Familiarity Breeds Success

To catch more fish through the ice, take Dave Genz’s advice: get to know your equipment and use it well

By Mark Strand

As we sit on the edge of another new ice fishing season, Dave Genz is asked, for the millionth time, for a few words of wisdom before the first hole gets drilled.
We have come to expect certain aspects of what he will probably say: keep moving until you find fish, experiment until you get them to bite…
But this time, it’s only one thing.
“Spend more time,” he says, “learning how to get the most out of your equipment.”
We are sitting on a picnic table in his front yard, one of those painted redwood numbers, and there is fishing gear encircling him. Some of it is his ‘summer’ stuff, because it’s early fall and there are still river smallmouths to catch. But much of it is his winter stuff, and it’s out because that’s what he wants to talk about.

The Revolution and the Equipment
“Back at the start,” says Genz, talking about the beginning of the modern ice fishing revolution, “it was a lot simpler. We had the flasher, the Fish Trap, the auger, and we were just starting to build graphite rods and the right kind of jigs. There was less stuff that you felt you really had to have.
“Most of what we were talking about was mobility, and how the flasher could instantly tell you when fish were down there. When we figured out how to level the transducer, how that let you see your hook, that became the big story. That was a major breakthrough. Back in those days, more people were still using flashers on their boats in the summertime, so we didn’t have to show them how to use one.”
In the years since, we have entered a period of refinement. The true revolution has already happened, and now the best makers of ice fishing gear are fine-tuning the tools that help us catch fish.
“But there are more things now,” says Genz. “We have underwater cameras, and they work really well with the flashers. We have lots of graphite rods, different lengths and actions. We have more jigs, and other lures, specifically made for ice fishing.”

Gotta Know Your Gear
One thing missing, in many cases, is intimate familiarity with every piece of gear. “Too many people have all the stuff,” says Dave, “but they don’t know how to use it very well.”
Here, a few thoughts from Mr. Ice Fishing on how to get the most out of all those cool new tools.
Flasher—Especially for anglers who didn’t grow up using flashers, there can be the appearance of an intimidating learning curve. After all, instead of a ‘picture’ type display on a liquid crystal, you are interpreting blips on a flasher dial.
Genz is an instructor on a great DVD that comes free with every Vexilar unit, and is available separately for only $5 at vexilar.com. You can learn to be a flasher person.
If you join the growing number of ice anglers who love to see fish come in, downviewing with an Aqua-Vu camera is another skill you should practice. Genz likes to say that, “now, I can sight-fish at any depth.” The first step is to get your gear set up so that the camera position allows your eye line to go naturally through the camera monitor, to your rod tip, to the Vexilar display at the back side of the hole.
“In most situations,” says Genz, “you’ll see the fish on the Vexilar first. It usually sees a larger area than the camera does. So you concentrate mainly on the flasher, and when a fish shows up on the Vexilar, you gradually shift your gaze to the camera and here it comes.”
Auger—Innovations continue in the latest augers, including the first synthetic auger powered by a super-quiet 4-stroke engine. The Strike-Lite from StrikeMaster weighs less (only 20 pounds) than other power augers, leading to the impression that it won’t stand up to rugged conditions.
“When they saw these,” says Genz, “people were worried that they’d break the synthetic drills. It can happen, but it’s no more of a problem than with steel drills.”
The real key, with any power auger, is to regularly lift the drill upward as you bore through thick ice.
“You have to keep doing that,” says Genz, “to let the ice chips fly away from the hole. If the ice is thicker than the flighting on the drill, you have to keep clearing the chips or the auger can jam in the hole. This is for all augers, not just synthetics.”
Portable shelter— Genz invented the Fish Trap, so he is understandably biased. “But what I want to tell everybody,” he says, “is that you don’t have to customize them anymore. We’ve written whole articles in the past on custom touches we’ve made to Fish Traps. Now they’re packed with all the little touches right out of the box.
There are accessories, though, that Dave considers must-haves.
“Travel covers, for one,” he says. “Every time you go from one spot to the next, you should cover the Trap. You get to the next spot and all your gear is free of snow and slush. And runners, or wear strips. They add a lot to the durability when you’re pulling Traps over parking lots, down boat landings and over crusted ice and snow. Plus, it keeps the Traps tracking straight when you tow them.”
Ice rods—It’s complicated for many ice anglers to choose the right rod when faced with many options in a store or catalog. Genz led the revolution with ice rods, also, by designing the first short graphite rods that fish like “long rods in miniature,” he says, tools that are now commonly used by modern ice anglers.
“But the thing you still have to do,” says Dave, “is put on fresh line at least once every winter. You have to keep the rod, line and lure all in balance. That’s the secret to detecting light bites.”
Ice jigs—Glowing paint is not a fad, says Genz. “There isn’t any doubt about it,” he says. “You will catch more fish if you use glow jigs.”
Dave chooses specialty jigs from Lindy’s Techni-Glo line, many of which he helped design for specific situations. And even though he’s been a long-time advocate of fresh live bait for tipping ice jigs, he has become a believer in Techni-Glo plastics. “Now,” says Genz, “you can set up a jig and tail with two different glowing colors.”
Red glows brightest, followed by green, yellow and blue. But the colors that glow brightest also need recharging the soonest! So a glowing blue jig or tail maintains its glow longest, followed by yellow, green, then red.
“You have to keep those jigs and tails charged up with a Tazer,” says Genz. “That’s why I hang one around my neck.” The bottom line is that glowing baits can extend the bite in the evening, and bring it on earlier at daybreak.
Clothing–– Probably nothing has changed more than ice-fishing clothing. For one thing, there is such a thing as ice-fishing clothing. The secret is to dress in perspiration-wicking layers next to your skin, use fleece to build up warmth, and wear a waterproof, breathable outer layer with padded knees and seat.
Ice-specific base layer, socks, bibs, parkas, hats, gloves, mitts and even boots from Ice Armor is what Dave wears, “and it’s been a long time since I’ve been cold or wet out there.”

Note: Dave Genz, known as Mr. Ice Fishing, was the primary driver of the modern ice fishing revolution.