The most challenging part of hard-water angling might be finding quality fish. More ice anglers have mastered mobility, but it’s still easier to move quickly and work new areas via boat during the open water season. On ice, there are times when you drill a couple holes and just happen to sit right over the fish, then other times you drill and drill and can’t seem to find anything.
One way to make faster work of locating fish while ice fishing is by reading through the ice before you drill. Nearly all sonar fish finders are capable of reading through the ice. All it takes is a good tight seal between the transducer and the ice.