THE BEST CAMERAS ON ICE
JUST GOT BETTER, LIGHTER

We’re nearing the end of walleye season in MN, and things have gotten a bit tougher. Snow is deep and ice is thick(er), and the amount of available light at depth has been cut dramatically. Your early season haunts are likely nowhere near where you are ice fishing now, and at this point, it’s more about just getting bites rather than talking about how many you’re catching.

There’s a lot of ways to catch fish during the lazy summer months, but it’s worth remembering that fish are pretty fat and happy right now.  Weedlines are well defined, bait is plentiful in most lakes, and warm water temps mean fish are at peak metabolism.  While they need to eat often, it’s not hard to find a great place to get dinner.  The menu options are varied as well, so it tends to take most fishing patterns and nullify the amplitude of their effectiveness.

Water temperatures that build into the high 60 and 70 degree marks will definitely get fish moving, and that usually coincides with a few hatches.
Bugs crawling out of the deep mud get rafted against the main-lake structure, and signify some of the initial pushes to offshore humps, bars, and reefs. It’s often when casual walleye anglers, or those who see early mixed bags of walleyes with crappies and gills, stop catching them.

Anglers don’t always follow, sometimes because they’re not required to. This is a dynamic time of year as the summer food chain ramps up production. That means anglers don’t always have to look deep to find fish, and several patterns can be going at the same time.

about the details of each as your power source may be the most notable piece of ice fishing gear you purchase this season.  Whether looking to re-power, or upgrade your ice fishing fish finder to a better, longer-lasting, or lighter lithium battery, this article will lead you through the key components to making a good choice.

Press Release – New Hope, MN (9/29/21) – Marcum Technologies, the undisputed leader in ice-fishing-specific sonar and cameras, takes tech to the next level. Their long-held principle is that features are useless unless they help an angler catch fish, and that can be seen throughout decades of innovation. Patented technology like moveable zoom that led to angler’s ability to target fish anywhere in the water column was the first ping heard round the world among the ice sonar community. They followed it up with additional advancements to help distinguish echoes from noise in an interference rejection system so advanced, it’s also patented.

Open Water Mapping with the MX-7GPS Fish long enough, and you’ll find spots that border on magic.  Sometimes they’re seasonally…

Who doesn’t have boxes of jigs laying around?  No matter the species, it could be the most universal, widely copied, and versatile lure of all time.  If we’re talking live bait, it’s the best delivery method for meat that I know of.  If plastics, well there’s usually a jig involved here too. 

Starting with a standard jig-head, you have to think about what you’d like to do with it. If you’re threading on a fathead minnow, a will be the logical choice. The same can’t be said if you’re looking to fish plastics, as plastics fish best with an aggressive wire keeper.

As for other features and color, think about the water clarity you’ll be fishing in. Anything with a blade or propeller adds flash and vibration, which may be a necessary part of the presentation. Big minnows call for a , and suspended fish call for a that rises above a weight on the bottom. So many jigs, so many scenarios, but you need to match the style of jig to the type of fishing you’ll be doing.

It’s this time of year when our ice sonar is swapped for long rods and soft water, but that doesn’t mean your MarCum should be put in the back corner of the garage. All sonar systems, digital or mechanical styles, offer keys and cues that help anglers be more successful on the water

That’s especially true in small crafts like kayaks, canoes, or small skiffs where a larger, permanently mounted traditional LCD display isn’t in play. Here’s just a few ways to trick your craft, whatever it may be, and get the very most from your MarCum.

From the day you get your first flasher, the ice-fishing universe is forever changed. Ice anglers go from simply guessing at bites and what may or may not have been a fish, to tracking them throughout the water column. Not only can you use it to find fish and track how they respond to your bait, but you can also use it to find active fish before a line is even wetted.  At one time, it was considered somewhat odd; almost a novelty. Now, ice-fishing electronics are a multi-million dollar category, and the thought of fishing without one seems pointless.

If you know you want to re-power your ice fishing fish finder or underwater fishing camera with Lithium, but you don’t know why, here’s a great article that discusses all the benefits that Lithium has. In general, 12v lithium batteries possess key advantages over SLA batteries, but it’s important to know a bit more about the details of each as your power source may be the most notable piece of ice fishing gear you purchase this season.

From the industry front-runner in ice electronics, comes a new leader in the batteries that power them. It’s only fitting that MarCum Technologies, in the quest to constantly improve their ice offerings, brings advancements not only in sonar or cameras, but the very power-plants that fuel them.

It’s a magical time of year. The ice on the lakes is pretty much absent. The landscapes that were not so long ago covered in snow now show glimpses of life again. Grass is turning greener, plants are blooming, birds are chirping. Spring has sprung.

To many anglers that means one thing – the Wisconsin Fishing Opener is coming. The Wisconsin Fishing Opener is traditionally on the first Saturday in May. This year it falls on

Minnesota’s early May fishing opener is a date most avid walleye anglers have circled on the calendar, but long before May is the pre-opener down on Pool 4 of the Mississippi River.  Warm spells in February, all the way through the traditional opening day, offer anglers a great chance at not just knocking the rust off, but catching both numbers and size for walleye and sauger both.  
As Joel Nelson says, “There’s no better feeling than the slight “tick” of the rod tip or a line-jump as a shallow-water walleye inhales some plastic. “

It’s amazing how many anglers have an underwater ice fishing camera for winter use, and forget to pack it in the boat for fishing opener. In fact, open-water applications abound when it comes to everything from species identification, to finding green weeds, or simply identifying water clarity traits from one end of the lake to another.

The fact that now your underwater camera for fishing can be so much more mobile is a major benefit to its use, and the fish-finding information you unlock with it is rather limitless. Here’s just a few ways and reasons to get more use from your winter camera, come spring, summer and fall.

No one can deny how much the sealed lead-acid (SLA) 12v battery has had an impact on ice fishing.  This battery has been the dominant player in the game and has been used extensively for decades in flashers, digital units and camera systems throughout the ice belt.