Photo by Ron Sinfelt

When it comes to ice-fishing, a flasher is one piece of equipment that is an important part of a savvy angler's arsenal and it can open up a whole new exciting world of fishing for you, plus double your success overnight. Flashers are easy to use, compact, rugged and built to withstand the brutal elements of winter.

Electronics determine water depth, identify baitfish and structure, and locate the fish you want to catch. They work great on forays for perch, crappies, bluegills, walleyes or any other fish species. Once you have used one, you will come to the conclusion that a flasher increased your catch tenfold. Here's why.

The most understated advantage to using electronics is actually seeing how fish respond to your presentation. If you are jigging a teardrop for bluegills and see a fish approach the offering but not strike, you know to make an adjustment like change bait or lures. Making the right choice is the heart and soul of what fishing is all about, and guarantees you are shooting bull's-eyes instead of missing the target.

A lot is written about how to find fish by using electronics but little is published telling you what to do once you find them. It is no big problem to locate perch, crappies, walleyes and bluegills in almost any lake. But what do you do to catch fish once you mark them?

One important facet of fishing is to keep the offering in the strike zone, where fish will take the offering. Once you mark them on the flasher, lower your bait so it is suspended slightly above target fish. When you have the lure positioned above fish, give it a jigging action, then pause a few seconds and wait for a strike. If they don't hit, give the offering a stair-step jigging motion and move the bait upward. This causes fish to instinctively think an easy meal is swimming away and they will follow and take your offering. Bluegills require a tantalizing upward jigging action that draws them several feet off the bottom before they strike. Walleyes will grab an offering close to the bottom. Again, the key is to watch the fish on the flasher and fool them into striking by keeping the bait close, in the strike zone.

Electronics will show active fish that suspend off the bottom. In this situation, you keep lures in the zone slightly above the red bands on the flasher farthest off the bottom. Now wait, because about 90 percent of active fish will slam the lure because they are in a feeding mood.

Another important benefit of a flasher is that it will tell you when to change your lure. This point is best made by the following anecdote.

It was a quiet afternoon, with no wind, as the setting sun outlined the distant treeline in warm colors of yellow that quickly turned to orange, then dark purple. I was mesmerized by the dead silence; there was no sound of automobiles, phones, planes or trains. A large red band appeared on my Vexilar flasher that interrupted the tranquility.

The fish was close to the bottom and as I worked lures upward, it followed. I was fishing two rods, one rigged with a silver spoon, the other a white lure. I twitched both rods and then held them motionless, waiting for the take. POW! There was a solid strike on the white lure from a big fish and soon an 8-pound walleye was coaxed onto the ice. I quickly unhooked the fish and glanced at the flasher, and there on the screen was a second big red band moving upward to the silver lure. I grabbed the rod and twitched it, but the fish rejected the offering and slowly drifted back to the bottom.