Due to warming weather ice fishing might be coming to an end, but in case we get a few cold fronts, and the ice is safe to travel on I thought I would write about the basic operation of using a flasher. A flasher is like a fishing locator that are mostly in boats and works the same way but uses a different screen in a way. The numbers on the screen (wheel) are the depth and the colored lines/blips are the bottom of the lake, fish and your lure/bait. Depending on the unit, the colors will be red, yellow, orange, blue or green. Here is the basic operation of the technical word GAIN that you might hear. Gain is the return signal (sensitivity) from the bottom of the lake back to your unit. Some units might have auto gain and will adjust to the depth you are fishing, but if you want to do this yourself, turn up the gain until you get a lot of interference (wide flashing lines/blips) and slowly adjust the gain down until the lines start to clear.

When using a flasher, turn the unit on, lower the transducer into the hole just below the ice. If you are fishing in 15 feet of water with a hard bottom, you will see a wide red flashing lines/blips, then look at the numbers where those lines/blips are at, and this will tell you what the bottom depth is. Drop your lure/bait through the hole and slowly jig it up and down. You will see your lure/bait appear as a (green) flashing line/blip and you will notice that line/blip moving up and down from the wider blips on the bottom to the top. Stop short of the wider flashing lines and look at the number next to your lure/bait. That is how far from the bottom your bait is.

If another flashing line starts moving away from the wider lines/blips, that is a fish moving up to take your bait. When the two lines meet, you WILL feel the fish hit. I know some of this can be confusing, but I hope this helped some of you that are just beginning to ice fish. I guarantee, if you buy a flasher, you will understand and know how to use it within ten minutes.