Ice fishing myth?

[holleywood]

I have always heard that you should never drill through and old hole, I never heard why though, i just thought it would dull your blades really fast? Anyone else have heard of this or any other ice fishing myths, rituals or superstitions? Lets hear em?
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[Kent]

My experience is that old holes have the hardest ice and thus the most difficult to drill, and especially more difficult to get your auger to bite into to start the drilling process. This is likely because it is solid ice (no layers of snow and slush and minimal air bubbles). Also, the auger tends to bounce off of the sides of the old hole, unless one is forunate enough to drill exactly in the center of the old hole, which can bind up the auger and also make it more difficult to drill the hole.
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[fairwayphilly]

I've tried it several times and it seems like the new ice in the old hole is a different density than the surrounding ice and it's very hard to get everything lined up with a hand auger and doesn't seem to want to bite because you are always trying to drill partially through the new ice and old ice at the edge of the hole. That being said, I've done it with a gas auger several times as well and they have the torque and power to just blow through it with no problem. I don't think there is anything that will hurt your blades, it's just a pain in the butt.
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[aceman698]

i made the mistake of drilling an old hole a few weeks ago it took twice as long to drill and put several knicks and dings in my blade
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[holleywood]

So i guess there is some truth to what I heard, thanks for the reply...
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[IceAndFly]

I haven't noticed that drilling out old holes dulls my blades any more than any other hole, but it is really difficult to align the hole and the auger just right. The blades catch and the auger jumps around and is hard to turn. I imagine as the ice refreezes in a hole it doesn't freeze flat, but rather freezes in a dome. Trying to finish off the 'dome' is where I find most of my trouble redrilling holes. It is easier and faster to just drill another new hole. The wear and tear on my arms isn't worth redrilling...

That said, I often use a 6" or 7" auger...I will redrill a hole if the auger I have is smaller than the existing hole. It is easier to avoid the edges/dome of the old hole...

IceAndFly
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[PBH]

Maybe someone should send this in to the guys at MythBusters?
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[FishKillr]

Yes, it is true. The old hole is sourrounded by Ice and freezes faster and has a better quality ice than the sourrounding lake ice. The lake took a month to grow that much and the hole freeses solid over night. That is why you can usually see thru the old holes, they are made up of clear, quality ice...not slush and ozygen/hole filled lake ice.
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[joshmobile]

What about noise on the ice? I have heard If you have lots of kids that are noisy or if you are listening to music it scares away fish. Whats do you guys think about this?
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[wagdog]

In my experience, noisy ice equals fewer fish. This was confirmed again yesterday. dr. veha and I got to deal with a guy trying to break ice with an axe, the kids using a shovel to try to break through, etc. They also thought it would be cool to walk through where we were fishing, examine our catch (one kid took one of my perch), and make tons of noise. Whenever they would sit down and be quiet, we would start getting bites again. These were not our kids. When we can get 4 square feet to ourselves and no one is moving, more fish seem to stay in the area longer.
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[holleywood]

The noisyest ice I was on is Lost Creek, 2 years ago on the coldest day of the year I took my daughter and my nephew out on the ice, it sounded like you were standing in a huge metal box and someone was ponding the sides with a sledge hammer, very strange, never heard anything like that before or since, and we had a great day catching fish, action was non stop the whole time we were there....
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[IceAndFly]

I have always wondered about the ice cracking noise vs human noise. When I'm watching fish on the sonar and the ice cracks, the fish don't seem to care. If I move or stomp on the ice it can sometimes scare the fish. Other times I can make all kinds of racket on the ice in shallow water and the fish don't seem to care. I'm going to have to do more fishing to figure this out[:p]

IceAndFly
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[FishKillr]

Yes, I am 100% sure it affects the fish....some much more than others. Walleye and shallow water fish and lakes ex...Utah Lake...are affected greatly by noise. On other lakes that are super deep, I think you will be ok, although motors and four wheelers in an area can't help much. I always do better away from the mororized bunch and away from the crowds.
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[walleyebob]

Contrary to popular opinion, I have found that some noise can attract fish. After a hundred years of ice fishing and way too many times of drilling a hole and immediately catching one fish, then drilling another hole and immediately catching one fish and so on and so on, I have come to believe that in water deeper than about twenty feet, noise can attract many species. Also we had many trips to Strawberry when the fishing would get real slow, so we would fire up the snow machines and go for a ride. When we got back the girls had caught two or three and the fishing was good again. After that happened a few times, we started experimenting. We would start the machines and let them idle on the ice for a few minutes and the fishies would start biting again.
Shallow water is different, but talking doesnt affect fish. Music will, just because the speakers cause vibrations that go through the ice. In shallow water, scraping a knife blade(anything hard) on the ice can attract a few curious fish. But jumping up and down and making thumping noise is never a good idea. And an auger blade breaking through the ice can scare fish that are close, but bring in others that are too far away to see the auger, but hear the scraping noise.
Today we fished sandy beach. Nothing. Then went to Lincoln Beach just to check it out. We looked at all the holes inside the boat ditch and decided to fish for a minute. There were a couple open holes and I dropped a finky in. Caught one right after another for about an hour. All sunnies. And some real nice ones. Then it died and we left. I think it was only good because we didnt drill holes or make any noise. Just fished. These were new fish that have just moved into the harbor, Covered with leeches. That harbor was fished out two weeks ago. The big fish all got taken and everybody was catching dinks.
Just my observations.
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