Official tPB ice fishing thread

[BluesBucksNHuskers]

What are these and their uses?

It’s a fish finder that’s a live feed of what’s going down there instead of a scrolling screen.

You can see the fish swimming around and if you really have it dialed in have enough detail you can see the shape of the fish

 

[PLA]

I use Livescope both through the ice and soft water. I’m a 100% bass guy in the soft water months. I swithched to throwing big swimbaits about five years ago, so the livescope gets turned off when I locate fish. I bought it when it first came out, and didn’t really understand it the first couple years. It’s pretty amazing if you want to figure out fish behavior. I fish some tournaments, and what it’s done for tournaments is made guys that couldn’t catch fish to save their life, into cashing checks. It’s turned the pro bass fishing industry upside down. I get pissed at myself when I find myself staring at it all day! Like any expensive toy, do I need it? No. Is it fun as hell sometimes? Absolutely! When it comes to ice fishing with it. My son and I have figured out that you should have the transducer as far from your bait as possible. Fish, especially Perch, tend to spook from the signal, unless they’re really hungry.

I will tell you all a secret a buddy taught me for Perch fishing up here in SD. He only uses an underwater camera, and he will drop a 5 pound weight through the hole, tied to a rope, and pound it on the bottom several times. We have fresh water shrimp up here, and the bottom of some of the lakes are covered with them. The weight gets the water all stirred up with shrimp and other little critters, and the Perch come piling in. Gills and other fish show up as well, but it really works with Perch. Those cameras don’t bother the fish at all compared to fishfinders and the pinging of tranducers. There is a guy on Lake Poinsett that will rent his Lodge Fish Trailer very reasonably. It sleeps 4-5 guys and he rents it for the weekend for like $600. It’s awesome and it’s a year old. TV, kitchen,etc. Here is his number - Carter 605-520-4850.

 

[Jim14510]

I could go on forever about how much I love lake trout. I need to go try that lake in western South Dakota or try one of the ones in Colorado with them

Where are they in Western SD?

 

[Jim14510]

It’s a fish finder that’s a live feed of what’s going down there instead of a scrolling screen.

You can see the fish swimming around and if you really have it dialed in have enough detail you can see the shape of the fish

And size. To some degree.

 

[BluesBucksNHuskers]

Where are they in Western SD?

Lake Pactola

 

[Jim14510]

Fish, especially Perch, tend to spook from the signal, unless they’re really hungry

That's interesting. Is this something they've figured out for sure or something you suspect from experience? Something they're picking up with lateral line maybe?

You should teach me how to get the panoptix dialed in better. I can't remember the size of the lithium battery I've got it on but I'm wondering if the problem is it's too small. Could that be true?

As I said earlier whenever I get more than 40ish feet the ghost tree is brutal.

 

[Jim14510]

Lake Pactola

Why not just go another couple hours to lake of the woods area?