice. The little cluster of houses made our destination easy to pick out. We drove beyond the group of houses before we turned off our machines and started up the augers. The first hole I dropped a transducer into showed fish.
It took a bit of coaxing and a lot of jigging before I brought my first crappie to the surface. The next several came quickly and then the fish were gone. I hung around for a few more minutes in case they wandered back my way, but there was no such luck.
I ended up drilling several more holes before I located fish again. This time an anxious red line moved up quickly to inhale my dropping bait. I hooked one more crappie from this hole before I was up and searching again.
On many of my outings, searching is much of what the fishing trip is all about. It rarely happens that you pull up to a spot and catch fish after fish without moving. On the contrary, moving seems to be the name of the game.
Somewhere along the line we seem to have forgotten what the searching process is all about. I believe that as a group of outdoor writers, we have maybe overdone the light line, small hook, and electronics bit without helping anglers understand that the best tactics are not going to bring fish to the surface if you are not on them.
So what exactly does one do to find fish consistently? Believe me, there is no cut and dried answer to this one. Let’s make a comparison to summer.
If you were out on a summer day and having trouble locating fish, what would you do? You certainly wouldn’t cast to the same spot for two hours in a row. You would fish all sides of the boat and more than likely move to a new location. You may even get out a map and pick a new spot to try.
Winter location tactics should be approached in the same manner. We need to fish all around a known fish holding area before we conclude there are no fish present. We need to puzzle out where the fish have gone especially if we know they are coming back once the light gets low.
Anyway you look at it, this is all theory. Looking for fish in the winter is a tedious task. Every time you want to try a new location you have to drill another hole, move your ice house, and freeze your hands. There is a lot of incentive for staying in one spot even when the fishing is slow.
One simple maneuver that has helped me locate fish is to move out from the group of anglers and start fishing the outer perimeter of the group. Many times, activity from anglers will spook fish to the outer rim of their holding area. Of all the methods I use for locating fish, working the outer perimeter of a cluster of anglers has been one of the most successful.
Another system that works well is to fish with a team of anglers. More bodies mean more people to help locate active fish. The key here is that there must be a communication agreement so if someone stumbles upon the hot area, they share their knowledge with others in the group.
Sometimes, highly competitive anglers have a difficult time sharing their good fortune. They are content to sit on top of a school and hammer the fish while their buddies are sucking air thirty yards away. This is not the kind of person you want to winter fish with.
Without a doubt, mobility is a key to successful winter fishing. If it is a painful task to search out knew locations, anglers don’t do it. In this respect having modern equipment such as light augers, good electronics, and portable ice houses really helps.
This year I also added one more feature to my mobility concept and that was a four wheeler. This machine, along with the fish house rack in the back, makes long treks to new locations possible. On the ice, my four wheeler performs the same function as my outboard does in the summer. It makes location changes easy and fast.
If you get frustrated with inconsistent action in the winter time, join the club because we all do. Keeping up with roaming schools of fish is a difficult and tedious task. However, it is a challenge that we can’t ignore. In the winter, it is the nature of the beast.
Searching, searching, and more searching is what you must do to consistently be successful on the ice. Even then, there are no guarantees.