Ice fishing success is hanging out there for anyone who wants to grab it. A new ice angler coming into the sport who gets all the right tools, and learns the right approach, can pass up ice fishermen with years of experience, who haven’t upgraded their equipment and way of thinking.It becomes more clear to me every year that a lot of people hang onto their old traditions, like using their grandpa’s wooden jigging stick and sitting over one hole, smack in the middle of a crowd, because at sunset they catch fish. When fish are active at that magical time when the sun is hitting the trees, you will catch them if they can find your bait, no matter how crude your equipment is. But to catch fish that you find by striking off on your own, in the middle of the day, you need to learn the new way.

Even if you own no decent ice fishing equipment right now, it’s amazing how small the investment is to get up to the minute. You can get the right rods, reels, line, lures, shelter, auger, depthfinder, and clothes for much less than the comparable gear you need to fish during the open-water months.

You gotta move!
You not only have to have the right equipment, you have to limit how much of the right equipment you bring with you for a day on the ice.

All your stuff has to be quickly mobile and organized to move if you’re going to fish with the spirit of adventure it takes to succeed. It needs to be as light as possible, meaning you shouldn’t bring even one thing you aren’t likely to use. You wouldn’t believe how light I travel on the ice. I often have just one or two small tackle boxes, with other backup tackle in the truck, parked on shore, where I can get back to it if I need to.

If your stuff breaks your back to move it, you won’t move, especially when you encounter deep snow, slushy conditions, or simply have long distances to cover.

You also need to keep yourself organized as you fish, so you can move at a moment’s notice. I see a lot of people bring their stuff out on a small sled, or in a bucket, but they spread it all out over the ice at the first stop they make. Because it becomes a hassle to gather everything up and move, they don’t move.

If you don’t move, you will not be consistently successful. You may occasionally make a good catch, and that may cause you to continue in your old ways for the rest of the winter.

I talk a lot about mobility. The willingness to move, the ability to pack up quickly and move, is one of the things that separates the best ice anglers from the rest of the pack. The best ice anglers, in fact, rarely fish in the pack. They strike out on their own, or move around the edges of the pack, and find fish that are unbothered and willing to bite.

The most common mistake beginning ice fishermen make is to bring too much stuff with them. I have refined my list of what I think you need to succeed. Bring more, and you won’t move enough to be a modern ice angler.

You need a good depthfinder!
You need a good depthfinder, rigged for fishing through the ice, to get the most out of the sport. In my opinion, you simply can’t fish the way you have to without one.

Without sonar, how do you know when a fish comes swimming up to your bait? How do you know when to start changing things up with your presentation? How do you know how the fish reacted to how you were jigging, so you can try something different the next time a fish comes up to your bait?

A depthfinder becomes your underwater eyes in the winter... in fact, because you’re stationary, a good depthfinder makes ice fishing even more fun than open-water fishing in a lot of ways.The Ice Box, available in most stores that sell ice-fishing equipment, holds a powerful gel-cell battery, that will run your depthfinder all day even in the coldest weather, and is set up so you put the transducer in the same hole you fish out of. For my money, the Vexilar FL-8 is still the sonar to get. It’s a flasher that gives you instant feedback as a fish reacts to your presentation... something you can’t duplicate with a liquid crystal. The colored display alerts you when a fish enters the edge of your cone angle (marks as weak green), moves closer (turns yellow), and finally settles directly at the bait (red alert!).

You need to be able to drill holes easily!
Many ice anglers still think drilling a hole through the ice is going to be a grueling process. A lot of people only drill one hole each time they go fishing. That’s like going out in your boat and casting to the exact same spot all day.

The best augers are better than they’ve ever been, and again, I have a favoriteÐÐthe lazer series by Strikemaster. Get a gas, electric or hand model, depending on how thick the ice gets in your area. If the ice seldom gets thicker than 12 inches where you live, a lazer hand auger should handle anything you need to do.

You need a portable shelter!
As a modern ice angler who is searching for fish at midday, you should take a personal pledge to fish in each new hole for no more than maybe 10 or 15 minutes, unless you are catching fish.If I’m not seeing fish on my FL-8, I always begin with an aggressive jigging presentation. If fish don’t show up (you’ll see them on the screen) in a reasonable time, I’m on to the next spot. In fact, what I normally do is drill 3, 4, 5 or more holes in a general area, and fish them all within about 20 minutes.

You have to be able to drill holes quickly with minimal effort, see what’s down there, and stay out of the cold and wind while you’re fishing. Fish outside on a bucket if you want to, but the wind is your enemy, even when it’s relatively light. It can freeze the hole shut, fill your rod guides with ice, coat your line with ice, and blow your line around so it becomes more difficult than it should be to detect bites.

I mentioned that sitting still can be an advantage. Ice anglers can be even more effective than open-water anglers who are fighting the wind. If you can get your line hanging straight down through a hole in the ice, and you’re getting a clear picture (on your sonar screen) of your lure, you’ll see fish come swimming into your hole. If the fish comes right up to your bait, you go into hyper-alert mode and really tune your senses into what’s going on. Fish without a depthfinder and you get caught by surprise a lot of times, and miss bites. If you’re paying attention, you’ll feel a slight tick, or see the line move slightly, and a quick hookset normally brings a throbbing fish into the picture. Compare that to bouncing up and down in a boat, trying to detect bites.

But you do have to be out of the wind to make the most of your ice fishing advantages. The Fish Trap, available in one- or two-person models, puts canvas walls around you with the flick of a wrist in about one second. Inside is dry storage for your gear, a seat, and you, ready to catch more fish than ever.

You need a good rod and reel!
A good rod and reel lets you feel the weight of the jig as you move it, and a sharp tick is a bite most people will feel. But if the fish just slides up and sucks in the bait, or rises up with the bait in its mouth, you also have to be able to detect a slight tick, or the absence of the weight, and set the hook.

How do you know a good rod when you feel it? It must remain stiff when the lure is at rest. It has to be soft enough that it helps cushion the line from breaking when you’re fighting a fish, but it has to have enough stiffness that it holds firm when the lure is at rest.

Rods should be built for the pound-test line you’re using. With lighter line, you can use softer action rods. With heavier line, you can use stiffer rods. Actually, something that is not well understood is that the rod, reel, line, and lure all have to balance for the package to work well. You normally only hear about the rod and reel being balanced. It’s common for people to use line that’s too heavy, or a lure that’s too light to make the line hang straight.

With a setup that’s right, the lure is heavy enough to make the line hang straight down, with no coils or any slack to it. That makes it easier to detect light bites. And the rod is stiff enough to keep from feeling sloppy when you’re working the lure.

One good, reliable source of modern ice fishing rods is Thorne Brothers. Call them at 612-572-3782 and tell them what species of fish you like to chase, what pound-test line you use, what weight lures you use, and they can set you up with the right rod (or rods) for your fishing.

You need knowledge of the lakes in your area!
What’s in your area lakes? If you want to increase your catch of walleyes, or panfish, or northern pike, or bass, or trout, you have to be fishing on waters that have good populations of those species. You need to do some off-the-water homework, something most anglers fall way short on.The most under-used source of good information are the local fisheries biologists who work for your stateÕs natural resources department (they call them Department of Natural Resources, Fish and Game Department, and other such names, depending on the state). Call directory assistance, or do a search using keywords on the internet, and find out who the local biologist in your area is. Ask him or her about the fish populations in your area lakes. Ask which ones might have a tendency to get low on oxygen as the winter wears on, and make sure to fish them early in the ice season, if at all.

Some lakes are just not good ice fishing lakes, something we don’t completely understand, but we have to accept. Other lakes seem to kick out more good fish through the ice than during the open-water season.

Also, talk with bait shop employees. Carefully read the local newspapers to see where fish tend to come from (remembering that not everybody tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth).You also have to know about the species of fish you want to catch, and how they react to the winter season. Read articles and attend seminars by good ice fishermen, to learn what depth of water and types of spots your target species stakes out at different stages of the winter season.At that point, it’s a matter of taking the right gear - only as much as you - need onto the ice, and chasing fish with the spirit of a modern ice angler.