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| TOP
TACTICS |
With
one exception, you don’t want to over-jig
your lures. Keep your movements fluid rather than
fast and erratic. And don’t forget there’s
an attraction phase and a triggering phase. When
you move the lure you attract the fish; when you
pause it you trigger them. Most anglers spend too
much time attracting panfish and not enough time
triggering strikes.
When you do trigger
strikes, you need to take advantage of the gregarious
nature of panfish. Once you find one, you find a
bunch, so when you or your fishing partner catches
a fish or two, drill another hole right beside the
productive one. Or you can even try to jig two lines
in the same hole. As one angler reels in and unhooks
a fish, the other lowers his line and catches another.
Now for the one exception.
In late winter, fish suspended high in the water
column will whack the daylights out of a Balanced
Jigging Rapala or a Williams spoon. The key is to
lower the lure so that it hovers above the fish.
Pop it quickly several times, let it free-fall,
then pause. That’s when the fish will try
to rip the rod right out of your hand. And even
though it’s a panfish, you’re sure to
see exactly what I mean about catching the biggest
fish at this time of the year. |
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| Panfish
producers: A sonar is essential for serious panfish
anglers. |
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| Best
baits include [clockwise from top left] Lindy Little
Guppies, Lindy Quiver Jigs, small Balanced Jigging
Rapalas, wax worms, Genz Worms and W30 Williams
Wablers. |
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WHEN
& WHERE: FIRST ICE
The time of the season doesn’t really matter if you keep
two things in mind: confined open water and sonar. Panfish give
their locations away by travelling in large numbers and suspending
off the bottom. The bigger, more multi-structured the lake,
the easier it is to locate the fish; deep basins attract panfish,
and the structural features concentrate them. Just remember,
you’ll tend to find perch closer to the bottom, while
crappies prefer to suspend.
MID-WINTER
Ironically, shallow, saucer-shaped lakes with little structure
and only one or two deep (20- to 30-feet) holes are ideal in
mid-winter—if only because it makes it easier to find
the fish. Indeed, most anglers can’t locate them. But
they’re there, glued to the bottom. So fine-tune your
sonar and zoom in to see only the bottom 10 feet. Still, you
often won’t spot the fish until you lower down a jig.
Then they appear like magic. The other way to find the fish
is to locate the less obvious cover. In lakes usually described
as featureless, there’s always subtle structure that attracts
perch and crappies.
LAST ICE
By now, decomposition and oxygen depletion in bowl-shaped lakes
has forced the fish to suspend in the water column. This makes
them easier to see on your sonar screen, and easier to catch.
The same thing happens in multi-structured lakes. The fish suspend,
with the perch hovering close to bottom and the crappies eight
to 12 feet above bottom, relating to points, sunken reefs and
saddles.
ESSENTIAL GEAR
You’ll need a light-action ice rod with a noodley tip
that will signal bites but have enough backbone to handle the
weight of a two-pound fish. Couple it with a 1,000-series spinning
reel spooled with four-pound-test FireLine (and attach a foot-long
mono or fluorocarbon leader with back-to-back uni-knots) for
the perfect panfish set-up.
As for lures, Copeds (discontinued
but worth finding), Genz Worms, Quiver Jigs and Little Guppie
Jigs will see the bulk of service, but the smallest Balanced
Jigging Rapalas and W30 Williams Wablers often catch the biggest
fish. Tip the tiniest lures with a wax worm or maggot, and hook
a minnow on the larger lures.
A good sonar unit, meanwhile,
is an absolute must for serious panfishing. If I ever forgot
mine, I’d drive two hours to get it rather than fish blind.
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