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Ice fishing Question; what's this?

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I have no clue what this does. it is heavey and has and alligator clip.

post-64672-0-32390900-1575918736_thumb.jpg

And whats this?

post-64672-0-21908400-1575918908_thumb.jpg

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Top one is commonly referred to as a depth finder. Clip it on your terminal tackle and quickly determine depth. Then you can set a bobber or tip-up depth quickly.

 

The bottom one is a blurry tree ornament from Whoville. I saw it on the Grinch last night.

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Upon further study, it appears the second picture may be a blurry picture of some slip bobber rigs. Rubber egg shaped beads with a glass bead. Run your line through the wire loop and then pull the bead and rubber stop onto your line. Then add slip bobber and then split shot and hook.

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The above nailed it - Depth sounder, clip to your hook and run line off the trap to get bottom. The eggs are bobber stops, we don't use them in Maine (nobody I know anyway) on the ice - but you will see small buttons or spring bobbers to mark how deep you want to be, so you can reset the trap to the same depth. I see those eggs used more from the baitcaster/bass fishing crowd to peg weights in place.

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Fortunately, I have a portable depth finder I used when I was ice fishing never used the old "Mark Twain" method. The bobber stops I still use when using bait with spinning tackle makes it easier to adjust the depth of the bait. Makes casting much easier also. Probably did use them when I was ice fishing. Earlier in the fall when my club acts as lake guides for CFR participants at their annual South Jersey retreat, I made up several leaders with "strike" indicators and bobber stops. Because of back issues I wasn't able to participate and never got a chance to try them. Still have them, might give them a shot in the spring fishing nymphs for trout.

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James, next time you come over, bring the devise you're taking pictures with. We'll work on your picture taking a little bit. In my opinion, you should try to do everything you do, the very best you can do it. These pictures are not the best you can do.

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I use slip bobbers in other fishing but never in ice fishing. I use spring bobbers for dead sticking.

 

For a depth finder, years ago I built a stand for a cheap depth finder and battery out of thin plywood with a 1x3 leg that goes down the ice hole with the transducer. Works great but I have seen where panfish were so packed in there that depth might look 17 feet and then an hour later, it's 21 feet. Recently, I got a Deeper 3.0. It's a ball the size of a baseball that floats in the hole and sends signals to a phone via Bluetooth. I set up an old tablet that we don't use anymore and use it as my display. It has a round flasher display, standard sonar, and a vertical flasher if you want it. Very nice display and there are no cables to interfere with landing a fish. I have also used a "Fishin Buddy" I think it's called. It's a clamp on depth finder that has a side-finder as well. Can be pretty handy finding suspended crappies.

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I have always used, and still do, your basic hunk of lead depth finder when ice fishing. Once the depth is determined I will mark it on my line with either a button on the line or a pinch on tiny red and white bobber. I prescribe to the fish lots of holes and move about the ice until you locate them method. We can fish five devices per angler so that's ten holes between you and your buddy. I hand drill a hole, jig it for 10 minutes and if nothing bites I set a tip up in the hole, Drill another hole, jig it for 10 minutes then set up a tip up and move. On hole 11 we will move the first tip up we set to the new hole assuming it caught nothing in the first hole. We continue this process until we locate fish and carpet bomb the area with 8 tip ups while we each jig a rod for our ten devises. I find this entire process exceedingly pleasing. I used a vexilar flasher unit one time and found myself spending 2 hours trying to hook a fish that kept rising to my jig and dropping back to the bottom. When he finally took my jig it was only about a 4" perch. I did find watching the blips on the flasher somewhat therapeutic but I wasted a lot of time at an unproductive hole fishing for a single tiny fish more curious then hungry.

 

When it comes to ice fishing I prefer old school methods to include hunk of lead depth finders, button, jiggle sticks and hand drills. It helps that our ice rarely exceeds 6 or 7 inches. Just like my other fishing pursuits I prefer traveling light and moving about.

 

I've never used the bobber stops to mark depth but I think they would work just fine for that application.

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Agree the first one is an ice-fishing "bumper" lead so you can find the depth (pull the line and remove but then you know you're just over the bottom when you put the line back in).

 

Second image is an arm? Red barberry berries under a green condom? I really can't make out the image.

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I'm a bit confused ... although not surprising considering you're talking about ICE fishing!

When fishing through a hole in the ice, I would think you'd want to reel the fish all the way to the rod tip if possible. With a "permanent" bobber placement, and the bobber only inches from the rod tip while fishing, you can't really reel in ANY line.

Why not use a bobber stop that allows playing the fish to the hole without losing the depth setting?

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When I do rarely use a small bobber, I use a slip bobber. I often fish in 15-30 feet of water. Depends on the depth of course but many times the small clip on bobbers are used for tip-ups where you usually retrieve them by hand lining.

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Mike that is a very good question for a guy that only sees ice on the occasions where the orange trees frost over. My post was not really clear. When jigging with a rod and reel, you set the depth with the reel so there's no need for a bobber or a button. When using tip ups, tip downs, and giggle sticks which have no reels (they have a way to spool line but not a reel) and you are hand fishing the line you determine where the bottom is by clipping a hunk of lead on your hook and dropping it to the bottom. You mark the depth on your line with something at the water line then pull your line up and remove the hunk of lead. When you drop your bait down you now have a measure as to high high you want your offering off the bottom. If you want to be 6" off the bottom you raise your line so the button is 6" off the water line and so on.

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