Ontario Angler

The Ice Fishing Touch
By Lawrence Euteneier
Captain – Blind Fishing Boat .Com

Without doubt, fishing has traditionally been a sport that depends as much on the sense of touch AS sight. However, new technologies such as under-water cameras and sonar units built especially for ice fishing are getting closer to turning fishing into hunting, and with the lighter more sensitive ice fishing rods now available, Fishers can now see the bite before they feel it. Despite these innovations however, the sense of touch will always play an important role in fishing.

Understanding what’s taking place at the end of your line by making sense of the different sight and touch sensations generally comes with hard-earned experience. Becoming more practiced at using all your senses to figure out what you can’t directly see will get you more out of the new super-sensitive rods and lines now available and will catch you more fish.

The ability of fishing tackle to transmit changes in the movement of the bait to the eye and the hand is improving, but these sensations can still often be of such a subtle nature that they register in the fisher’s sub-conscious only. Maintaining both visual and tactile focus on the line and rod is key, as the opportunity to reverse the role of the fish from predator to pray is brief. Missing or miss-reading those crucial tell-tale signs, applying the wrong response, or slips in concentration can all turn a successful day into another one of those, “the one that got away”, stories.

Naturally, as a fisher without sight, I focus on understanding feedback from my bait through the sense of touch. Many people believe, wrongly, that those without sight have enhanced hearing and other senses. NO such physiological advantage exists. What is true however, is that people without sight are more dependent on their other senses, which in turn makes them more proficient at using them. Just as with any skill, practice makes perfect.

People without sight do have an advantage over the sighted in the area of focus. Because extraneous visual information is filtered out, focus is placed on what is felt.

Many newer rods now possess highly flexible tips commonly referred to as sensitive. The term “sensitive” doesn’t refer to the rod’s ability to transfer tactile information from the line through the rod’s blank to the grip, but to assist fishers to visually clue-in to what’s taking place at the end of their line. This flexible tip may work visually, but for reasons related to habit or possibly decreased visual acuity, many “old-timers” are having their rods shortened by six inches as the flexible tips also absorb sensation resulting in tactile information to the hand being muddied or deadened.

Due to the thick mitts ice fishers ware and the subtle nature of winter bites in general, most all ice fishing rods now champion the soft tip. For the ice fisher, this means closely watching the line, rod tip, and now, more frequently, a video or LCD display, for extended periods of time. As with computer monitors, it’s recommended that the visual focal point be switched to something distant for several minutes every half hour to avoid eye strain and prevent headaches. So the next time your out on the ice and you’re beginning to experience eye fatigue or the light is less than optimal, try the following.

Once you’ve lowered your bait to the desired level, with mitts off and warm hands, balance your ice-fishing spinning rod outfit on your index finger. Raise the thumb and palm of your rod hand so it’s just barely above the rod’s grip. You’ll discover in time two distinct sensations. Slight Pressure at the base of your palm as a fish pulls the rod tip down, or pressure on your thumb pad as fish cause the tip to rise as they move up with the bait.

This “teeter-totter” method works even better with ice rods that have a stiffer tip (medium action or heavier). It just also may help you catch more fish as the rods limited ability to move freely up and down virtually eliminates the fish experiencing physical resistance. Give it a try and I guarantee you that you’ll catch more fish. It’s also excellent conditioning for the open water season.

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