What lies beneath Idaho ice? This ‘flashy’ ice fishing tool helps solve the riddle
One of ice fishing’s biggest challenges is identifying a good spot. On a river or open-water lake, quality fishing holes are easier to spot. But on a frozen lake covered in snow, everything tends to look the same. Fish can’t jump and give away their location. Subsurface structure is impossible to see. Even water depth is a crapshoot.
Fortunately for anglers, one gadget can help us see beneath the ice. With a nifty device called a flasher —the ice fishing equivalent of a fish finder — anglers can quickly measure water depth, identify active fish and, if they’re lucky, watch them hammer a lure.
Like a fish finder, a flasher provides a subsurface reading using a transducer. To get started, the angler places the transducer in the hole. Within seconds, an illuminated dial will show the water depth, with solid colored lines marking the top and bottom of the water column. If you’re looking for a specific depth — say, 30 feet to target perch — using a flasher eliminates the guess work.
Quick and accurate depth measurement is nice, but the real benefit of a flasher comes when fish arrive.
As you drop a lure down the hole, it will show up as a colored line on your graph. It moves up and down as you jig it, so you always know where the lure is in the water column. If a second line shows up on your dial, it means a fish is nearby.
Oftentimes, fish are right on the bottom. By jigging near the bottom, anglers can entice active fish to come up and inspect a lure. When a colored line moves off the bottom, get ready to feel for a bite and set the hook!
The second type of ice fishing bite is my favorite, and it comes from fish — usually trout — cruising for food at shallower depths. Cruising fish will appear as colored lines higher in the water column. When that happens, quickly reel up to get your lure in front of the fish, and hang on tight! Cruising trout are usually feeding, and if they get eyes on your lure, they’re likely to smash it.
Wintertime fish are known to be picky eaters, and a flasher can help in that regard, too. If you are marking lots of fish but not getting bites, your lure and/or bait probably aren’t what the fish are looking for. Try changing it up to see if something different gets a better response.
Flashers come in many makes and models. My handy Vexilar cost about $250 ($200-$500 is a reasonable price range). But if you’re serious about ice fishing, it’s a worthwhile investment. At its best, fishing with a flasher provides useful intelligence along with a fun, almost video game-like interface. On a recent trip with my friend Adam, I marked a shallow fish and quickly reeled up to it.
“We have a fish coming through, buddy. It’s in about six feet…”
WHAM! Before I could finish the sentence, a monster rainbow trout crushed my jig.
“Wow!” Adam said as we landed the fish. “That’s awesome. It’s almost like cheating.”
Almost. But in a tough sport like ice fishing, it doesn’t hurt having a little technology in your tackle box. Tight lines!
Jordan Rodriguez has been fishing Idaho waters since he was a teen. Share your fish stories, adventures, tips and tricks with him at tightlinesboise@gmail.com or visit www.tightlines208.com.
Quick Reminders
▪ Don’t forget to buy your 2020 license before your next fishing trip!
▪ The Boise Valley Fly Fishers are set to host the Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo this Friday and Saturday at Expo Idaho. It promises to be a great event full of educational opportunities, demonstrations and fishing gear. The weekend will kick off with “An Evening with Winston Moore” at 7 p.m. Thursday at the McCleary Auditorium at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.
▪ My Ice Fishing 101 class is set for Wednesday, Jan. 29 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the JUMP Inspire Studio in Downtown Boise. The class also includes a group ice fishing trip on Saturday, Feb. 1. To register, visit www.tightlines208.com.