It’s the nature of most ice anglers to seek out others of their kind, to go smack into the middle of a group and ask if anybody is catching anything. Even the most adventurous sort seems to battle loneliness at the thought of striking out and looking for fish on their own.

Most of the time when I’m catching fish, there’s nobody around me, except for maybe a few friends who might be fishing with me. We always try to get off by ourselves and find our own fish.

It’s the kind of thing most ice fishermen are missing out on.

Striking off on your own should be one of your goals for this winter.

Why is the crowd so comforting?

To ice fishermen, it seems there is comfort in numbers, psychological comfort that comes from thinking if there are already some people out here, it must be a good spot. And, in fact, groups of fish houses, and clusters of bucket-sitters, often do develop on good fishing spots. Sometimes, the spot is a traditionally good location, where lots of fish get caught, especially early in the iced-over season. Sometimes, a few pioneers discover a hot spot, then others file in behind them because the word gets out.

Either way, the traffic on the ice that comes with numbers of people eventually impacts the fishing for everyone. Lots of forces are at work. In many cases, the most catchable (aggressive, susceptible) fish get caught, leaving the crowd with pressured, educated fish that are difficult to tempt. All the tramping around and drilling of holes can also cause fish to slide off to where it’s relatively quieter. Or, many fish may naturally migrate away from the spot for reasons driven by food availability, oxygen content, and other forces.

The most important thing to realize is that usually, by the time you get out there and join the group, the easy fishing is over. The action might still be good during that half-hour of magical time around sunset, but catching fish at midday becomes quite a trick.

Even if you are drilling holes on what used to be the best spot on the lake, you can often do better if you strike out on your own.

For some ice fishermen, there might be comfort in assuming that the ice is safe where the crowd is, because lots of people have walked, snowmobiled, or driven their vehicles out to the spot, and nobody has fallen through. For what it’s worth, my friends and I tend to believe the experts who tell us to never assume any ice is safe, that you could fall through in the middle of a crowd just like you could in the middle of nowhere. When we travel to fish unfamiliar lakes, we get information about ice conditions from the locals, test the ice with chisels and augers, and wear life jackets, just like we do in the summer.

To be an ice fishing pioneer, you don’t have to blindly move over unknown ice conditions. Always keep safety in mind, but don’t let fear of undisturbed snow keep you from striking out on your own.

Another psychological barrier many ice fishermen need to overcome is the fear of failure. If they stick with the crowd, they will tend to do about as well as the rest of the pack. If a good bite occurs, they stand the chance of getting in on it. If they get skunked, there will be plenty of company to commiserate with.

Are you recognizing yourself yet?

Learning to pick your own spots

Probably the biggest factor that keeps ice fishermen from striking out on their own is that they don’t feel qualified to pick a spot. There is something to this, because it takes time to understand lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and to choose locations likely to hold the fish you are after.

But you can do it!

One of the biggest steps you can take is to begin bringing contour maps with you on ice fishing trips. Too many anglers use lake maps in the summer when fishing from a boat, but don’t even consider bringing one along in the winter.

If you see a crowd, go there and ask what they are fishing. Is it a deep basin area with a mud bottom, or a shallow flat with remnant weeds on it? Is it a rock pile or dropoff area? If you can figure out what the makeup of one productive spot is, you can often find similar spots elsewhere on the lake, by studying the map. This doesn’t always work; sometimes there really is something about a certain spot, and other spots on the same body of water that appear to be similar just don’t produce as well. But it’s a good starting point, and venturing out to find your own spots can begin to chip away at those psychological factors we just talked about.

The home lake syndrome

One thing I’ve noticed for sure is that many ice anglers keep going back day after day to one certain lake where they’ve had some success in the past. That lake becomes like a frozen security blanket to them, and to think about fishing a different lake causes them to get psyched out. Every once in a while, they venture to a new lake, but they don’t often catch much, so they head back to their home turf.

I really believe that more anglers would have more success on unfamiliar lakes if they did nothing more than notice the water clarity. The color of the water is a clue to how you should fish the lake.

You can check water clarity ahead of time by, again, reading a good lake map, which often have secchi disk readings indicating relative clarity. Lakes that have dirty or stained water in the summer have less clarity than lakes that are clear in summer, even though virtually all lakes are clearest when iced over, because there is no wind to stir up sediments.

Be sure to use a horizontal, swimming lure in clear water (baits like the Genz Worm and Flyer, depending on what species you’re after). In clear water, fish get a much better look at your lure, and a horizontal presentation just looks more natural and fools more fish that inspect it closely.

In clear-water lakes, weeds grow deeper and you’re much more likely to find green weeds in winter and you’re much more likely to key in on weeds to help you find fish! (How can you tell if weeds are green? Sometimes, bits of weed are stuck to your auger blade when you drill a hole. If the weeds are deeper, hook some with your lure and pull them up to inspect them. Lots of times, you can see down the hole in clear water, by either shielding the sun from your eyes using your hood, or covering up with a Fish Trap or other shelter.)

In dirtier-water lakes, you should tend to look for fish deeper, because fish often go to the deepest part of the lake when there is not as much cover, such as weeds.

Don’t forget that the term deep is a relative thing, depending on the lake. One lake might have lots of 60-80 foot water, and another lake might have a maximum depth of 18 feet. In a dark-water lake with a maximum depth of 18 feet, 12 feet might be deep water!

Know the fish population

Another factor that gets too little attention by anglers striking off to new waters is the general makeup of the fish population. Call the local fish biologist, and consult good lake maps and lake reports, to determine what kind of fish are currently in the lake you are considering fishing.

Fish populations are cyclical. A lake that cranks out big walleyes for three years might be full of mostly 2-pounders as the balance of different year-classes changes. A lake that used to produce big crappies, or big sunfish, might be full of little postage-stamp size fish on the year you fish it for the first time.

Get good information concerning what you are likely to find before you fish the water. That way, you can tell whether your efforts are producing about what you can expect, more than you could have dreamed of, or falling short. If two-pound walleyes are about the best a given lake has to offer, you will be satisfied if you get into them.

Use a depthfinder at all times, so you can tell whether you are fishing fish or not. But don’t sit over a fish and try to make it bite for an hour! Keep moving until you find active, biting fish.

I’m planning another column that will outline in more detail how to conduct your own search for fish. Hopefully, that will help get you in the spirit of striking off on your own. This winter, when you see a lake with no fish houses on it, don’t automatically assume it has no fish in it.

Ice fishing needs more leaders.