Experiment archive

Under-ice bite runs sorted by hole code and time stamp

This page is the shelf where all PolarHole Lab sessions land. Each run sits under a short label: hole code, time window, pressure tendency and rig family. No long stories, only clear notes.

  • Grouped by hole code first, so you can follow how one spot behaved across the season.
  • Each card shows a compact mix of pressure trend and noise tag.
  • Filters below help you pull out only calm-ice runs, dusk bands or live-bait experiments.

Treat the archive like a quiet lab shelf: open one card, answer one question, then close it and move on.

Ice angler kneeling on the ice at sunset and writing into a small field logbook
Field notes: every run gets a hole code and three short lines.
Top-down view of three drilled ice holes arranged in a small grid pattern
Lantern and wool gloves lying beside a single ice fishing hole during blue hour

Filter the shelf

Pull out only the runs that match your next trip

The real archive can be filtered by noise level, pressure curve and rig family. Here we show the idea: three sliders that narrow down dozens of sessions into a single, calm list.

Ice noise
Quiet Creaking Loud
Pressure trend
Falling Stable Rising
Rig family
Spoons Tungsten jigs Live bait

When several filters line up, the archive narrows to a handful of bite runs that match the situation on your next trip.

Small pressure chart sketched in a notebook beside an ice hole
Close-up of textured ice surface with fine snow layer
Top-down view of an open tackle box with different ice fishing rigs

Series by hole

Short sequences drilled along one quiet ridge

Sometimes we drill a straight line of holes along a single ridge and treat them as one experiment strip. Each sequence below notes how the bite changed from hole to hole.

Sequence R03

Five holes, gentle dusk pressure rise

The first two holes stayed almost empty, while the middle one suddenly carried nearly all dusk bites.

Sequence K11

Steep drop from weed edge into dark basin

Only the border hole at the weed edge delivered steady hits; deeper spots showed fish but no clean takes.

Sequence H07

Noon test on a flat, snow covered shelf

The whole line reacted only when we switched to tiny jigs and long pauses, proving that speed was the real issue.

Row of ice fishing holes stretching across a ridge at dusk
Field logbook page with a hand drawn ridge map and numbered holes
Angler walking along a line of drilled ice holes carrying a rod

Noise grid

Quiet, creaking and loud ice in one simple grid

We mark each run with a noise tag, then drop it into a three by three grid: time of day vs. noise level. The pattern is rough but surprisingly consistent.

Quiet Creaking Loud
Dawn Short, bright bursts on spoons. Mixed results; fish react but mis-hit often. Many marks, almost no clean takes.
Midday Slow but steady on subtle rigs. Small jigs outperform everything else. Archive mostly empty in this corner.
Dusk Best overall consistency in the archive. Bite windows shrink but stay sharp. Only a few rare “storm bite” runs live here.
Close-up of a silent ice fishing hole on a calm winter day
Wide view of ice cracks lit by orange sunset over a frozen lake
Boots standing on dark ice at night with visible surface texture

Three-run sets

Our favourite pattern: three short runs instead of one long one

Most lab trips follow a simple rule: run three compact tests instead of grinding one setup all day. Below is the skeleton we copy into the notebook.

Run one · baseline

Start with a known spoon or jig to feel how active the fish are and how the ice is sounding.

Small spread of familiar ice fishing rigs laid out on the ice

Run two · bold change

Make one loud move: colour swap, depth shift or rig type change. Log only what clearly changed.

Thermos and small timer lying beside a notebook on the ice

Run three · calm repeat

Repeat the best setup from the first two runs to confirm that the pattern is real and not just luck.

Two ice anglers sharing a quick high-five next to a drilled hole

Pressure snapshots

Three curve shapes that keep repeating in the archive

We sketch the pressure line for every serious run. Over time the pages started to repeat the same three shapes: slow climb, long plateau and sudden drop.

Slow climb

Bites often wake up with us: a gentle upward line and a patient spoon.

Long plateau

Calm, almost flat days where small tweaks matter more than bold experiments.

Sudden drop

The archive marks these with bright ink; they often bring a short, sharp bite window.

Field pressure gauge and pen resting on a small notebook on the ice
Notebook page showing three hand drawn pressure curves side by side

Notebook spreads

Before-and-after pages that changed how we log

Early lab pages were messy, full of arrows and weather icons. Later spreads became cleaner: one column for conditions, one for rigs and one for real bites.

Early pages

Mixed sketches and half sentences. Useful at the time, but hard to compare across the season.

Current format

Short lines, fixed order and clear time stamps. Each spread reads like a tiny experiment sheet.

Ice angler holding an open notebook with two pages filled with small notes
Close-up of highlighted experiment lines in a field notebook

Tag legend

Small coloured tags that travel from lake to notebook

We use simple tags to mark each experiment: calm, noisy, fast spoon, slow jig. The same colours appear around the hole and on the page.

Calm ice Quiet sheet, distant cracks only.
Noisy ice Frequent pops and shifts, often shrinking the bite window.
Spoon run Bright, active lure tracks logged on the sonar strip.
Jig run Small tungsten moves, drawn as narrow lines on the page.
Small coloured flags planted in the snow around an ice fishing hole
Plastic tackle box covered with coloured experiment stickers and tags

Depth slices

A wall of holes sorted only by depth and clarity

Once a season we print depth notes for dozens of sessions and pin them by hole code. The wall looks chaotic at first, until shallow shelves and deep bowls start to form clear bands.

Shallow shelf band

Short drops, fast bites and many cancelled trips when the wind picked up. Most spoons lived here.

Middle lane band

Holes where sonar marks drift in and out all day. We use them to test small adjustments, not big theories.

Deep bowl band

Fewer trips, longer notes. Deep bowls often pay off during pressure drops and quiet evenings.

Top-down view of three ice holes of different depths marked with small flags
Close-up of handwritten depth notes and numbers on a notebook page
Ice angler marking a depth number next to a drilled hole with a pencil

Rig contrasts

Calm and loud rigs that travel through the archive in pairs

Most experiments happen in pairs: one calm rig, one loud rig. Instead of arguing on the ice, we give each pair a few short runs under the same sky.

Calm pair

Tiny jigs, thin fluorocarbon and long pauses. These lines of text fill the calm-ice corner of the archive.

  • Works best on stable pressure days with soft snow cover.
  • Notebook comments are full of small details, not drama.
Small calm ice fishing rig lying quietly on blue ice

Loud pair

Heavier spoons, rattles and bright colours. We reach for them only when the lake is already full of noise.

  • Used on creaking ice, strong wind or heavy foot traffic.
  • Archive notes mention short bursts, not steady windows.
Bright, noisy spoon rig placed on the ice with visible hooks and colours

Micro trails

Short lure trails that explain strange bite spikes

Some notebook lines describe tiny lure movements that unlocked a bite: three slow lifts, one tiny shake, then a long pause. We collect them in a narrow lane.

Notebook sketch of a lure track with short marks and bite symbols

Three slow lifts

We moved a small jig slowly through the same depth band three times before pausing. Bites came on the pause only.

Close-up of a rod tip making a tiny controlled movement above an ice hole

Tiny shakes near bottom

On a deep bowl, barely visible shakes just off bottom brought cautious fish into view on sonar.

Boot print next to an ice hole with a rod resting on the snow

Step away, then wait

In a rare noisy session we stepped back from the hole, left the lure still and watched delayed bites appear.

Season board

One strip for early ice, deep winter and thaw

We keep a narrow board where each pin stands for one experiment day. The strip is not a calendar—it is simply ordered by ice type: first clear, thick midwinter and soft thaw.

First clear ice

Light rigs, short walks, many notes about sunlight and glare.

Deep winter

Thick snow cover and long drills; most pressure sketches live here.

Late thaw

Fragile ice, loud cracks, surprising short windows in the logbook.

Night runs

Separate pins for lantern sessions where we watched sonar instead of the sky.

Cork board with small experiment pins and handwritten labels for ice sessions
Close-up of a calendar page with small ice hole sketches instead of dates

Partner balance

Experiments we prefer to run in pairs and those we keep solo

Some tests work best when two people share holes and split notebooks. Others need quiet, slow solo pacing to make sense.

Duo experiments

Two anglers can run calm vs loud rigs at the same time or compare two depths along the same ridge.

  • One person drills and watches sonar, the other writes.
  • The archive shows faster answers but also more gear to manage.

Solo experiments

Slow hole passports, micro trails and quiet pressure days live mostly in solo notes.

  • Easier to keep one tempo and one set of rigs.
  • Many “tiny detail” findings come from these lonely pages.
Two ice anglers kneeling by a hole and marking notes together in a notebook
Solo ice angler sitting on a stool and writing into a notebook beside a hole

Log checklist

Details that always go into the notebook and noise we ignore

The lab learned to be picky: we log anything that changes how the lake feels, and skip details that only clutter the page.

We always log

  • • First and last clear bite in each run.
  • • Pressure tendency and ice noise tag.
  • • Depth band and lure family at that moment.

We usually skip

  • – Exact air temperature for every hole.
  • – Every tiny move that did not change the pattern.
  • – Fish length when the goal was only to compare rigs.
Open logbook and pen lying on clean snow beside an ice hole
Portable sonar screen and notebook placed side by side on the ice

Session stacks

How we read piles of sessions without drowning in notes

The archive is not a perfect database. It is a set of piles: some stacks are short and sharp, others are heavy and slow. We read them like stories, not spreadsheets.

Single-session stack

A few pages from the same calm day. We scan for repeating words: “quiet”, “steady”, “same spoon”.

Cluster stack

Several trips to the same ridge. Here we hunt for slow shifts in depth, pressure and bite timing.

Season stack

Early ice, deep winter and thaw notes bundled together. They tell us how one lake changes its mood.

Stack of experiment notebooks and folders tied together with a simple cord

Your lane

A small way to start your own under-ice experiment shelf

You do not need a lab logo to begin. One notebook, a pencil and three simple questions are enough to build a tiny archive.

  • Pick one hole code and follow it for a whole season.
  • Write down only bites, pressure tendency and rig family.
  • After ten trips, read the stack as if it were someone else's story.
Learn how we read the ice See hole passport examples
Ice angler walking away across the ice at dusk carrying a small sled