Since the days
that Dave Genz tinkered with using early flashers in the same hole he was
fishing out of, there have been many years of electronic revolution and
evolution. So where does that leave us, as ice anglers? We sat down with Genz,
on a rare break from his "fish pretty much every day all winter" program, and
asked how he uses the latest electronic devices to help him find and catch fish
through the ice.
He spends more
time out there than anybody. He travels farther than anybody. He has a
technical and creative mind. We hope you pick up some ideas by studying his
system.
Q: There have
been a lot of advancements in electronic equipment since you started
modernizing the sport. As a practical matter, what is the state of the art, in
your mind, when it comes to ice fishing electronics?
Genz: I use a
GPS all the time, with the map chips. I have a quality lake map in there if
it's available for the lake I'm on at the moment. That's what lets me find the
places I want to drill holes and start looking (for fish).
I seldom use a
handheld GPS, because I find I struggle to look at a small screen and locate
where I am and see the big picture. So I like a larger screen, maybe 5 inches
or so. I would even take a larger one, but it gets impractical to carry it
around.
I mount my GPS
on the dash of my snowmobile. Then I can navigate easily while I'm driving
across the lake.
On the dash, I
actually have three devices mounted - the GPS, a Vexilar (flasher), and a
(underwater) camera. One of my favorite positions for fishing is sitting on the
seat of the snowmobile, and wearing Ice Armor lets me sit there (outside) on
most days. The auger is on a rack on the front, and Fish Traps are mounted on
racks on the front and back. It truly is my winter bass boat, the latest
version of what I had in mind even in the early days.
I keep another
Vexilar, rigged in a Genz Box, so I can hole hop or use it inside of a fish
house. That's my system.
Q: How do you
use the GPS? How do you decide where to drill holes? How do you then look over
spots, so you know whether to stay or keep moving?
Genz: One of
the big things is to find depressions in flats. Sometimes it's only a couple
feet deeper than what's around it, or maybe it's 5 feet deeper. On those huge
flats, those are the key areas. This is where those new maps, with the 1-foot
or 5-foot contours, really shine.
In a bay or on
any big flat, I want to know where the deepest parts are. That's where I'm
going to drill some holes. And it helps me find the weedbeds, so I can find the
green weeds. Just finding weeds from the summer isn't enough, because they
might all be brown and down.
Q: So you find
the depth you want to check. How do you discover those other things, such as
the state of the weeds?
Genz: You have
to drill holes. It still comes down to drilling holes. I use the camera to look
for weeds, and see what shape they're in.
Q: And you
look for fish with the camera?
Genz: Not
usually. If I see fish on the camera I don't look away, but the flasher is
still the best tool for catching fish through the ice. When you're fishing
multiple holes, it's so much faster to go hole to hole and drop the (flasher)
transducer down there and read instantly everything that's down there.
Q: You've also
said that, even when you're using a camera that you like the flasher to be
running at the same time, largely because it sees farther out to the side.
You've called it the early warning signal. When you see fish show up on the
flasher, then you shift your gaze to the camera screen to watch the fish arrive
at the bait, so you can study its reaction to the presentation. Do you like
using the flasher when searching for fish because it sees farther out to the
side than a camera typically does?
Genz: That's
part of it, but again it comes down to speed. When you have a whole lake to
check out, you don't get it done if you take time to lower the camera down
every hole. I also adjust the Vexilar depending on what I'm doing.
Q: What do you
mean?
Genz: I love
the new 9-degree transducer. It's naturally a narrow beam transducer, but it's
designed so that when you turn up the gain, you're reading the lobes of the
cone angle. (The sonar signal) is not just a straight upside down cone. When
you turn it up, you can read those lobes, so it lets you see farther out to the
side, even though it's a narrow beam transducer.
When I'm in
search mode, I turn the gain up, so I can see a wider area (in practical terms,
this means you have the potential to see more fish, out farther to the side).
When I'm in fishing mode I turn the gain down, to decrease the amount of side
coverage. Then you know fish are close by you when they show up on the display.
Q: So you use
the camera quite a bit, to see what's down there with your own two eyes, but
you tend not to use it when you're in high speed search mode. Is that accurate?
Genz: The
flasher is by far the number one tool. If I could only have one, it would
definitely be my Vexilar. The GPS is amazing technology, too. It cuts down the
amount of time it takes to locate fish. Then the Vexilar cuts down the time it
takes to catch fish, and probably makes the difference between catching the
fish and not catching it.
Q: What about
the idea of using a camera and flasher together? Do you still do that?
Genz: Yes, and
it's fun to do. Another thing that does is helps you learn to read your
flasher. You watch the jig on the flasher and camera together, and you realize
you can see the worms squirming on your hook. You wonder why the line of your
jig is fluttering (on the flasher), you look at the camera screen and see the
worms are moving down there, and realize you can actually see that on the
Vexilar.
You see fish
come in on the flasher and then watch them on the camera, and go back and forth
between the two and you really get a sense for what it means to understand the
mood of the fish by watching it on the flasher. I've always called the Vexilar
my mood indicator, because I could tell what kind of reaction I was getting
from the fish, depending on how I'm jigging it. That's still the same, and it's
one of the most important skills you can have.
Note: Dave Genz, known as Mr. Ice Fishing, was the primary driver
of the modern ice fishing revolution. He has been enshrined in the National
Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame for his
contributions to the sport. For more fishing tips and to order his new
info-packed book, Ice Revolution, go to www.davegenz.com
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