Ice-fishing Friday: 7 expert tactics for catching more—and bigger—perch and crappies

#5  SPOON FEED ’EM

When I’m after winter panfish, I start every day on the ice with a relatively aggressive presentation, using an action-type spoon such as a 1/8-ounce VMC Tingler (below) or W30 Williams Wabler. When you pop one of those spoons up and let it fall, it lays flat on its side, then flutters down in a tantalizing way. The action is completely different from that of a heavier, same-sized slab spoon, such as a Kastmaster, or a bent spoon, such as a Syclops. Those will shoot up, then flare out to the sides in J-like patterns.

After starting with the action spoons, I’ll then test the slab and bent models and let the fish decide which injured minnow motion they prefer. This is also when I experiment and show the fish different colours or holographic patterns. Chartreuse, green and yellow perch are my go-to patterns for cannibalistic jumbos, while red is my staple for crappies. I’ll also experiment with spoons that are either silent or noisy.

Note that I almost always remove the treblehook from my spoon and run a severed minnow head through the shank. I then put a Fastach clip on the spoon’s O-ring, and reattach the treble to it. The goal is to separate the minnow head from the spoon, so that when a jumbo perch or slab crappie opens its mouth and creates a vacuum to suck in the lure, the hook will swing effortlessly into its mouth. If you don’t have any Fastach clips, two or three small, interconnected O-rings will accomplish the same task. If the bite is outrageously tough, I’ll switch out the treble with a high-percentage, needle-sharp single hook.

BONUS TIP: DEADLY ACTION

Give me a minnow and I’ll take one, clip off its head, skewer it onto a treblehook and attach it to a Fastach clip (above). If live bait gives you confidence, by all means, go for it, but I have more success with a dead head. On many days, wax worms and maggots will also work better than minnows. And if you’re specifically targeting yellow perch, the eye from a dead perch attached through the tough membrane at the back—don’t puncture the actual eye—is unmatched as bait.