Season 13 – Episode 6 – Wisconsin Shallow Water Panfish

Season 13 – Episode 6 is live on YouTube!

On this week’s show – Join James Holst and PJ Vick as they target shallow water bluegills and crappies in Wisconsin.

Good show guys. Not your usual IDO background scenery!

I wonder what PJs white suit is going to look like at the end of the season

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I wonder what PJs white suit is going to look like at the end of the season

I told him he has to save the white suit for killing snow geese or I’m going to call him Stay Puft Marshmallow Man going forward.

I expect the grey suit will be back.

I love the panfish bite! Open water or on ice.

Well done PJ and James!

That was a fun show, and yeah PJ’s suit was bright.
James it look like you got your Apex boots back. Hopefully the new ones are as good as your old boots. Couple of questions, does the quality still look good or are you concerned they may have similar issues as your Wolf’s? I heard that Baffin has redesigned the Apex a couple of times over the years. Also do you just wear wool socks or special liners? Trying to figure out if I should order true to size or possibly a size or two larger. Kinda sucks that I cant find them locally to try on.

Savage Brewer wrote:

That was a fun show, and yeah PJ’s suit was bright.
James it look like you got your Apex boots back. Hopefully the new ones are as good as your old boots. Couple of questions, does the quality still look good or are you concerned they may have similar issues as your Wolf’s? I heard that Baffin has redesigned the Apex a couple of times over the years. Also do you just wear wool socks or special liners? Trying to figure out if I should order true to size or possibly a size or two larger. Kinda sucks that I cant find them locally to try on.

The Apex I have this season seem to be the exact same as the one’s I’ve had in the past. No concerns – they’re rock solid.

I’ve been wearing very lightweight synthetic blend socks.

I ordered my Apex one full size larger than I wear in regular shoes and they’re a great fit.

Certainly an unlikely or unexpected destination. Madison Wisconsin?

I certainly enjoyed the previous week episode at Mille Lacs as I have a place there and now that is my “home waters”, fishing it both ice and open water right out my back yard.

But…having lived in Madison for more than 30 years and having fished the Madison chain of lakes countless times, this episode really hit home for me.

It can be hard to imagine that with all the pressure that fishery takes, that it’s not that difficult to find some incredible panfishing. It can take some scouting to get away from the heavy pressure, but when you get on them…it can be surprising the size and amount of quality panfish, not to mention other gamefish like bass, northern pike, and muskie.

And aside from boots and white suits…if you get a chance to visit around downtown Madison, “Bier und feiern”!

I’m thinking PJ’s white suite may have been by design (or at least advantageous). I’m suspecting a fish would see a lot of white when they looked straight up (clouds, glare from ice, etc) so it may have been a great cover in that very shallow water.

Im new to the Madison area, could you guys please give me tips on where to go for some early ice bluegills?

Elijah Lazewski wrote:

Im new to the Madison area, could you guys please give me tips on where to go for some early ice bluegills?

Well the most obvious and popular spot would be Monona Bay, in from the John Nolen causeway.

Great for early ice, but great to attract all the masses of other early ice anglers. Actually that area produces all winter long and despite the intense fishing pressure, still puts out quality panfish.

I would plan a weekday if you’re able. Otherwise on the southside of that bay, if you can still find street parking along the lake north of Olin Ave…that side due to limited access is less pressured.

Another good spot is Upper Mud Lake, between the Beltline and McFarland. There was a public access path somewhere off Terminal drive. A bit of a hike, but that’s what limited the pressure.

Do some more research as there are many more good places.

Good luck, the Madison chain remains a phenomenal fishery despite it’s urban location.

Any good shallow water places in madison for gills? Im fairly new to ice fishing and im worried about falling through in the deeper water

Elijah Lazewski wrote:

Any good shallow water places in madison for gills? Im fairly new to ice fishing and im worried about falling through in the deeper water

If you’re worried about falling through, one good way to minimize your risk is don’t be the first one out there. That simple, if you see other’s already setup out there you’re far less likely to be the first one to fall through.

Although I could enter into a tutorial here about properly using a spud bar walking out, safety equipment such as picks and float suit…I’ll spare you all that for now.

I understand your new which leads me to recommend Monona bay to start out. When you start seeing groups of anglers out there, you’ll have at least some assurance that it’s relatively adequate ice to venture out.

Try not to crowd right in on other’s but you should be able to setup in a proximity that would have bluegill all around you.

This would also give you an opportunity to learn more, both by observing and also being friendly and asking questions. Most are willing to chat and offer advice.

Madison is a fun/friendly town unless you wear an Iowa Hawkeye jersey to a Badger game at Camp Randall.

So if the fish are drawn to warmer water in early ice season, do channels or areas with open water attract fish on warm sunny days as much as ice covered areas do? It would seem to me that water is at least as warm as the ice covered water since it was warm enough to not freeze initially.
So is the warmest water the main attraction for panfish during early ice?

mojo wrote:

So if the fish are drawn to warmer water in early ice season, do channels or areas with open water attract fish on warm sunny days as much as ice covered areas do? It would seem to me that water is at least as warm as the ice covered water since it was warm enough to not freeze initially.
So is the warmest water the main attraction for <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>panfish during early ice?

Mojo, I had to read your questions here a couple times to figure out what you were asking. I finally got it.

Yes, I believe the answer to all your questions is yes.

I’m not James Holst nor will I pretend to be, but the takeaway/lesson I got from the video was describing a narrow window of ice fishing those channels.

They were ice covered, yet the shallow location even being ice covered held warmer water near bottom especially with the sun than water temps out on the main lake. Again, a rather narrow timeframe of opportunity for early ice fishing.

I would think certainly still, these channel locations would be prime even if they were still open water. But what was discussed in the lesson was soon those channels will freeze up and water temps would drop below what they’d be in the main lake basin.

This helps understand the movement of fish to those deeper main lake locations as winter progresses suspending where water is warmest and food is nearby.

I apologize, when I make a post, I guess I tend to type as the words come instead of planning a clearly worded question.
So if a lake has several channels or fingers, and some are ice covered and some are open water, would panfish tend to go to whichever ones have the warmest water regardless of if the water is open or ice covered?

mojo wrote:

I apologize, when I make a post, I guess I tend to type as the words come instead of planning a clearly worded question.
So if a lake has several channels or fingers, and some are ice covered and some are open water, would <em class=”ido-tag-em”>panfish tend to go to whichever ones have the warmest water regardless of if the water is open or ice covered?

Mojo, you were fine on your part of the line of questions.

I’ll confess I was a couple beers into the evening and had to regain my focus just a bit.

But yes, I would reiterate that they would gravitate to open or ice covered water if it holds the warmer water during that time.

The distraction here as was explained in the video was that it’s in fact possible to have warmer water temps under ice in a shallow channel than open water in the main lake.

My experience and understanding is they migrate throughout the year for optimal water temps.

In spring, shallow for sure…once summer arrives and shallow water temps rise they do move out to deeper water, especially the bigger bluegill and crappie. We’ve all witnessed that.

Likewise as things reverse in the fall, they migrate back in following their preferred water temperature as well as available forage.

I’ve learned this seasonal progression, finding big bluegills later in the fall congregating in shallows. And that’s where they’ll be early ice too, until the winter advances, weeds die off and shallow water turns colder than the deeper mid lake basins.

And then the cycle repeats itself again.

This has been a good thread…. good info.

I love the Madison chain, not getting there often is a bummer…. the episode back when it aired was really cool. I spent a bunch of time looking at satellite images trying to learn where channels like that were at to better understand it all. Having been all around the lake during the summer, that type of movement never even came to mind.