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Fished today from 3 pm till dark. Caught 2 fat rainbows in the dark on a whatta cricket. Fished near Rainbow bay in about 15-20 ft of water. It sure seemed like my Vexilar wasn't showing any fish, but it was my first time using it. I could see my jig and the bottom area, but not much action anywhere else on the graph. Either Deer Creek is lacking numbers of fish or I need some Vexilar or Deer Creek suggestions. Good luck everyone!!
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Are you using an FL-8 or FL-18? Gain up high enough? What was range and mode on? If all that was set right, fish may be hugging bottom, or maybe very few fish.
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My experience has been that most people turn the gain up too high and get too much "interferrance" on the screen and can't tell what is "garbage" and what is a fish. In 15 to 20 feet of water, your gain should be around 1 or less. Your lure should show up as a thin green line. The Vexilar will pickup anything 1/2 inch or larger. I like to hold my bait within 6 inches of the bottom and wait till something comes by and real up to it. Also, I jig constantly using about a 2 ft jigging motion. Pull up, let it float down . This will attract the fish a lot more than just letting it sit still. I will also real up and down the column using this jiging motion to work the whole column. When a fish comes into the column, I raise to its level (or lower) and let it sit, if no bite, then small jigging motions. If it leaves, large jigging motions and usually it will return. Quite often, nothing you do will get them to bite. Attracting them takes working the jig. Least wise, this is how I fish and I have good success. My son ususally has his hole 4 feet from me and although I can attract the fish to our area, I will get the bites and he won't. I believe the jigging has a great deal to do with your success.
If your gain was down to eliminate the "garbage" from the screen, then you were in an area with few fish. They say if you are not seeing anything after 20 minutes, move. It seems I setup and seldom move. Maybe I just have a lucky auger that drills lucky holes.
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I couldnt agree more, Set the gain so its showing your jig and not all the garbage, jig the hell out of your lure, trying everything from a wonded minnow to a Jitter bug, if your not seeing fish (Lines) then move, there is no reason to continue to fish if the fish arent there. Keep playing with your vexilar until your comfortable with what your seeing, it does takes practice, but once you have it down you will nail them. Mine has become such a part of my ice fishing that my 10 year old son will take it from me and kill them, he thinks its a video game or somthing. so if he can learn to use it anyone can.
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I played around with the gain to get junk off the screen, so maybe there just weren't too many fish.I could definately tell where my jig was and the bottom. I jigged a lot too. So now the question is does anyone have any good deer creek info this year???
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sometimes fish can be just a suttle movement of light near the bottom too.
keep playing with your VEX. you will be an expert in no time.
also don't forget that IR button if other finders are around.
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You need to but the s-cable adapter for your vexilar! I had the same problems fishing in shallow water so I was told to get the s-cable and it has improved it 100%. I even can see schools of minnows swimming by.
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If you have an FL-18 you don't need the S-cable. Use the LP(low power) mode instead.
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Don't forget the small cone diameter on your transducer. At 15-20 feet, you were probably only looking at an area a few few feet in diamter on the bottom. If you saw your jig but no fish, it stands to reason that there were no fish directly in your cone. The fish you caught were likely just passing through. The solution is to drill lots of holes when you get on the ice and move until you locate the fish.
