Best equipment to buy for ice fishing panfish

So you are thinking, “special ice fishing gear for panfish?”  Well I am here to tell you that it can make quite a difference this winter to your catch rates.  First and foremost, you are really shorting yourself if you don’t have an ice fishing flasher in your arsenal.  These units are great for all ice fishing, but especially come in handy when ice fishing crappie and they are suspended in the water column.  I won’t fish without my flasher, you shouldn’t either.  On top of that, panfish are one of the few fish that you can really utilize an ice fishing camera for.  When ice fishing walleye you are often worried about scaring the fish away with a camera, but sunfish and crappie are more than willing to still bit while a camera is in close proximity.  A light or ultralight ice fishing rod is helpful to set the hook, but keep a nice steady bend on the rod while you are reeling the fish up.  Medium action ice fishing rods that are quite common can be less than desireable while targeting panfish due to loss of feel and losing fish on the way to the hole.  One final piece that I think is essential when targeting panfish is the spring bobber.  I am a huge fan of the St. Croix spring bobber and have put one on all of my panfishing rods.

What lures are best to use when ice fishing for panfish

The thing that needs to be kept in mind when fishing for these diminutive fish is that they are small and therefore you should fine tune your presentation accordingly.  As I have written on this site several times I am a huge fan of the Lindy Frostee Jigging Spoon in the 1/16 ounce size.  The small treble hook and small profile has proven deadly over and over again for me.  The key thing being we want the lure to show up well on our flasher.  With that in mind we want a small lure that fishes heavy.   Another great example of this is the Gill Pill.  This is a small lure with a small hook, but the profile allows for a great reflection up back to your Marcum fish finder.

What is the best bait to use when ice fishing for panfish

Another thing to keep in mind when fishing for panfish is the bait to use.  Most often people use live bait when chasing pannies.  I am a huge fan of wax worms myself and they have proven great for both sunfish and crappie alike.  Many people have had great success with spikes, mousies and maggots and they make a great choice as well.  If they are lively they can really set your presentation apart from the crowd.  Crappie minnows are a commonly used bait when chasing crappies in the summer, and they can be very helpful on the hard water as well, but don’t fall in love with them simply because they work so well in the summer.  I have had better luck throughout time using a smaller presentation such as wax worms or spikes.

Where are the best places to ice fish for panfish?

When it comes to panfish you need to remember that generally speaking they are the prey of larger fish so having a way to escape from danger in important.  Weeds are a natural hiding place for sunfish and they utilize them almost as much in the winter as in the summer.  The key being here that you want to find green weeds, those that are still alive and giving off oxygen.  Brown or dormant weeds actually consume oxygen and doesn’t attract the food chain and therefore the panfish.  Another common spot to check are the deep holes with steep breaks to weedy flats and so forth.  Crappies notorious for suspending over these depths and the higher in the water column they are the more catchable they seem to be.

What are your experiences ice fishing for panfish?  Do you have any tips or tricks to putting more fish on the ice that you would be willing to share?

Now, like with almost all things doing with ice fishing of late, the modern ice fishing gear available really helps when ice fishing walleye.  An ice fishing flasher is pretty much a necessity to catch these fish on a regular basis.  And due to their spooky nature, the underwater ice fishing camera does not work all that well.  If you are going to try a camera with walleyes, you had better try to have it looking down from above.  Anything on the same level as the walleye is really going to hurt your chances.   Again, to use the modern ice fishing theme as a backdrop, you want to punch many holes and keep moving until you find fish.  A good ice fishing auger is worth its weight in gold here, and with the thickness of the ice it is often a good idea to have a gas ice auger for your trip.  Hand ice augers are great when it is early ice, but really slow you down when the ice gets to be 12" and thicker.

When it comes time to find the fish you really need to consider the lake you are on.  The LOW walleyes are a roaming bunch and on this lake you can get by with placing your ice fishing house in one spot and fishing all day from it.  The fish move around constantly targeting the bait fish and will happen upon your house.  However, a lake like Mille Lacs is going to require you to be a bit more decisive in where you set up shop.  Remember to follow the bait when it comes to walleyes, as they are a predator fish and will act accordingly.  Rock piles, sharp breaks from muddy spots that transition into harder bottom are good bets.  If you can find green weeds they can be very good for catching walleyes through the ice.

Now, unlike ice fishing panfish or ice fishing crappie, the ice fishing rod you select is important.  You want one with a slight enough feel, but also has enough backbone to ensure you can land a larger fish if you tie into one.   I like to go with a medium action rod in this case and pair it up with one of the quality small-medium ice fishing reels.

When it comes time to get out on the lake this winter and you want to catch some dinner remember to think of the walleye.  If they aren't biting you often can finding some success ice fishing pike in close proximity to the area and can get some action there with ice fishing tip ups.  However, if you are able to find some success ice fishing walleye you would be remiss in looking elsewhere for action.

Firstly you need to think about where we are likely to find panfish in the winter.  This will change depending on what type we are chasing.  When ice fishing crappie, it is well known that they love to suspend over the deep holes of a lake.  This is usually where you will find the community fishing hole, which will be littered with so many ice fishing houses it may make your head spin.  This is actually a great place to start and while often the community spot may not produce that great, it will show you what type of structure you should be looking for.  The fish were there are one point at least.  Drop your ice fishing flasher down the hole and see if there are fish down there.  If there are, start fishing.

What Gear To Use When Ice Fishing Panfish?

When it comes to what to fishing with, my go to ice fishing bait for panfish is wax worms.  People are stuck on crappie minnows for crappies, but trust me, I have caught more winter crappies with wax worms that with crappie minnows by an enormous margin.  There are times when crappie minnows are the deal, but often it is just a better presentation with waxies due to their smaller profile.  As mentioned often on this site, my favorite lure is the Lindy Frostee jigging spoon.  it has caught me a crazy amount of fish over the years.  I like the 1/16 oz size for pannies.  When it comes to the ice fishing rod, I want a rod with a light or ultralight feel and a small ice fishing reel like the Tica Cetus.  Perhaps the most important thing to get on your ice fishing rods is a spring bobber.  This little contraption can sense the smallest of bites and truly sets you apart from the competition.  If you are going to use a standard ice fishing bobber, then I would highly recommend an ice buster bobber.  They are in a league all their own on the ice.

Where to Find The Biggest Panfish While Ice Fishing

When it comes to slab crappies and bull sunfish through the ice it is important to remember to stay away from the crowd.  You need to be able to be in a quiet spot when the time comes.  Often the best time is when the sun hits the tips of the trees and begins to get dark.  You have about an hour period that is generally the best time, bar none.  Almost always this is when the big fish are leaving their deep haunts and heading up to shallower water to feast.  Look for sharp breaks that head into deeper water and green weeds adjacent to that deep water.  Both are known producers of big panfish.  Another less popular idea is to hit smaller bodies of water that are not known producers of pannies.  There can be some great sized fish in these small areas, but they get fished out pretty quickly.

When you finally find that great spot for panfish keep it pretty quiet.  You don't want your honey hole to turn into the community spot for ice fishing panfish this winter!

The easiest way and most common method is simply to slit their stomach and gut them.  Before you freak out, realize that the reason for doing this is for smoking them.  And the majority of people out there absolutely love to have smoked tullibee so this is the most common method of cleaning them.  It is quite simple.  Start at the rectum and insert your knife.  Take the knife and slit all the way towards the front of the fish until you can move it any longer.  This will open the stomach cavity and you simply take your hand inside and remove all the innards.  Use special care to make sure that you have them all removed.  At this point simply place the insides in the garbage can and set the fish aside.  Once you have completed this for all of the fish take them to a set tub or similar and wash the stomach cavity out with water to remove the remaining blood and similar.  At this point you have a set of fish that are ready for the smoker.  Simply start your process or drop off at your local meat market.

Another method is to fillet the fish much like you would a walleye or northern pike.  The process is very similar to that of a walleye.  Start right behind the mouth and cut until you reach the backbone.  Take this cut down to the tail and flip it over.  If you didn’t take out the rib cage do so at this time.  Now just remove the skin by placing your blade between the meat and the skin and you are set.  One final thing needs to be done at this point.  There is a set of bones that don’t come out when you fillet them and you now need to cut these out.  I simply remove that small part of meat on either side and throw it away.  Now you have a great fillet ready for your favorite tullibee recipes.

The fun doesn’t have to stop once you have landed all of your tullibee for the day.  Many people wait all year to get a group into the smoker to enjoy the great taste for the remainder of the year.  There is a relatively small time to target tullibee, so I would suggest you get out there and put on your ice fishing tullibee shoes while the action is fast.  There are few things on the ice that are more fun that a good tullibee bite.

Tullibee are great fighters and willing eaters during the correct periods of the year.  You rarely hear of anyone catching them besides late ice in Minnesota and a lot of times at first it is while people are targeting perch.  And truth be told, perch and tullibee at this time of year do share the same feeding grounds in many lakes.  On Lake Mille Lacs which is a popular ice fishing destination, the mud flats on the middle west part of the lake are a prime example.  The mayfly hatch has begun in earnest around these times and the perch and tullibee are taking notice.  Clustered together in impressive numbers to feed on the new hatchlings, perch and tullibee are strapping on the feedbag.  And for ice fisherman this is a good thing.

If you can place an offering where they are feeding you can catch them in quick order.  Such was the case this year in February and March up on lake Mille Lacs for me.  The first key (which is the key for all my ice fishing it seems) is to be willing to move.  Punch a bunch of holes.  And I mean 15-20.  Drop your ice fishing flasher down there and checking to see if anything is down there.  Keep moving and looking until you find some fish.  If you don’t catch any for a while don’t be afraid to move.  On a recent trip I moved from 8 mile flat to 7 mile flat and finally to Seguchi flat before I found fish.  Don’t be afraid to avoid the crowds and find your own spot.  In fact both times we really got into them we were off by ourselves at least 50 yards from

There's not much better than smoked tullibee.

As I said, keep moving until you find the fish.  However, once you do our experience was that you could fish that same hole for a few hours a really hammer them.  Once you find an active pod of fish you will have steady action for a while.  Presentation is important, but really the spot is important.  Our best lures were jigging spoons with small treble hooks.  It is important to remember that tullibee have small mouths, so make sure you hooks are small.   I was using my standard Lindy Frostee Jigging Spoon in the 1/16 ounce size and the treble hooks on them were perfect.  We found similar results with the small Forage Minnows.  A spring bobber really helps detect the strikes which can be hard, but usually are more of a pull at your line.  Once you detect that hit simply hammer them with a strong hook set and reel them in.  If you tie into a nice one you will be in for a good fight.  Even the small ones fight well.

Here is a quick video I found that shoes a person catching a tullibee through the ice.  Thought it was helpful:

One of the great reasons to fish for tullibee is for the great table fare that they afford.  Most people are very fond of smoking tullibee, and they are great that way, but don’t be afraid to check out some other great tullibee recipes that are out there.  If you are ever in doubt of how to cook them search for whitefish recipes because they are very similar in makeup.

The most important factor in the success of an ice fishing expedition for Crappie is location. While it is a common species, some bodies of water are much more heavily populated with Crappie than others, and some areas within he same pond or lake will be much more productive than others. Early in the winter, they like to stay in shallower water, but as the season progresses, oxygen levels will decrease and the fish will be forced into deeper waters. Crappie populations like to return to the same hot spots every year, so if you find a good spot this year, chances are that it will be just as good next winter.

Crappie usually eat smaller fish, including juveniles of species that eat Crappie as adults, but they have a diverse diet, and have also been known to eat zooplankton, insects, and crustaceans. Because of their diverse diet, there are many different types of lures that are effective for fishing them, but the best lures seem to be plastic with jig heads. Other popular ice fishing gear for fishing Crappie include crank baits and live minnows. The process of dumping large amounts of live bait in an area in order to attract fish, known as chumming, has been reported to be effective at attracting Crappie. Since they are more active at night than during the day, the best time to fish for Crappie is early morning or dusk.

In the winter, Crappie usually stay between fifteen and thirty feet under the ice, but they have been known to roam to both shallower and deeper depths. Schools of Crappie develop favorite feeding locations and return to them daily, so if you can find one of these hot spots, you should stay there for a long time. You will know when it’s time to move on from a hot spot when you suddenly stop catching fish in that area. This means that the food in that spot has been depleted and the Crappie have stopped going there.

Of all the species of game fish that are commonly targeted by ice fishermen, Crappie is perhaps the best suited for using electronic equipment to enhance the ice fishing experience. The Crappie that are suspended in the middle of the water column are most likely to bite, and these are coincidentally the easiest to detect with a fishing sonar system. Using sonar equipment to detect schools of Crappie can not only pinpoint where in the lake you should drill your ice hole, but can also indicate the depth of the school. This is important information because Crappie are much more likely to notice lures above them than below, so you will get more bites if you know how deep the fish are, because you can then position your jig a few feet above them. When ice fishing crappie, a good way to attract the Crappie’s attention is to pull the bait above the school and drop it back down amongst them.

Of course, you can never catch a fish if you fish in the wrong place, so if you want to land a northern pike, you will have to learn about the northern pike’s natural habitat. In lakes, they like to stick to areas with clear water, where they can easily see their prey, and areas with lots of underwater weeds, rocks, and other debris, where they can easily hide from their prey. Some promising places to fish for northern pike are close to rocky points, narrow channels, and river mouths.

The northern pike is an aggressive predator, and will go after almost any kind of bait as long as it is big enough, although live bait is thought to work the best. The most common live bait items are six inch smelt, Portuguese sardines, large shiners, and suckers. The northern pike is a powerful fish, so you should use a large, sturdy hook and a thick line.

Northern pike have large mouths with many very sharp teeth. If you land a northern pike, be very careful as you are removing the hook, because people have been known to have their hands badly torn up when a landed pike bites them. If the teeth of a northern pike break your skin, you should clean the wound as quickly as possible, because there are many species of harmful bacteria that live in the mouths of these carnivorous fish.

Northern pike eat in a way that is unlike many game fish species. When most types of fish want to eat something, they quickly open their mouths and close their gills, which creates a low-pressure zone inside the mouth. The only way for the water to fill that low-pressure zone is to flow into the mouth, which in effect sucks the food item in. When a northern pike wants to eat something, it swims up beside the item, and quickly snatches sideways with its large, elongated mouth. This means that, while most fish species must pull the whole food item into the mouth at once, the pike has the ability to test its food without full on biting it. As an ice fisherman targeting northern pike, this means that the fish will sometimes give a small tug at your line without actually taking the bait. These tiny tugs may be frustrating for ice fishermen out ice fishing pike, but at least they indicate that the fish is down there and interested in the bait. Just be patient.

Because lake trout move around under the ice more than most fish species, you have to understand the fishes’ natural systems of behavior in order to successfully land lake trout while ice fishing, You can’t catch a fish if your ice hole isn’t in the same location on the lake as the fish. Generally, lake trout search the lake for a good feeding location, and when they find it, they stay there until the food has all been eaten. They will look for these feeding locations at various depths in the lake, unlike many species that stay close to the bottom in winter. Because of this variety of different depths that lake trout can be found in, it is advisable to experiment with different presentations and locations.

A lake trout’s head is structured in such a way that its eyes are situated towards the top of its head, which means that lake trout can see above them much better than they can see below. This is an important fact to keep in mind, because it means that lake trout are much less likely to go for bait that is on the bottom. In fact, they have been known to rise as much as forty feet to intercept a lure.

Be aware that lake trout are most likely to go after a lure as it descends. Because of this, many people do not feel the initial bite because of the slack in the line when the jig is descending. Lake trout can be very large fish, and they can sometimes be more than forty pounds, so it is not advisable to let a hooked lake trout out any farther than you have to. The farther you have to drag the fish through the water, the more difficult it will be to land, and the more likely the fish is to escape from the hook or break the line.

The best technique for catching lake trout is to start with the jig only a few feet from the bottom, and work your way towards the surface, staying at the same depth for a few minutes before bringing it up a few feet and trying that depth for a while. With this method, you can work the whole water column and ensure that any lake trout in the area will have had a chance to go for the bait.

The best ice fishing gear to take with you on a lake trout ice fishing expedition includes an ice fishing rod, leader, jigs, and other ice fishing equipment such as an ice fishing shanty. The rod should have at least a fifteen pound test. You should have a variety of jig sizes, and fluorescent yellow jigs seem to work the best.

Lake trout is one of the most fun fish species to catch while ice fishing. It is a real challenge, and there are not many lake trout around any more, so don’t give up if you don’t land one in the first hour. If you give it some time, you will find the ice fishing lake trout rewarding, especially when you get to taste the mouthwatering fillets from your fresh catch.