Striking gold on your own

[crappiekeith]

Last year was a great year for crappies.Big crappies!
This year I've struggled to locate numbers of big slabs and they may
make themselves available before ice out,yet there is so much out there to catch besides crappies.
Recently I've found myself having a blast just staying busy with other species.
It really comes down to taking advantage of that adventerous spirit all of fishermen have.
finding other fish is pretty easy really,well if you have a power auger that is.
Drilling holes on structure is key in this search.
I'll look at lake maps to find fast breaks.Then going to those areas I'll punch hole making that ice look like swizz cheese.

Here's where a flasher really comes in handy.
Reading each hole and seeing the depth as I go.Moving up and down the break paralell to how it runs so I end up with depths ranging from 10' to the bottom of the break where it flattens out.

I'll run a bait that most fish like and start working holes until I figure out the certain depth that the fish are running.

An example would be last weekend.
I had holes that ranged in depth starting at 10' to 20'.
The walleyes and perch were caught right around 15'.
I did catch a few crappies in the 18-20 foot range ,but most of the action which included pike were at 15'.

Locating the fish,determining the depth(average) and then going after them with everything in your arsenal will eventually bring about a pattern that you can use over and over.
This is how new spots are developed.
Getting away from the main pack of houses and striking gold on your own is very satisfing.

Make sure your auger has a full tank of gas!

[KCBALLER]

amen brother, well said