For those of you venturing out onto the hard water without a much desired flasher or sonar unit here are a few tricks that have put lots of big Whitefish and Lake Trout on the ice for me over the years;

1. Live bait: Though it goes without saying using live bait will catch pretty much every species in any water body your fishing, but there are some things you can do to better your odds. Two of my favorite techniques is to use a split shot or drop shot rig right on bottom, working best on tough days when your friends with the flashers are having a hard time have fish come up and check out their baits. When fishing alone the most preferred rig to use is the split shot rig this allows you to be more versatile and fish the entire water column with the most natural presentation.
Next is what I call the go big or go home method and works best towards the end of the season and always yields big fish. All you do is free line the biggest healthiest shiners you can find; hook them up, send them down the hole with no weights, a single hook and as much line as you can give them, the more the better! Its also very important to hook your bait through the back behind the dorsal fin allowing the little guy to swim and breathe naturally making it more appealing and last longer. Also use the lightest line and the smallest hooks you can get away with, this is a finesse presentation you want to keep the odds in your favor and not give the fish anything else to look at except your offerings.

2. YO YO: Simple yet productive all you do here is drop your lure to the bottom and reel back up at least half way and drop it back down again. What your doing is provoking those lakers that love to chase but doing it blind. Best baits for this is a white tube jig with a slightly trimmed tail or anything else that can represent bait fish like an X-zone Swammer. Another quick tip for best results with tubes is to rig the jig head all the way to the nose of the tube but tie your knot parallel to the body of the bait towards the hook. This will allow your lure to hang horizontally in the water but will not corkscrew when reeling up. Even tie your swimbaits this way to let them hang horizontally aswell.

3. Flying High: This is my most productive and never fail technique that has put both my biggest Whitefish and Lake Trout on the ice. I use the half/half Williams whitefish hammer finished spoon, replace the hook with a red feathered treble but put the hook on the narrow end of the bait and my snap swivel to the fat end. I also remove the side hooks because they've only ever helped me lose fish by hooking the hole when trying to get the fish through.
Now the fun part, I will jig the spoon... actually lets call it "rip" the spoon anywhere from 20-40ft off bottom because it separates the curious fish from the furious fish. Something that is going to waste that much energy to come up and look at your bait is much more inclined to commit rather than loose interest. Its very important not to get bored yourself and start jigging in slow motion. You need to keep up the pace and keep snapping the rod up around 12 inches every time the line gets tight. It can be strenuous but you will not be complaining when you have landed your new personal best.

These are just some basic tips to help anyone out there fishing without electronics land more and bigger fish. Let me know how it goes!