Understanding What Your Fish Finder is Actually Showing You and Other Top Stories from Fishing on SI

These 3 stories captured our Sports Illustrated fishing reader’s attention on Fishing on SI this past week.

How Much of the Bottom Does My Fish Finder See While Ice Fishing?; Why Ciscoes are My Favorite Fish to Pull Through the Ice; and Why the Best Ice Fishing Is Where Other Anglers Won’t Go. | Joe Shead

It was another big week for ice fishing stories. In case they slipped by you, following are the most read fishing articles of the week. How Much of the Bottom Does My Fish Finder See While Ice Fishing?; Why Ciscoes are My Favorite Fish to Pull Through the Ice; and Why the Best Ice Fishing Is Where Other Anglers Won’t Go.

1.) How Much of the Bottom Does My Fish Finder See While Ice Fishing?

Ice anglers would be lost without electronics. The transducer's cone angle is important: the wider the cone angle, the more of the bottom you can see. | Joe Shead

Ice anglers would be lost without electronics, but many misunderstand exactly how much of the water their particular transducer can show them. Different transducers have different cone angles, which affects how much of the bottom your fish finder actually sees. The difference can be dramatic.

Modern boat transducers now sometimes send out multiple cones, so for this discussion, we'll keep it simple and talk about traditional single cones used by ice fishing electronics.

Transducers typically come in wide-angle (19 or 20 degree), medium-angle (12 degree) and narrow-angle (9 degree) models. A wide-angle transducer gives you the widest-possible view of the bottom. It's best when fishing in shallow water to maximize the area the fish finder "sees." A narrow-beam transducer reduces interference. It's also ideal when fishing around structure because the transducer returns the shallowest bottom reading. For example, if you're in 20 feet of water but there's a 3-foot-tall rock under you within the cone, it will read as 17 feet. A narrower cone angle reduces the chance of inaccurate readings like this. And of course, a mid-range transducer is a happy medium.…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

2.) Why Ciscoes are My Favorite Fish to Pull Through the Ice

Ciscoes form large schools, fight hard and taste great. Plus, they are willing biters all winter long. | Joe Shead

I was about as green as an ice angler can be. I was in high school and had only limited ice fishing success. I just wanted to catch something. I'd driven to Wisconsin's Big Green Lake because I heard anglers were hammering the white bass. The guy at the bait shop told me where to go and sold me a lure that was sure to catch fish.

It was probably the first year I had electronics: a Vexilar FL-8 that I had to share with my brother. For whatever reason, Jim wasn't along that day, so I got to use the Vex all day.

No white bass appeared on the flasher. But after an hour or so of monotonous jigging with nary a flicker on my screen, suddenly, a solid band of red formed. Nope, this wasn't interference; this was a huge school of fish!…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

3.) Why the Best Ice Fishing Is Where Other Anglers Won’t Go

If the ice is thick enough, use a snowmobile, ATV or truck to get away from the crowds and find unpressured fish. If the snow is deep and travel is difficult, you can really escape the crowds. | Joe Shead

I smiled with anticipation as I attached my ice fishing sled to the back of my snowmobile. I knew of a secret little walleye lake that rarely gets fishing pressure. The lake is 5 miles from the blacktop. The gravel road that leads to it is so rough, on the occasions I've taken my truck to it, it actually takes a full hour to reach it, so you can calculate my average speed. I won't even go there if I don't have relatively new tires. Plus, it's canoe territory. The twists, turns and ruts make the trail too inhospitable to pull a trailer to it.

But with a snowmobile, I glide over a packed trail, with snow filling in the ruts and potholes along the way. Cruising along at 30 miles an hour I get there in a fraction of the time.

As I'd hoped, there were no tracks on the ice. It looked like no one had been there all winter. And the way the fish bit confirmed it. I sorted through some small fish and ended up with a limit of nice eater walleyes. Those unpressured fish made even a sub-par angler like myself look like a seasoned pro!…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.