South Central Minnesota Panfish Ice Report

The recent warm spell had this angler scrambling to reclaim what seemed to be a fleeting ice-season. With record high temps only days previous, combined with a high front and a bit of relative cold, the ice situation and resultant fishing forecast was to be grim at best. Beating the odds however, at times has less to do with weather, and more to do with determination and adaptability when ma nature deals you a raw hand. All options, and all species were on the table.

We attacked a secondary lake basin that dropped no deeper than 20 feet and decided to spread some tip-ups along sharp breaks, while heading deeper for the panfish. There’s something comforting about knowing you always have a trap set when you’re spending "unproductive" time staring at the camera and flasher. Only one bass came from the depths to chew on our sucker minnow, but the lessons the panfish were teaching us during that time, helped us reap rewards later in the day.

While our suckers soaked, we spent some time with the Marcum 820 camera and our LX-5, studying on both how the sluggish mid-winter panfish were approaching and hitting our baits. The most important observation was luckily size-determinant. The smaller fish were far more agressive, but not necessarily more inclined to bite. The larger fish in the system were slow to the bait, but steady. More often than not, these were biters. Maynards flutter bugs and CJS diamond jigs produced about equally, but the weight of the diamond jigs helped us fish faster, a true key to the bite.

Putting it all together then, we moved on-ice the way that the folks in Chicago vote…..early and often! Knowing that most of the rapid chasers were smaller fish, we were able to ditch the camera, and be ultra mobile with our LX-5’s. The pattern held that the larger fish were slower to the bait, but very steady in their ascent to it. Fishing fast with the diamond jig, we were able to cover the entire basin, and selectively catch the nicer fish in the system. It was work, and we’d run into some tough one’s now and again, but we put many fish over 8" on the ice, several 9’s, and this taped 9 3/4" yellow-belly.

Not a bad day considering the water was roiled to a stained green, the shoreline ice was shifty at best, and we were in the heart of the winter doldrums with high blue skies and a higher barometer.

Good fishin’!

Joel Nelson