Hard-Water Concepts: Why Precision Matters

Ask the best ice fishing guides and hard-water pros to share their thoughts on what qualities anglers need to consistently catch fish, and you can bet you’ll hear about precision. But what does this mean, exactly?

In this blog, we attempt to answer this question by looking at examples of how being precise when ice fishing can improve an angler’s success.

Anglers can’t cover water as quickly on the ice as they can when fishing from a boat. For this reason, ice anglers need to make the most of every hole they drill.

Interestingly, we’re seeing a shift away from the“Swiss Cheese” mentality of cutting 100+ holes a day to anglers being more precise and calculated about where and how many holes they drill. Electronics are driving this change, and nowhere is this more apparent than when live sonar is part of the equation.

For instance, an angler can use live sonar’s Forward view to see out 120+ feet, and then pan the transducer 360-degrees to expand the search area even more. This technology lets an angler sift through areas significantly faster and with less hole drilling than when using traditional 2D sonar.

Another advantage of live sonar Forward view is it shows fish direction and distance. An angler can use this information to walk to the location, measuring off the distance using stride length, and then drill a hole right over top of fish. Talk about precision!

You don’t need live sonar to get precise with ice hole placement, though. Scouting weed beds and structures in late fall, marking key spots with waypoints, and uploading this data to a portable fishfinder/GPS combo or smartphone App to guide hole drilling during the hard-water season is a tried and true approach. Detailed digital lake maps are useful, especially when exploring a new water system and helps drill along breaks, over offshore humps and structures likely to hold fish.

Being precise when drilling holes comes down to the 90/10 rule. That is, 90 percent of feeding fish are found in 10 percent of the water. The better able you become at finding and fishing the prime, 10 percent, the more success you experience.

Hole drilling efficiency is further enhanced when electric ice augers enter the equation. StrikeMaster’s Lithium 40V Lite and Lithium 24V augers are extremely lightweight and start drilling with the click of a switch and push of a button, helping anglers cover ground quickly and drill holes faster than with a gas ice drill.

Getting your lure in the right location is only half the battle, though. You still need to get fish to bite.

In the context of precision, the ability to attract fish and trigger strikes is impacted by an angler’s control of their lure. Achieving “presentation precision” can mean many things.

As one example, it’s crucial to stay in contact with a lure when jigging. Maintaining contact means being in-tune with what the bait is doing; you know its depth in the water column and, subsequently, its position in relation to fish displayed on the sonar.

Naturally, using quality, ice-fishing specific rods and reels improves precision when jigging. 13 Fishing’s Tickle Stick rod, for instance, features PC2 (Parallel Composite Construction) Flat Tip construction, an innovative feature that drastically increases an angler’s ability to detect ascending and descending strikes. This construction also adds rigidity to the blank by preventing the rod from rolling over, resulting in precise power transfer and perfect hook-sets every time.

Ice fishing line doesn’t always get the attention it deserves in comparison to other fishing gear. Don’t fall into this trap.

Quite literally “the tie that binds,” ice fishing line plays a crucial role in helping an angler stay in contact with their lure, detect hits and execute quality hook sets. Excluding tight-lining/sight-fishing scenarios where anglers purposely use line coils as a visual strike indicator, the general consensus is line memory (aka coils) dampens sensitivity and sabotages precision.

Taut line, on the other hand, instantly transmits rod moves to make artificial presentations come alive. Quality line without coils also does an excellent job relaying the energy of a strike up into the rod.

Buying fresh monofilament and fluorocarbon at the start of the ice season is one way to keep line coils at bay. Slightly stretching coiled sections is another trick for getting rid of memory spirals and straightening line.

It’s also critical to use line specifically made for ice fishing, like Sufix’s Advance Ice Fluorocarbon, 832 Advanced Ice Braid and Advance Ice Monofilament. These lines are engineered to perform optimally, stay supple and have superior knot strength in freezing temperatures.

When you get right down to it, fishing with precision equates to fishing efficiently. The more time you spend at prime locations holding active fish — and the more precise you are when jigging these areas — the more fish-catching opportunities you’ll experience.