Tip # 28 – Drill Lots Of Ice Fishing Holes

Finding fish through the ice can be tough, especially if you don’t have some sort of sonar device or fishfinder to make things a little less confusing.   Ice fishing for schooling fish is fun, as long as you find the school and you are able to keep on top of them as the move around looking for a meal.  The real question when you are out in the ice, in cold weather and in need of fast action is where are those fish?  Having a fish finder really comes in handy here.  Drill a hole and drop it down.  Without a fish finder, we’re a little limited in knowing just where the fish are.

A step in the right direction of finding schooling fish when ice fishing is to drill several holes and fish them in a fashion that has you going through all of the holes very quickly to find those fish!  The method I use is to drill a hole, and first things first, rig up a rod on a tip-up or whatever you choose, drop it down and leave it be.  Walk 20 paces or so with your auger and drill another hole.  Use your ladle to clean this one up before moving on.  Walk back to the previous hole and if you haven’t had any luck yet, reel in the line and bring it to the next hole.  Drop it down the second hole.   Now…..maybe you already see where this is going, but if not…..Pick up your auger and walk 20 paces now, so you begin to zig zag at 20 pace intervals.  Keep moving along like this until you find fish.  Once you find them, and they move on, you now have a drilled zig zag pattern that you can use to move with the school of fish.  If the bite stops, just move on to the next hole and the next as the school moves around.

tight lines!