The ice fishing season is coming

There are two types of ice fishing fish finders. One is the traditional flasher and the other is the more modern fish finder you will find in most boating situations.

A simple depth and fish finding device that displays the bottom echo and depth as well as any other echos (hopefully fish) and the depth they are holding. Depending on the model these type of fish finders show everything, including structure and fish.

• Battery Life - will it last all day or more? 
• Zoom Mode - can it zoom in on a section of the water column? How much can it zoom and is it adjustable?
• Color or mono?
• Can it give readings before you start drilling?
• Warranty!

There have been special ice fishing models released fairly recently which are fantastic and can run all day on a battery.

The most important thing about choosing an ice fishing fishfinder is the ability to handle the cold conditions! After this the power of the unit should be the key consideration. If you need your fish finder to penetrate the ice you may need extra power than someone using a transducer in the water.

I am very luck this weekend

Glad I caught some fish this weekend. This past weekend I had two club tournaments to wrap up the regular season with Gopher Bassmasters. Thanks to Dave Cindrich for being unfortunate enough to hurt his back and to be an awesome guy and lend me his boat for the weekend. We split the lake East & West for the weekend and the two tournaments. I got up there around 1pm on Friday and practiced a bit on the East side. I found a few fish and a few baits that produced some bites.Saturday morning, I went directly to my best area and the boat right behind me had the same idea, good thing I did not daddle. On my first cast with a Vixen topwater, I boated a keeper smallie.

I stuck with it for awhile with no more bites. I then went to dragging plastics, and I was able to coax 3 bites including a 19.5" beauty.We hunted around the rest of the lake, I was able to get 3 more keepers on soft plastics. Other then that, we caught some northerns, walleyes and short bass. It ended up being a long grueling day. In the end, I was one of two limits caught by 19 guys. Mine was the largest limit, 10.6lbs with the big fish as well.Sunday brought a new challenge, as I never spent anytime on that side. I started running points in the morning with topwater. On my 2nd spot, I had one hit, but couldn't get any fish to commit on the topwater or jigs. I kept moving and finally scored a 12.5" smallie on the topwater. I then slowed down and fished it with plastics.

I dumped a nice keeper next to the boat and then caught a short.I stuck with soft plastics for the rest of the day, catching one here and one there. Ended up catching 6 keepers total of 10.4lbs, this time there were 3 limits and mine was 2nd largest.In total, 19 guys produced only 5 limits in 2 days. I got 13 keeper bites in 2 days and that was the most by far. Should be a challenging state tournament come next September.