CHanging The Game
in Ice Fishing ELECTRONICs
CHanging The Game
in Ice Fishing ELECTRONICs
on all orders
$119 or more
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Sports fanatics live for it. Athletes push all year for it. And anglers should continue to pursue their favorite species into the “post-season.” Fall can be just like that on the water, only a few have survived to make it this far. So both the fish and remaining anglers get all the attention and action.
Lakes and rivers are wide open for anglers and fish are feeding more heavily as winter is approaching. Not only does your chance at numbers of fish increase but also the chance of catching your biggest fish of the year. Pike, Bass, Walleye and panfish will all be more apt to hit your offerings. As the water cools it tends to bring fish shallower as baitfish often times will be there as well. Prior to the proverbial “turnover” is the best time to be out on the water.
Many times, these locations are consistent producers during all months, yet others are specifically good for ice and not during the bulk of the open-water period. The latter types include shallow transitions from mud to sand, or sand to rock, as well as small gravel or rock patches marooned again in shallow weeds or non-like surrounding substrates.
Early ice fish push to these places, especially after sundown in clear-water systems. Spots that are no larger than a kitchen table can seem impossible to drill out and find, while they stick out like a sore thumb once you drop the camera needed to discern sand grains from gravel.
Basic sonar technology is a great asset to ice anglers during the summer and fall months, as few things hide from it, even in heavy weed cover or timber. Even if you don’t own this technology, chances are you know someone who does, or better yet, invest in a unit that does both sonar and GPS so your ice spots will transfer to summer and vice versa. Spend time getting to know the system in either case, and make sure to idle at the proper pace to provide the very best image you can.
The dog days of summer and that’s your green light to grab your MarCum flasher or digital system from the garage and give it a once over and top off the battery.
The first step in your pre-season routine should be checking your batteries. Most flasher failures on the ice are caused by a bad battery, so now’s the time to inspect your MarCum’s power source.
“You could be kicking yourself later if you don’t take a minute to check everything out now,” says MarCum Pro-Staffer, Joel Nelson. “Nothing will wreck a good day of fishing faster than a bad battery, because there’s nothing you can do about it out on the ice.”