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Bringing fish into the cone angle of your electronics sounds pretty simple. The truth is, being able to pull fish under you and being able to keep these fish underneath you is an important element to icing panfish, often overlooked as anglers hop from hole to hole. Yes moving to find fish is important but just as important is thoroughly fishing a hole and being able to bring fish to the hole that may be a slight distance away. You can drill more holes to reach fish that may be a slight distance away or you can sometimes bring those same fish to you. Don’t overlook the game of getting fish to come to you because this can make anglers much more efficient as they break down water.

From a catching standpoint, fish attract fish. The more fish you can gather below you, the more fish seem to come in to investigate. Also important is the fact that one or two fish may seem extremely finicky but the mood of a few fish changes instantly as soon as more fish arrive on the scene. As if the fish that wouldn’t give you the time of day before is now suddenly ready to eat just so the new fish doesn’t get a chance.

When targeting bottom orientated fish, many seasoned anglers preach 'fishing down to the fish.' As soon as the lure or jig begins to show up on the bottom zoom of the Vexilar or MarCum, anglers often begin to work the lure to generate some kind of response in an attempt to get fish to rise from the bottom. As a general rule of thumb, the dirtier the water, the closer to bottom an angler has to be. Good visibility on the other hand is often a better candidate for working the lure further off the bottom as fish can see the flash and commotion from further away and are more likely to swim up. Bringing the lure or jig up from the bottom and fishing high and hard (giving the lure good flash and vibration) is often crucial for getting the attention of distant fish.

The presentation that is required to rope fish into a small area underneath you is often completely different to the moves required to trigger fish or keep fish nose to nose with your lure. Once multiple marks begin to rise from the bottom and the MarCum or Vexilar reveals several fish, the tempo usually has to change or should change because often, the same moves that brought fish in will sometimes spook fish at close quarters. If you down view with an Aqua View or are fortunate enough to sight fish, you will get a good understanding or mental image as to what is happening. Perch often form a 'wagon wheel' around the jig or lure. Often several perch will be facing the jig or lure from different directions often taking turns sucking in and spitting out the bait. If a fish misses or spits out the bait, another fish quickly moves in, this is competition working in your favor. No competition usually means much tougher fishing.

Getting the fish up and the bait down can’t be done fast enough. Sometimes after a fish is caught, the remaining fish scatter and an angler has to start all over coaxing fish back into the cone angle of the Vexilar. A good indicator to the mood of the remaining fish below is how many fish follow up the fish you are reeling in. Generally, aggressive fish follow and these fish can be picked off high off the bottom by getting back down quickly. For fish that are really stuck to the bottom, holding a fighting fish up off the bottom will sometimes lift fish out of the mud so that you can get a better idea as to how big the school is. Some savvy perch anglers also tag team fish with one angler letting a hooked perch swim around off the bottom attracting several more fish into the area while the other angler fishes for the new fish that are getting attracted by the decoy on the leash.

Understanding the competition that occurs in a school of fish and manipulating this competition as much as possible will make you a much better ice angler.