BY SCOTT HADDOW
Wild Northerner staff
An open mind, a willingness to learn, and applying earned knowledge results in better days on hardwater, open water and the trails.
Sometimes, you just have to stick to something to make it work. In the end, it all comes down to how bad you want it.
Having this attitude and approach on the water or in the field can go a long way in helping first time, novice, and even more experienced outdoors men and women.
There are always going to be tough days, when the fish or birds don’t play into your favour and take the game of hide-and-seek to a whole new level.
I don’t consider myself an expert in anything in particular when it comes to outdoors activities, but I am an expert in trying. Over and over and over again. I also love to try new things.
Years ago, I was in the middle of a deep obsession with catching brook trout. From Opening day, January 1, to end of season, last day of September, I was relentless in my pursuit of landing these fish.
I had good days and bad days. A couple of years back, a buddy asked me to get out for lake trout on the hardwater. I declined. Why would I waste a shot at specks on lakers, I thought. To be honest, I had never targeted lakers in the winter, so I came to my decision fairly easily.
At the time, I had struck out recently on two outings for brook trout. I quickly changed my mind. This was the first step towards a big change for how I ice fish now.
We went out and caught six lake trout. I hauled in a nice 23-inch laker to top my day off. A light went off in my head. I went out several more times for lakers and caught more. I then got introduced to another friend’s ice flasher. He used it with amazing success. It was also a $600 unit.
I had been told by many anglers for years to get a flasher. I couldn’t justify the price in my mind despite the testimonials by buddies and how it helped them increase their catch rate. I’m also colour blind and have trouble with red, green, orange and yellow - the main colours of flashers - so that didn’t help at all.
I went into the local tackle store and they tried to sell me the expensive units. I went the cheap route and bought an ice transducer for my portable Humming bird 160 fish finder. The ice transducer was $100.
The boys at the tackle store thought I was wasting my money. Quite frankly, I did, too, but I went ahead and hit the ice with it.
It took some time to dial it in, but after a full season on the hardwater, the new ice transducer put me on fish. I had a real- time view of what was going on underneath me in greyscale.
I really got the unit locked down last winter. I had outings of double-digits fish. I can’t believe it took me so long to accept the technology and then to use it and learn it. I like the fact it was the cheapest route for me to take and it still produces fish like a unit that costs much more. It also represents a grey scale column and with the chart speed turned up full, I get real time action with it. Fish show up as three, four and five blocked “bumps” and when they go after my presentation, it is as if an invisible pen is drawing a line from the bottom up to my bait or lure. It is basic and it works. I was out with a few other guys who tried it last winter: one of WNM’s contributors, Bruce Heidman and former Sudbury Wolves captain Danny Desrochers. We all landed fish because of the unit, to sum it up fast.
I’ve taken these lessons to heart. My ice fishing season is simple now. The first couple of weeks of January, I head out and go after brook trout. Around the third week of January, I will switch over to lake trout and stay on them until break up. (I also plan to get in some walleye time this winter.)
This is by design. In my parts, the specks seem to hit hard and heavy in the early days of winter and then back off and become harder to catch (to me anyway LOL). The lakers seem to be more aggressive the rest of the season, especially in late March. So, I go after the hot fish.
This is just a few things I’ve learned. I will never stop learning and trying. It continues to pay off for me.
It’s a great approach for outdoors people.