Cam For Ice?

[West Basin]

A flasher will tell you if there are fish below your hole. For those who may not know exactly what a "flasher" is, it's the 'old time' depth sounder with a circular light dial on it. The bottom shows up as a constant color line. Any fish in the sonar cone will show up as color lines at the depth they are at. Your lure will also show up as a color line provided it's up off the bottom. You can actually "watch" fish (walleye) follow your lure up when you jig it up off the bottom, and follow it back down, as the two color lines move on the dial. Takes some practice to know what you are looking at. The benefit of this is you can see that a fish is interested in the lure / bait, and you can anticipate a strike. It also shows you whether or not there are enough fish in the location to stay put. Simpler than a more modern depth / fish finder. It can be a lot of fun to watch, almost like playing an old time video game for real.

A camera, IF deployed correctly in clear enough water conditions, will allow you to actually see the fish and lure. Hard to miss a strike when you are looking at it on a video screen in real time. The other advantage of a camera is you can see if the fish is near or at your bait. A flasher just shows what is in the sonar cone, but you don't necessarily know where in the cone the fish are (unless you see the mark going up and down with your lure, then you know the fish is at the bait). They might be 20 feet away from the lure or right at it. A camera shows you exactly what's around your lure.

No matter what you are doing you still need to have the talent to feel the strike on the pole / line. An ice fisherman should develop this ability first. The flasher and camera just make that easier, as you have more information on what's going on down there.

There are lots of videos on Youtube showing flashers. You may take a look at one I did on Lake Erie in March of 2014 at the website www.ilakeerie.com, videos page. There are a few shots trying to show a walleye following a lure on a flasher.