Finally after dusting off the early season ice fishing blues I was finally able to put together a great outing for Panfish locally here on outskirts of Twin Cities Metro area. I was joined with an old time friend along with a couple new fishing buds. The plan was to target susupended fish along the deeper edge of a small dropoff adjacent to shallow water.
The presentation was simple....Drill lots of holes...Drill some more holes, and finally drill some more until these fish were found. Holes were not fished unless fish were seen on the flasher upon entering the hole. It was just a waste of time to try to lure fish into a hole. Lure presentation was simple, either an #8 or #10 size panfish jig tipped with eurolarve or a small piece of plastic. Color did not seem to matter. I had success using the Gill Pill early in the afternoon when the fish were more finicky and less eager to bite.
When a couple of fish were seen on the flasher it was best to start your jigging routine just slightly above the fish. Either enticing the fish to move up towards your bait for the strike or forcing you to jig down to the fish, if the fish wouldn't come up to check out the bait. Most of the time the fish that would rise to hit the bait are sunfish and when the fish didn't come up and forced you to jig down resulting in catching a crappie. Erratic jigging style slightly above the fish really provoked these sunfish into an aggressive mood. The erratic jigging style peaked the interest in a lot of these fish today resulting in less aggressive fish turning super aggressive in a very short time. The more you moved your jig the more the fish became interested in your bait. Resulting in aggressive strikes and a good fight while reeling them in.
I have been focusing a lot more this ice season on panfish. Trying to understand there habits and locations in the dead of winter. Through trial and error I am finding myself wanting to learn more about these aggressive fish that can put on an absolute feeding frenzy at times, yet sometimes having lock jaw tighter than a Mille Lacs lake walleye. That is what makes ice fishing so great. Your always learning something new. Whether its a new lake, or a new species of fish. So take the time with some old and new friends to enjoy this ice fishing season because before you know it we will be back on the open water again very soon.
Thanks for the report and pics Cal. I too have been spending more time studying/chasing panfish as a guy needs to know where they are with 9 grandkids. And they always put up a good fight. Thanks, Bill
Cal, nice pannies. I had some good fishing in Wright Co. myself. I started pickling some sunfish, they are really good eating. The small sunnies were just big enough to fit my pint jars.
West Metro Panfish Fishing Report
Re: West Metro Panfish Fishing Report
Make sure you tell him I said that too 
