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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Finding fish under ice


North Idaho resident Dave Voelker is proud of his catch while ice fishing at Hayden Lake. Few anglers can hook a fish this small, he said. 
 (Brian Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)
Rich Landers Outdoors editor

One of the keys to successful ice fishing is selecting a place to fish. While tradition helps narrow down the lake selections, technology can help locate the fish.

Inland Northwest ice anglers have plenty of room to roam this week, with most of the area’s traditional winter hot spots capped with a secure layer of ice.

Spokane-region destinations include Hog Canyon and Fourth of July lakes for trout or Eloika and Newman lakes for panfish.

North Idaho offers some of the best fishing for everything from perch to northern pike at Avondale, Upper Twin, Cocolalla, Rose, Round and Fernan lakes, plus the bigger waters of Hayden and Coeur d’Alene lakes when ice is thick enough.

Low-tech fish-finding techniques include augering holes and dropping a line to the bottom to measure for desired depths.

For example, perch and crappie anglers tend to look for water 20-25 feet deep, where they usually fish just above the bottom using meal worms, cut bait or black marabou jigs, said Phil Cooper, Idaho Fish and Game Department spokesman in Coeur d’Alene.

Trout anglers tend to look for water no deeper than 15 feet, he said.

Even under the ice, fish may be more active just after sunrise at some lakes. But anytime the action is slow, experienced anglers say it’s important to keep moving and looking for the fish.

High-tech fish-finding methods save a lot of time and augering effort, leaving little excuse for staying at one spot more than a half hour if the fish are not biting.

Modern ice-fishing tools include a GPS that displays a chart of the lake, and an electronic fish finder or underwater camera, or both.

A GPS can help you find previously discovered hot spots, and with chart software it can lead you quickly to within 10 feet or so of drop-offs and other structure. In other words, an angler can often find his honey hole by drilling five holes instead of 50.

A fish finder or camera will locate fish, and even indicate which direction schooling fish might be moving.

Of course, no technology will guarantee that the angler fishing with the exact same bait in the adjacent hole 10 feet away won’t out-fish you 20-to-1. This phenomenon is an ice-fishing mystery that technology hasn’t solved.

The answer often is decidedly low-tech. For example, if the fish won’t take a little jig with one meal worm, try putting on two.