Another important, fish locating tool that should be included in every serious crappie angler’s arsenal is an underwater camera.

For suspended fish especially, Aqua Vu’s DT series teamed with an Ice Pod is the ticket. With Depth-Tech and Direct-Tech, the camera gives the angler a digital read-out of how deep the camera is and in which direction it is looking, thus pinpointing the location of the fish.

Sink a few holes, set up the Ice Pod and drop the camera down. With a twist of the cable you can rotate the lens until you locate suspended fish. Then it’s as easy as drilling on top of them and dropping a lure down to the depth that they’re at.

When the suspended crappies turn off, it's often the bottom dwellers that bite, and fishing right on bottom is the way to go. In this situation using a flasher with a bottom zoom feature to reveal these bottom huggers, such as Vexilar’s FL-18, can really make a difference.

Ice Fishing Crappies on Dark Water