Headed out to the berry on monday the 17. decided to head out to the berry instead of scofield due to all the excellent reports at strawberry. arrived at 8am and headed out to near the end of the point just left of the marina. the 2 of us only managed to catch 2 each and left at 3pm. we were using white and glow sand tube jigs tipped with chubs. so are all these 30+ fish each reports true and if so what were we doing wrong??? we figure we were fishing in about 30 feet or so. any suggestions? we do not have any snowmobiles and the walking was a little difficult. only saw 2 other fisherman all day as well and they didnt catch a single fish.?
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You probably didn't walk far enough to get away from the hard-hit marina area. Also, it is difficult without having a good fishfinder. I would probably catch about 1/3 as many fish as I do ice fishing if I had to fish blind.
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Are you saying that the fish finder lets you know that there are fish under you or the depth the they're swimming? Do you drill holes until you locate fish? If you do how busy does your sonar have to be to set up on a hole? Thanks for any info, i'm planning on going Monday and would like to get into a few.
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[size 1]"Are you saying that the fish finder lets you know that there are fish under you or the depth the they're swimming?"[/size]
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[size 1]First a fish finder lets one know immediately the depth where one has drilled a hole. If the reports are that fish are being caught in 35' of water and one drills a hole and it shows 65' to the bottom, probably not wise to even bother dropping a line, but immediately move into shallower water. [/size]
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[size 1]A fish finder let's one know if there are fish around (unless they are hugging the bottom below the cone). Ideally the fish are close to the bottom (it is faster to just drop to the bottom and start fishing); however, often this is not the case. I might be fishing in 45' of water and catching fish down 15'. I might eventually discover the depth the fish are holding by trying various depths and seeing if I can get a bite; however, it is far more efficient to see fish at 15' on a fishfinder and know that they are at that depth, and also immediately be able to see if I am fishing that depth because my jig is also showing on the fishfinder. (For example, tomorrow I will probably be fishing on the bottom in about 60' of water for macks at Fish Lake; however, I will be catching rainbows down to about 20' and splake will often be found from the surface down to 60'. [/size]
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[size 1]A fish finder will also let me know when I need to be paying more attention (because I see a fish on the screen) and be ready to set the hook, or to speed up or slow down my jigging action. I will also know if my jigging action is keeping the fish around or not. Many times I will have my jig on the bottom and see a fish up higher in the water column and then I am able to quickly reel up to the fish. Without a fish finder I would never know that a fish was there and that I should reel up (or other times drop down) to it.[/size]
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[size 1]By knowing that fish are in the area and that I am not getting bites will let me know that I should try a different bait, a different jig, change my jigging action or whatever else that I might want to try. Without a fish finder I am unable to tell that there are fish around and that what I am doing is not working.[/size]
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[size 1]"Do you drill holes until you locate fish?" If I am not familiar with an area I will most likely drill holes until I find the depth that I want to try. I have a hand-held electronic digital depth finder that I can quickly put in the hole, without having to drag out the fishfinder, and immediately know the depth of the water, and it will also beep and mark the depth of any fish that happen to pass through the beam. [/size]
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[size 1]"If you do how busy does your sonar have to be to set up on a hole?" Usually I am pleased if I see any fish, because a jig will often bring other fish in that are outside of the area that is visible by the fish finder. However, when I am ice fishing (as opposed to be fishing from my boat) I will usually give an area a try (especially if I am fishing for trout) if the depth is what I am looking for, whether I immediately mark fish or not on the fish finder.[/size]
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Thanks again for the info, I guess i'll look for something in the 30-40' range and give it a try.
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