Western Wisconsin First Ice Panfish Action

There is something about first ice that makes a hard-water angler stir with anticipation. Let me tell ya, it felt great to scratch the itch.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of sharing a day on the water with Erik Carlson (bowhuntr24). Erik and I hit a sub-100 acre lake that had a solid 6” skim on it. It was one of those days where you punch a hole, lower the flasher in the hole and are greeted with signs of life. Unfortunately, the subsequent steps in the process did not come as easy to us. We had to work for our fish.

This lake is largely absent of structure or a defined weedline, so found we had to experiment with depths and location to stay on top of active pods of fish. The depths we fished varied from 10 to 15 FOW. The tough on the ice decisions are to leave fish to find active fish. I will borrow a term from Dave Genz, but those “sniffers” can be a waste of time.

In terms of presentation, the key for us was to match the mood of the bluegills with our jigging action. When they were in a neutral mode, it worked best to jig aggressively to call them in and then hold it completely still to entice a strike. When we were over more active fish it worked better to call them in and continue to jig, but in a more subtle fashion. The bait of the day was maggots as they clearly out-fished wax worms. I had experimented with different jigs and found the best results with a Purist. I am starting to dabble with the Little Atom products and tried the Wedgee with mixed results.

Erik took big fish honors with the big gill of the day that hit the tape at 9 ¼”, not a bad way to start the ice season.

Today, I made my way up to Marsh Miller which is a popular first ice destination. My experience at Mash Miller is that the lake is on or off. I was lucky to hit the lake on a day when the coin was flipped on the right side. It’s a very turbid lake. The last test I could find from the DNR gave it a secchi disk measurement of 2 feet. With this in mind color is key! My best results have come with vertical oriented jigs in a chartreuse/orange pattern and today was no different. The wax worm outperformed the maggot. Marsh Miller has a healthy pan fish population, but it can be difficult to find size. I was targeting bluegills.

An analogy came to me today that I have to share. Last weekend I watched my Mom impart her slot machine strategy at a casino. When she hit her target results she would cash out and move on. I used Mom’s advice today. I would drop my offering down a hole and pluck out the most active (and plump) fish. If I would sit the hole out the runts would have a snack. To find the better size fish, it paid off to hole hop. The same year classes were not hanging out together.

First ice is an exciting time to be on the water, but please be safe.

Sully