Do these 3 Things NOW to keep your Ice Season Rolling!

The ice season is sadly on the downhill side of the season and some lakes are showing signs of the February slowdown.  Fish tend to slow down in February as the ice builds and the crowds are thick at popular Iowa lakes/rivers. There are a few simple things that ice anglers need to do to get through this tough time and onto the late ice bite...which can be even better than first ice.

#1- FRESH LINE: Now is a perfect time to get some fresh line on your reels.  You DO NOT need to take all the line off and fill your entire spool with new line.  Most ice fishing line spools come with 100 yards of line on them.  That is enough to re-line 2 or 3 reels.  Leave plenty of older line on your reel and put the fresh right on top.  If you need more than 100 feet of line on your ice reel...you aren't fishing in Iowa.

#2- TRAVEL: One sure fire way to beat the winter slowdown is to travel to highly populated lakes.  Some lakes are better than others, some just have more fish in them than others.  Water quality, reproduction cycles, and angler pressure can all lead to this.  Research and find what lakes are "full" of fish, it will make a huge difference this time of year.

#3- TURN IT OFF: If you are using Forward Facing Sonar on the ice, it is time to turn it off.  Not all the time, but when you locate fish and use a Vexilar to catch them, do not leave the FFS in the water pointing at the fish you are trying to catch.  I have seen this over and over throughout the winter seasons.  Some fish will move from their location if you leave the FFS pointing on them.  The signal of a FFS unit is strong, the fish can feel the sonar and some will react negatively towards it.  Simple fixes include; pulling it out of the hole or pointing it another direction.  The signal frequency of a Vexilar unit will omit anywhere from 150 to 300MHz, while a FFS, like a Livescope will omit 600-1,100 MHz.  Yes, the fish can feel that and make the leave the area.

These are a few things you can do in the near future to keep catching good numbers of fish through the ice.  With the current forecast...you may want to bookmark this article because late ice may be here sooner than later.  :(