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For those who made it out on New Year's Day what are your thoughts on being able to fish with two rods? I will share my experience. I fished Otter Creek (report is in a separate post) and I immediately dropped two rods down through the ice. I positioned the rods about 8 feet apart and had them so that they were both easily accessible from my chair. One of the first things that I noticed (which wasn't a surprise to me) was that if I got a bite on one rod I would more often than not also get a bite on the second rod shortly thereafter. I was reeling one fish in, and glanced over at the other rod and was able to grab it just before a fish pulled it down the ice hole. When I was getting hit on both rods I found it difficult to concentrate on either rod well enough to get a good hook set. This resulted in more misses than I typically make. On the other hand, on a few occasions I was able to hook a second fish while reeling in, or immediately after landing the first fish. Bottom line, it was a lot of fun fishing with two rods, and because having fun is one of the primary reasons I go fishing I like the new law. It was also nice being able to fish different depths, different jigs and different baits at the same time.
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Kent, how many rods lost to the depths is that for you now?
The confusion of two rods is why I don't usually bother with them. I always carry several rigged with different outfits so I can narrow down the pattern of the hour. But being ticked off with missing too many fish is more than I can handle. I occasionally fish with a partner who uses two poles and he rarely outfishes me. However I recall you smoking Ira and me on the sturgeon hole by using two rods so it can happen. but I think I'll stick to the fun of watching people try and chase down multiple bights, missing them and then hear the cussing as I pull in a fish on my one rod.
I'll have to consider it for when the fishing is slower.
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Up at the berry I had one on the bottom and one in the middle.
Fishing in my new hut I was surprised that I never got my lines tangled. The idea of two poles is nice but sometimes it can be alot of work.
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[cool]Didn't make it out yesterday so I don't know yet. However, fishing with two rods at Pelican last week through the ice was a total blast!! I can't wait to do it at the rock this saturday for those pesky perchies!
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At first, I was running them 30 feet apart. I just don't run as fast as I used too. Next was 10 feet apart, arm span just ain't long enough. Finally, I had two holes about 5 feet apart. No equipment casualities.
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I have had some close calls (including almost losing one to a sturgeon), but thus far I have never lost a rod while fishing. However, I had had several people have rods fall to the deep off of my boat, but fortunately (for me at least) none of them were my rods. Especially when bait fishing for catfish or similar, two rods is definitely a plus over fishing with one rod.
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My son-in-law had a good time at Causey yesterday with a pole on each side of his chair. We got into the splake and tigers pretty good, and he'd have one pole dip, and then the next. He was busy, and even when he wasn't I thought he'd through his neck out looking back and forth.
I used mine as a kind of "scouting" pole, hoping to find some kokes. Although we got 2, never got into the schools at all.
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I guess it all depends on how fast the catching is. We were using two rods apiece yesterday without any noticeable difference. We would at times see the fish go for one type of lure over another but it made no difference when we put the same lure on both rods. The thing I like about using two rods was being able to fish at two different depths at the same time. Ira has a nice little rod holder that attaches to his sled, so he can jig one and dead stick the other without losing it to the ice hole monster.[  ]
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I experimented with it a bit, but settled on putting my second rod at the periphery of where my fishfinder would pick up the jig. I then kept one offering near the bottom (26 ft.) and one at mid depth. (18 ft.) With use of the finder, I could see some interesting interactions of the fish with the multiple offerings. If a fish came through at a certain depth and wouldn't hit what was already there, it would quickly get a second choice. I had one fish that then went back and forth between the offerings, biting each pole in quick succession before I hooked him up. A couple of times, as I reeled in a hooked fish off the bottom, a second fish would follow the hooked fish up and bite the mid depth jig. (my sonar history showed them coming from lower depth) I did have one double too, which was a chinese fire drill, but fun. I was surprised at how many fish would come into the top jig, look at it then swim down and hit the bottom jig. The reverse also happened, which I expected, but not going down. I had no tangled lines yesterday.
All in all, I didn't think it made a huge difference in the catch rate, (the hottest fishing part of my day, I just fished with one pole anyway) but it was fun to work the poles and watch what happened with the fish on the finder, and I agree that it did make it even more fun.
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Fishing was too fast to run both rods right.[cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]I have had a two pole permit for a couple of years. I use it mostly for waters that are both legal for them and which have multi species and multi angling opportunities. But, if the fishing is reasonably fast, I do not keep a second rod in the water. I concentrate on fishing one rod...right...and I probably catch more fish than if I tried to use two.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I suspect that will be my guide while fishing through the ice too. Just because I can now use two rods on just about any water, that does not mean I HAVE to rig two rods to get my money's worth. I'll save that for when fishing is slow, or I need to experiment to try to find a pattern or color or bait that is working best. Once I do, the second rod is likely to not get much use.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yesterday on Pineview kinda reinforced that for me. I had not yet renewed my fishing license because the 365 days were not up. But, my two pole permit was not valid anymore. So, I only used one rod. Flycasting HAD bought both a new license and a new two pole permit. He used two rods. In addition to having to drill more holes and rig more tackle, he also had to watch two rods. He often had nothing biting for a long time, and then bites on both rods as fish came through. He missed bites on both rods because he was worried about the other rods. I think I may have outfished him using only one rod and paying close attention to the light biters.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There will doubtless be lots of times I use and appreciate the two rod thing on ice this year. But, when the fishing is faster, or tougher, I will probably put up the second rod and focus on doing a better job with only one.[/#0000ff]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]My thoughts exactly. I'll use a two pole permit when trolling and that's about it. I have a simple mind and don't multitask very well. One rod is about all I can handle efficiently but with one rod, I catch enough fish to be a happy camper.[/size][/black][/font]
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I used 2 poles on the berry on monday didnt help me much. i caught 10 fish on one pole and 3 on the second. its too much work to run the second
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Well I tried two poles today on the nell and had to put one up it was to many fish at the same time over 10 bass and 30+ bows and 10+ browns, I like two poles when it is slower....
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I like the 2 pole law, especially ice fishing, I have tried to fish with more ice fishing in Idaho and found three was about max. I dead sticked with one for trout and fished perch with the other two.[cool]
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[black][size 3]Hey kentofnsl,[/size][/black]
[black][size 3][/size][/black]
[black][size 3]Well, here was my prediction back in November;[/size][/black]
"I guess my take on the situation right now would be this - using 2 poles will probably mean - missing twice as many fish and only catching half as many."
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=288412;search_string=BigCat;#288412"][black][size 3](copied from this 11/7/06 thread by BigCat)[/size][/black][/url]
[black][size 3]When I was at Strawberry on 1/1/07 to try out the new regs, I found that I was not too far off. Even though the fishing was kind of slow for me, the few times I had the opportunity to test the 2 pole situation, It was difficult to pay attention to both poles and do a good job on either one. [/size][/black]
[black][size 3][/size][/black]
[black][size 3]Additionally, I was challanged to set up my fishfinder so that I could effectively watch both jigs. I did do it, but my attention was too often split between trying to watch the screen and both poles at the same time. [/size][/black]
[black][size 3][/size][/black]
[black][size 3]Maybe with some practice I'll be able to work out a good system, but, most likely, as I mentioned in that other thread, I'll just stick to one pole for jigging when there are fish around, and then use the other pole only when the fishing slows down. [/size][/black]
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[size 3]I also plan on trying out the 2 pole scenario for pan fish at some point. Seems like that might be better than doing it for the Strawberry cutts.[/size]
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Ok, i changed my mind. I love having the second pole dead sticked for tigers. It helped me hook one up yesterday.
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"Additionally, I was challanged to set up my fishfinder so that I could effectively watch both jigs. I did do it, but my attention was too often split between trying to watch the screen and both poles at the same time."
What I did was to watch the finder screen intently and only watch the second pole if a fish was in the vicinity of the jig, as shown by the finder. I had my finder screen right in front of me in the 1st hole and worked that jig agressively as I would if I only had one rod in use.
As I said before though, I agree with you that it doesn't seem to make a huge difference in the overall catch rate, at least on the hard deck.
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Gonna try it out this weekend Kent! I have a feeling that I'll feed a lot of fish some free meals!
Randy
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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worked just like always. in idaho i fice fished with 5 at once. that is a whole lot harder than 2. my head was moving side to side so mutch watching indacators my neck hurt. if you ever set the chance go up to salmon falls creek dam. huge bows!!!! nothing under 3 pounds. most around 5. its a blast.
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