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Weeds & Wee Plankton For Active Panfish
Cory Schmidt

Hola Compadres!

Ok, so the weather hasn't exactly cooperated with us lately. But then again, not so fast there Toad! Take an average day over the past few weeks and watch (and feel) the sun. It's pushing higher and higher in the sky everyday. (Even on days when the air is cool, the sun's rays actually feel warm!)

What this means is that panfish have begun moving into remnant shallower weed areas. As the sun continues to cascade a more intense ray upon the ice, invertebrates become activated. That means aquatic food chains are waking up.

On each of a handful of lakes I've fished lately, my underwater camera has shown scads of darting daphnia and copepods (zooplankton) from just below the ice down to perhaps 10 feet in the clearer lakes. These little devils look like bright white living snowflakes, dancing randomly along.

In each of these cases, these areas are where we've inevitably found active panfish. But so far, these have been afternoon and early evening panfish movements only. Once the sun rises high in the sky, panfish begin activating, following the zooplankton, pushing just into and along the weededges. It's the sun's rays that appear to drive and trigger these food chain movements. Then it's the plankton that draw fish into specific areas.

Often, we've observed during this period that the best weed areas lie just inside the mouths of the bays where these fish will eventually spawn. The most consistent pattern I've seen so far this early spring(regardless of lake) seems to be to find fish along the edges of areas where deeper mixed coontail & cabbage transition into bulrush edges.

Once fish reach these edges (usually in 8 to 14 feet) it's often best to try and herd the fish into inside turns in this weed transition line. Once fish penetrate up onto the weed flat itself, your best weapon is to skip search a lot of holes. Eventually, you should be able to zero in on little concentration spots within the flat itself (weed high spots, sub-edges and holes) where smaller pods of big 'gills and crappies may position to ambush prey.

If your lake lacks bulrushes, simply try the deep weedline just inside the mouth of a spawning bay. Again, weed type itself can be key, though as we've so often heard before-- 'find living green weeds and you'll find panfish.' Not always an easy task this late into such a long winter as this.

I believe-- once you've generally narrowed location down-- finding the active pods of zooplankton is the next real step in locating schools of active bluegills. Perhaps even more important than the "green weeds" factor.

The final element in this equation is presentation. And that might be best left to you. (We all have our favorite lures, livebaits, retrieves, etc., right?) So just a couple final tips--

(1) Use fresh livebait, wriggling and lively as can be, regardless of variety. Refresh your bait often.

(2) When in doubt with color go phosphorescent (glow) or off-kilter colors like gold, purple, pink or black. Zap your glow baits with a portable camera flash.

(3) Keep a sharp eye on the fish, whether using a flasher, underwater camera or your own two eyes. 'Gills and crappies can't help themselves. They're curious little critters, just like you and I.

Time now to satisfy mine. See you out there!

-a friend called Toad

For a more refined view click here.

Red Pine Resort
Ice Fishing on Kabetogama.