That’s what we found. We made the journey up on Friday night and were eager to hear what the reports were. Last time we were up we found lots of fish more than willing to bite. This time was a little different. Reports were neutral at best. Looking at the wind forecast we would see very high winds the whole weekend and some cold air too. We made the plan to go to the same spot as last weekend. We got there started to drill out the area to find the holes were freezing up right away. So we would be forced to sit in the fish houses for the weekend. It was just imposable to get outside and try to hole hop. The cold and wind would not allow it.

The fishing would also be totally different each day. On Saturday we would find a lot of fish more than willing to bite. I bet all day we did not see more than 10 fish that did not want to bite. Only one walleye would be found but a bucket full of perch would be had. Sunday would turn out to be totally different. We found little to no fish moving and only a hand full would make the ice. The weather was the same each day but the fishing was not.

A good weekend was had with difficult weather conditions thrown at us. We pushed through it and were able to catch some fish and be productive. As always remember that no ice is ever safe and always take caution when venturing out. Be safe and I will see you on the ice.
Chris Barlage

Arriving a little late it was time to brain storm. What would the game plan for the morning be? We wanted to hit big water, but soon we would see our spot would not be fishable. It was time to rethink. With Walleyes and Perch on our brain we would find a spot. To bed we went only to wake and realize that we had over slept. Getting to lake rather late we made it out to our spot and drilled out the area. Not marking fish I knew it would be a drill till we found um type of day. Not soon long after we would start to mark fish in multiple areas. With 20 FOW being our final spot that we would set the housed up on and drill around to hole hop. It would not be long and Nick said fish on. Soon there was one, and then two and, well you know how that story ends. We were on the perch but where were the walleyes that we wanted to catch also. Again it would not be long and Nick yelled out “Walleye!” It was game on. I grabbed his transducer out of the hole and the fight was on. Being rigged up for perch he was at a disadvantage to the fish but his “mini bite” held on and did the job beautifully. Out would come a 25 inch walleye. A quick picture or two and we sent that pig back down the hole. After a few more hours of fishing and some perch and walleyes later we knew we had a long walk back. With the sun going down we made off to shore to end day one.

Getting back after a long day it was almost simultaneous, “where are we going tomorrow”. With some panfish on the brain we knew right where we would go. A lake that we had not yet seen this year. Once again waking up and finding that once more we had over slept we made out for a late start. Worried about the weather we started our once again long drag to our spot on the lake. With the wind in our face it was a long hard drag. Gusting up to 50 mph setting up the house would be fun. Thankfully on the way up we stopped by a bait shop and bought some ice anchors to tie the house off on. They came in great use. Getting set up in a spot I had marked on the gps, we drilled a few holes, marked fish, and set up the house. Soon we were on fish but not ones we wanted to catch. All very small perch. Looking at nick in disgust I told him we would have to make a move and reset up the fish house. With a course in mind I pulled out the gps and took our Strikemaster Solo and started to drill some holes. It came to end of the line where we would soon be running out of lake to find the fish we were after. First drop down would reveal a 9 inch bluegill. We set up the house in 23 FOW and the rest would be history. Nice perch and gills. No crappies to be found though. Not until 5pm and sundown that is. As soon as dark hit everything else would shut down and the crappies would come out. I remember someone once telling me that there was NO night bite what so ever on this lake. Ya right. Starting our long drag back we would call it a day at 9.

With the rest of the group arriving mid day two we made planes late that night for our last day. All I had to say was tulliee and everyone was in. Lake set and more than one alarm was armed. We would not be late this time. Moring would come and we were out the door on time. Picked out the spot on the GPS and off we went. Instantly drill out the are and marking fish right away. Houses set, we took to hole hopping and multiple people pulling up fish. Crappies and boy were they nice. It would not be long I you could hear, tullieeeeee. Now it was game on. Finally after the long summers wait we would have fish once again for the smoker.

After a long weekend of great fishing it is nice to be able to just site down and type out our story. It won’t be long though and the weekend will be here again and we already have it planned to be a four day weekend. Stay tuned because it is not that far away and there will be some more great stories to tell. Keep an eye open for the report. As always with the not so seasonal temps, be safe on the ice. Nothing in the lake is worth going in for. Stay safe and we will see you on the ice.

Chris Barlage

While most anglers on smaller waters tend to go right towards weedy shorelines or bays, there can often be too much of this type of structure in a large lake for an angler to efficiently dissect. Many savvy big-water panfisherman don’t bother with near-shore structure. They know that it is easier to dissect the off-shore structure in a lake, leaving them less area they have to search. There are two different types of off-shore structure that produce good-sized panfish: Mud depressions, also known as “sticky-bottom areas” and humps or “sunken islands”.

Mud depressions can be in almost any depth of water, but the best areas to panfish generally occur between ten and twenty-five feet of water, and this is where you should focus your search. A lot of mud depressions can be very easy to find with a good lake map, there are many that will even show bottom content, though there can be many that will not be found without drilling a lot of holes. Knowing how to read a quality flasher like the new Marcum LX-7 will also help you find soft bottom areas. One of the most common places for mud to be is near the base of a dropoff where the bottom begins to level off into a flat. A large majority of the fish feeding in these muddy areas will be suspended as they chase around the aquatic invertebrates that hatch out of these areas. So you will need a bait that imitates these insects swimming around. The Lindy Bug is perfectly suited for this purpose, with large downward facing eyes that the fish can actually see, the Bug will dance around above the fish in ways that they can’t resist.

Humps are an entirely different animal altogether though. They are easily found with even the most basic lake map. There are two main types of structure on humps, weeds and rocks. Most fisherman will tend towards the weeds, which will hold a lot of fish, but they will also hold smaller fish. Panfish that tend to feed on the rock humps will be larger and more aggressive. While the Bug works great in the weeds, when it is time to find the bigger fish on the rocks, tie on one of the new smaller sizes of the Lindy Slick Jig. Load a couple of larvae or a minnow head on it and pound it into the rocks, this will create a commotion that can bring panfish in from quite a distance.

Don’t confine yourself to fishing smaller bodies of water this winter. Big lakes may take a little more work to narrow down a good pattern, but they are well worth the hassle for the size of the fish you will catch. Also since the majority of anglers who do fish big bodies of water are after walleyes and perch, you can have some amazing panfish spots to yourself all winter long.

Just after sunup we set out to the lake to see if there would be fishable ice. Sure enough there we saw our bay froze over. So paring up into twos and ice picks in hand we walked the shore until we found the point that we wanted to go out from. Drilling many holes along the way to check the ice we found a nice clear 6 inches. So we drilled the area set up the houses and soon there were fish on the flashers.

Fishing an old early ice spot we knew what we were looking for. Our max depth would be 22 FOW and we had to find the breaks. The flat areas had fish but not a lot holding. The breaks is were we would find our fish holding and schooling up. After securing the location of the breaks were drilled across two of them and started to mark fish. About five minutes into it we were setting the hook. We soon found that the fish would rise up no farther than two feet and then they would put on the breaks. With no one go to lure being the trick it meant only one thing. Change the jig and change it often and that is what worked to get fish on the ice.

Day two would prove to be a lot more different than the first. After drilling the same location and marking a lot of fish we soon found that the bite that was positive to neutral the first day would be totally negative for us on the second day. It was not a lack of fish just a lack of ones that wanted to bite. Being persistent was the key. Working the fish and jumping hole to hole we still managed to catch a lot of quality fish and had a great time doing it.

Being on the ice was great. Early ice fishing gives some of the greatest opportunities to catch fish in a good mood to bite. Safety is always the number one thing when getting on the ice when it is fresh. Checking often and always having you picks at hand it critical. Having a game plan and keeping an eye out for each other is the name of the game. Never go out alone until you have good thick ice. We practiced all of that this past week and we all had a great time fishing and all were safe. Be safe as you venture out and may your catch be plentiful. We will see you on the ice.

Chris Barlage

The Perfect place to stop before hitting lake of the woods.

North Country Food and Fuel has all your fishing needs. We offer live bait, a tackle selection geared for Upper Red Lake and Lake of the Woods which includes Tom’s Tackle, Northland and Lindy, Offsale liquor, Propane filling and convenience items. North Country also offers Premium gas for boats and snowmobiles that is accessible 24 hours, and an ATM machine.

Located right on the snowmobile trail its convenient to stop fill-up, and grab a pizza, deli express sandwich, or a hot dogs.

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54345 Highway 72 NE
Waskish, MN 56685
(218) 647-8725

The most important key to fishing Metro lakes is being adventurous. To put it simple: don’t fish where the crowds are. We are too quick to join the shanty town when we should be out searching for our own fish. So many times have I found quality fish in lakes where others complain about the fishing pressure. How does this happen? Well, let’s just say it involves a few tanks of auger gas and sore legs, but when you get a glimpse at the pot of gold you forget about the pain. The pot of gold in this story means giant panfish and trophy walleye… and yes, right in your backyard.

I’m a firm believer that just about every Metro lake holds quality fish; you just have to find them. Stay away from the “classic” spots and use the shanty towns as a base for where the fish should be. For example: if a large group of houses stake claim over a deep hole, look to the surrounding area for less pressured fish. Pay attention to subtle changes in structure and look for areas where others haven’t been. Some of my best Metro bites are over fresh snow within only a couple hundred yards of shanty towns. Those pressured fish (and oftentimes larger fish) will move out and hold on the nearest structure or flat. It’s very predictable in most Metro lakes.

Lakes such as Lake Minntonka, White Bear Lake, Forest Lake, Prior Lake… all of these lakes continue to see constant fishing pressure but will kick out quality fish on a regular basis if you’re willing to work. Other areas that still hold a lot of quality fish include the Chisago Area chain of lakes as well as the inner-city lakes like Calhoun and Harriet. These are just a few of the more popular lakes but any lake out your back window has the potential to make you smile.

From now on we owe it to ourselves to put some of the Metro Area lakes back on our list. The idea that we have to drive a hundred miles to be on productive water needs to leave our minds. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but with a little sweat you will see that driving down the road can be as productive as driving across the state. Grab a lake map and figure out less pressured spots that look promising, then sharpen the blades and put it in drive!

Good Fishing,
Matt Johnson

***Matt Johnson owns Matt Johnson Outdoors where he gives year-round Metro Area guided fishing trips. You can reach him at www.mattjohnsonoutdoors.com

Some of you are probably thinking that the northern lakes in the state provide better fisheries for panfish than the middle tier of lakes. But the problem with the lakes in much of the northern parts of the state is their trophic classification. Trophic classification is determined by several variables, but the one most focus on is the total weight of biomass in the given body of water (think bugs as food for the fish). The lakes in the northern tier of the state are generally either oligotrophic or mesotrophic. This means that they have fewer nutrients to support fast growing populations of fish and in the instance of panfish, their populations of large fish can be quickly depleted by over harvest and may take long periods of time to recover. So while these northern lakes can often have amazing fisheries, any amount of pressure can quickly dampen the chance at quality fish.

The southern tier lakes in the state have the exact opposite problem. Many of these lakes are often in the eutrophic or hypereutrophic range. There is tons of food available for panfish to get big and get big quick. So while it may take only 4-6 years to grow a trophy bluegill or crappie in these lakes, they often will not live longer than that due to lack of oxygen in the lakes during harsh winters. Lakes in this area freeze out very regularly, so while an angler may find an amazing fishery for one or two years, it can just as easily die off during a long winter.

Lakes along the Pine to Prairie Corridor are right in the middle of the two extremes. Classified along the line of mesotrophic and eutrophic, they mostly have abundant food sources, and are big and deep enough to provide ample oxygen during a long winter to ensure the survival of a fishery. So these fish can grow fast and have the ability to live for a long time without the occurrence of winter kill. The majority of these lakes fall within a corridor of where the big north woods meets the prairies of southern Minnesota, essentially following Interstate 94. The best areas to target can be found by looking at the Minnesota DNR’s ecological provinces map, as they all fall in the Eastern Broadleaf Forest section.

Now this doesn’t mean that all lakes in this region will pump out trophy bluegills and crappies by the bucket load. It may take some homework to narrow down the best waters in the area. While many smaller lakes in this region can kick out some very nice panfish, small lakes are susceptible to over harvest just as much as the big northern lakes. Your major focus should be on lakes that are at least 250 acres in size and are known to produce quality fish, as it won’t do any good to go fish a lake that doesn’t even have a panfish population. Bigger lakes also have the added benefit of offering areas that hold fish that have often been overlooked by the masses. Although that isn’t to say that you won’t find a tiny little hidden gem from time to time, but they are more the exception than the rule, as this strip of lakes also has a large amount of human population in the area.

A good lake map is your best friend when it comes time to find these plethoras of panfish and if the map shows bottom composition, it’s even better. These fish get big fast because of the amount of aquatic invertebrates in the water. They will consume these insects in mass amounts while packing on the pounds. Many anglers don’t understand how to incorporate lake maps with the type of insects the fish are keying on. For instance, if the fish in the lake you are fishing generally eat daphnia or freshwater shrimp, shallow to mid-depth flats with green weeds are the best spots to key on. Pelican Lake in Albertville, Mn is a good example of this type of lake. It is a shallow bowl that seems to pump out ridiculous numbers of big panfish every year due in large part to the overwhelming numbers of freshwater shrimp and other invertebrates in the lake. By keying in on green weeds on this lake you can find the bigger fish as they chase these insects and other prey around.

In deeper lakes with thick mud bottoms often times the fish will tend to key on insects that spend more time in deeper water such as mayfly larvae and bloodworms. Areas to concentrate on in these lakes include mud to sand/rock transition areas and any area that you can find with the stickiest bottom possible. On your Marcum, these areas will show up as a very thin band that indicates limited sonar read back. You can test the stickiness of the bottom further by putting a depth bomb on your hook and sending it down. The harder it is to pull the weight out of the bottom, the better the fishing will often be. One great example of this is Lake Osakis in Douglas County, the panfish tend to sit on sticky bottom areas gorging themselves on invertebrates, often even going down into the substrate to fan the bugs up off the bottom.

Many lakes in this corridor will have both shallow and deep water species of insects, so by meticulously going through a good lake map you can pick and choose how you want to target the fish. For fish in shallow water, anything less than 15-20 feet, baits that can get down into the weeds quickly and stir things up work really well. For fishing shallow lakes for panfish such as Pelican, I like to go with the Lindy Toad. It fishes heavy, like a bait 3 times it’s size, and has the weight needed to punch through any aquatic vegetation. This extra weight is really helpful on lakes that receive a lot of pressure as the fish can often be reluctant to come up out of the weeds to eat when there are plenty of bugs available near the bottom.

Color selection is a variable many anglers simply don’t pay enough attention to, especially in shallow water, it can make all the difference in the world. Even in dark or stained waters, fish can see variations in colors a lot better than anglers give them credit for. In stained waters, such as those found on Pelican Lake, I prefer dark colors. The Viking and Coach Dog colors available on the Toad are great for this application, as they stand out far more than lighter or bright colors in muddy water.

When fishing for panfish in deeper lakes such as Osakis, the best areas to key in on are those with a “sticky bottom”. This so called sticky bottom generally provides the best breeding grounds for aquatic insects, and where there is food, the fish are sure to follow. While many anglers prefer to deadstick with waxworms or minnows in these areas, to really trigger the bigger, more aggressive fish, I prefer to dance a bait around above the fish. This is when I tie on the new Lindy Bug. With bulging eyes and a wide body, the Bug will glide out and around and quiver in place when pounded, and with eyes facing downward the fish can actually see the bait as it imitates the larvae of aquatic insects. By watching your flasher, you can see if the fish want the bait presented on the bottom or higher in the water column. If the fish prefer to eat something closer to the bottom, the new smaller sizes in the Slick Jig are my go to. Loaded with waxworms and pounded into the bottom, the Slick Jig looks exactly like a struggling insect hatching off of the bottom and can be very hard for a fish to resist.

If your goal this winter is to catch some giant panfish, either for the wall, or just to make your buddies jealous, grab yourself a map and follow it to Minnesota’s Panfish Belt. These lakes have no problem producing big panfish through the years, and you may discover a few new hotspots that you simply had no clue about.

In Minnesota the big producers of heavy duty jumbos are Winnie, Leech, Mille Lacs and Lake of the Woods. Of those four; it’s Lake of the Woods that produces some of the largest fish on average while the rest give up more in a lot more areas. The NW Angle area of Lake of the Woods is where some of the most consistent perch angling takes place on this dynamic border water. Just about anywhere else and it might be onesie and twosies but at the Angle there’s a chance you can actually catch a limit (if you get on the right spot). On Mille Lacs, Leech, and Winnie there are tons of perch producing hotspots including shoreline connected break lines and lots of offshore structure like deep gravel humps and mud flats.

Whichever lake you head for and whether you’re looking at a shoreline related break or an off shore hump; it’s the transition areas that can hold the lion’s share of giant perch. That’s where hard bottom changes to soft and there will be no shortage of suitable real-estate. Professional angler and fulltime guide Tony Roach (roachsguideservice.com) works the ice harder than anybody I know and shares some of his wisdom to finding transition jumbos: “When perch start setting up on deeper transition areas they can be difficult to find simply because there’s so much of it. I’ll spread my investigative holes out to maybe fifty yards apart or more and keep moving until I start to see fish. There’s only so much time and you can’t cover it all so an approach that includes more area is definitely required. Once fish start to show themselves I’ll dig in and maybe run some holes in a little shallower or a little deeper water until I find heavier concentrations.” Tony’s approach can mean plenty of moves and quite a few holes drilled before running down a big school of fish. That’s the downside; the upside is finding a big school of jumbos and having it all to your lonesome.

Finding transition areas can be as easy as looking at a map and identifying specific spots where a shoreline break or offshore hump or bar drops off into the basin. That doesn’t mean the deepest water in the lake, just where the bottom of a drop-off flattens out. It’s easy to see it on a map and even easier to find if you have a G.P.S. with mapping capabilities like the Humminbird 385ci. The385ci has the ability to accept a high definition map like the LakeMaster ProMap and display it and let you see where the contour lines go from bunched up to spread out, indicating a break line and a deeper flat. When you get on a spot like that you can use your depthfinder to really home in on the change from hard to soft. On my Humminbird Ice55 the hardest bottom will be displayed as a large red band and will narrow up as you get into softer and softer bottom, even changing over to more orange and yellow. That’s what we’re talking about. It’s probably not the change itself that attracts fish but more likely the bottom content is more suitable for bugs to grow and emerge and become perch fodder. Tony on transition: “Hotspots can change from year to year and I think it has to do with wind direction when the adults are depositing their eggs. They’ll drop their eggs on the surface and the wind and resultant surface current can carry them in a particular direction where they will take up residence only to emerge in a larval stage by midwinter creating a hot spot on one part of the lake and a dead zone in another.”

Smaller baits that mimic emergent larvae can be absolutely killer, and the new superhot Impulse plastics from Northland Tackle do it like nothing before. From the Mayfly, to the Waxy, to the Tapeworm, all the bases are covered and you may never have to buy a box of bugs that spill in your pocket ever again. Besides the super cool fish fooling shapes the Impulse baits are impregnated with an attractant that fish can’t seem to resist. They take it in and hang on and there’s much less worry about them spitting it out before you get a chance to set the hook. Combine the plastic body with a jighead like the new Mooska Tungsten Jig and you’re in business. The heavy-weight tungsten allows for smaller jigs by size with a super quick drop rate and quick is what you’re looking for when you got an active school of eye popping jumbos below your feet. The thing is; perch are almost always on the move and you better get while the gettin’ is good. If not; your hot pocket of fish will probably move along their merry way and you’ll have to wait for the next batch to show up or head out and do some more investigating angling.

Jigging a spoon tipped with a minnow head or Impulse plastic is another top transition tactic and is perfect for finding fish. Tony on search and seizure: “I like to use a heaver spoon when I’m looking for fish and will drop it down and let it poof the bottom before I snap it back up a few times. The commotion can really draw fish in and it doesn’t take very long to know if you’re in the right area. If I’m seeing fish I’ll keep working the spoon but I’ll also get a jig and plastic down another hole. The smaller setup might be what they’re really looking for and just having another bait down can keep active fish around longer before they finally move on.
Targeting transition perch is a thinking man’s game and there is more to it than drilling a couple of holes and waiting them out. It’s not always easy but finding and catching transition jumbos can be plenty fulfilling, even for the most ardent walleye anglers. See you on the ice.

Ron Anlauf

I always pay close attention to fall patterns, especially at late fall as the water plunges into near freezing temps. Crappies will begin staging for early ice towards the end of summer, and as fall approaches they will begin to stake out areas that they will utilize at early ice. The turn-over period is where I start. This is when the thermocline diminishes and the cool and warm water start to mix. The typically deeper water crappie patterns of the hot summer months will turn into shallower water patterns. (Keep in mind that rivers will be different and not every lake will experience the same effects either, every body of water may be different from the next). When the water mixes you will typically find the crappies in some sort of migration stage (in lakes) and they will start to slide to the initial breaks and suspend off shallow water edges instead of constantly roaming the deeper depths.

The turn-over period might not last too long. Once the water turns over and the temps drop more and more, you will begin to find fish staging in their early ice locations. Summer and late-summer crappies will stage, often times, suspended in deeper water at the same level of the top of the initial break line (flat). So if you have the top of your break reading at 10 feet on your flasher, and you drop into about 25 feet at the basin, you will find crappies suspended 15 feet off the bottom out on the basin. These fish will roam and you will often times mistake them for baitfish, or when you try to pinpoint them they just keep moving (that’s part of the reason it can be tough to find the big slabs in the hot summer months). These fish will begin staging for the winter once fall approaches and will feed on whatever is in front of them if the opportunity presents itself.

Intercepting these fish can be tough on lakes with large basins and limited structure.

I don’t typically heavily follow the crappie movements during the hot summer months since they are so sporadic, but once they begin moving into winter patterns that’s when they get my attention (I’m an ice fishing geek). Learning the fall (turn-over period and into early ice) patterns has a lot to do with finding the slabs at early ice. Smaller crappies will stack up in obvious shallow(er) spots at early ice, but you will still find some of your larger fish off the “so called” prime hotspots at early ice.

Early ice crappies will relate to the weeds, at least as long as they provide oxygen (which may last quite a ways into winter or even throughout winter in some cases). I personally don’t think that the larger crappies need to relate to those weeds, I’m not saying that you won’t catch slabs in the weeds at early ice, but I’m just saying that those weed areas tend to draw in more smaller fish as well as potato chip bluegills and hungry roaming pike. The larger crappies (concentration of fish) that I do typically find in the weeds are located in lakes where the weed line pushes out into deeper water, say 12-15 feet or even more, and I find the slabs right out on the deeper portions at early ice. Meanwhile, the smaller fish are holding shallower. Once the thermocline does a flip-flop (and disappears) and you complete the turn-over, you will notice that the crappies adjusted to a whole new area. During this time you won’t find the crappies suspended over the deeper water 24 hours a day, or even at all anymore. They will somehow relate to shallower water, whether it’s off the break, or along the deep weed edge. Once they move up into the weeds they will relate to the shallower weeds until they die off (assuming that they do in a typical lake situation), then they will cling to the oxygen-rich (slightly deeper) weeds until those are gone. Now, this is a general crappie pattern, and not true for every lake and not always true for all the larger fish. This is, how should we call it… “Crappie intuition”

Here’s how I pattern crappies throughout late summer and into early ice
• Deep Water Patterns
Your summer to late-summer pattern. Crappies will roam deeper water.
• Turn-Over (thermocline dies)
Crappies move from deeper water and stage off shallower water. Keep an eye on areas where you know the crappies where at during early ice in the past and move out from there. (In between this period and the next is where I find my larger crappies at early ice)
• Thermocline is Dead…Full Turn-over
• Full Turn-Over
Crappies are holding off shallow structure, more tight though. Weeds are dying and fish gradually slide deeper. This can also be an early ice stage on occasion.
• Early Ice
Shallow, oxygen rich weeds and primary breaks. Look for depths anywhere from 3-15 feet. Weeds will die as ice thickens and crappies will gradually move deeper. Narrows can be good too.
This is my view of a typical crappie movement from late summer to early ice for your typical lake. I have some lakes where the pattern is very different, and some lakes where you catch your early ice crappies in deeper holes. Keep in mind that these crappies that are found in the deeper holes at early ice might have already migrated shallow and already moved back out into deeper water (crappies will move back out as ice thickens, oxygen diminishes and light penetration gets worse…).

So, with that being said, where are the crappies at early ice?

Well, for one, we have the weeds, an obvious option for a good number of crappies at early ice. Shallow bays on large bodies of water are good early ice locations. Any depressions in the bays should be marked on a map and checked out as well. These are “pockets” in the weeds. I also like to find the weed edge and punch a line of holes across that as well. Breaks just off the weed edge will also hold crappies at early ice, both suspending and bottom hugging. Some of these areas will have no weeds on the actual slope, but once it flattens out again you will see more weeds, this is a prime example of an early ice slab spot. Work those deeper weeds and stay moving until you locate a school of fish. Depths of 10-15 feet are not uncommon. Also check out humps and saddles too. Weeds are good, but don’t only judge early ice spots by where the weeds are, stay open minded. Wooded areas can also hold a good number of crappies at early ice, same with rocks and muddy areas.

I also like to find spots where there is a narrow area between different portions of the lake, like “bottlenecks” and deeper channels (deep could only mean 6-7 feet). These channel areas often times freeze first and the crappies fishing can be excellent during first ice. These spots are short lived though, and the bite might only last a week or so. If you find the crappies holding in these areas at first ice, than there’s a good chance that those fish will relate to adjacent deeper water once they move towards the main lake basin.

Mouths of shallow bays are good areas to target too. Crappies will relate to the transition areas in these mouths, and once they move out from the bay these areas might be the new hot spot.
Early ice crappie locations are going to be different from body of water to body of water, but the general principles still apply…
• Look for shallow green weeds
• Focus on “structure” in the weeds (pockets, humps, edges, etc…)
• Search the primary breaks just off the shallow weeds (deeper weed lines)
• Look for any flats just off the weed line, as well as off the first break
• Narrows
• Also check deeper holes in the lakes where the average depth is shallow
Location is number one for most of the winter when it comes to crappies. Locate the aggressive school of fish and then figuring what they want is the easy part. If you find fish but there are negative than move, there typically are some active fish somewhere, and often times they won’t be far.

Early ice can produce some nice catches, and hopefully some of this will help you ice more slabs this winter.
Good Fishing,
Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson owns and operates Matt Johnson Outdoors Matt Johnson Outdoors where he enjoys taking people on guided ice fishing trips and providing information about his favorite sport—fishing!

Pike anglers typically do extremely well on Devils Lake and there is always a chance at cracking a forty plus inch fish. The density of pike in some regions of the Devils Lake Basin is staggering. To find numbers of pike, find new water. Shallow bays and flooded fields that are now prime areas. Most of the pike seem to follow the shoreline contours and can often be caught in extremely shallow water along the shorelines. Anglers often use tip ups baited with frozen herring or jig with large spoons tipped with minnows. For targeting trophy pike, classic main lake structure or sharp breaking weed bed edges on the Main Lake Basin, East Bay or East Devils Lake seem to produce many of the larger fish.

What can be really enjoyable is to sight fish for these aggressive predators. I often use soft plastic swim baits like many walleye and bass anglers use in the summer. For these powerful fish, use a stout rod that can handle the weight and power. I use my Jason Mitchell Elite Series Mackinaw Rod in the 34 inch length and pair the rod up with a good bait casting reel. For targeting really big fish, I often use forty pound braid and fish inside a Trap so I can block out the light and look down the hole. Watching these predators tear up these soft plastic swim baits is fun stuff. The speed and explosiveness of a pike’s strike never ceases to amaze me.

Devils Lake is also considered one of the top walleye fisheries in the Country with several fifteen to twenty five inch fish in the system. There are so many different patterns and locations that will hold walleye through the ice season but one of my favorite ways to target big fish is to jig aggressively in shallow water. Many of my biggest fish each winter come from less than eight feet of water. Early morning and late afternoon or early evening are often prime windows of opportunity but when we have heavy snow conditions, we have caught walleyes in less than ten feet of water all day.

These shallow fish are typically aggressive and want the lure or jig pounded hard. Great lures include any jigging spoon or Darters. A sensitive fast action blank like my Jason Mitchell Elite Series Walleye Rod in the 30 inch length is perfect for giving the lure a nice hard snap or stroke to really maximize the flash and thump on most lures. The fast tip also increases the batting average on the hook set as well because while the fish bite really hard, it takes some pop on the rod tip in order to move the lure through the fish’s clamped down mouth and get a hook buried somewhere in that hard mouth.

These shallow fish typically show up on your Flasher fast and a mistake many anglers make is not jig enough. Keeps the cadence or stroke going as these fish often seem to drift off if you stop moving the lure? Walleyes are often underrated as a predator but these fish that are found up shallow often hit with the same intensity as a pike. These fish are aggressive and a lot of fun to target.

Sand and gravel shorelines or flats that drop off to deeper water are prime areas to search. Many of these spots can be even better with the presence of flooded timber or weeds. While Devils Lake typically does not see much of a walleye bite after dark, don’t hesitate to look in water that is less than seven feet at sunrise or sunset and keep noise and traffic to a minimum to avoid spooking fish.

While Devils Lake is notorious for producing enormous perch that sometimes top out at over two pounds, I encourage anglers to not overlook the healthy predator population that inhabits the lake. Devils Lake has matured into a top pike and walleye fishing destination and the shallow water tendencies these fish have in these particular ecosystems create some exciting and enjoyable patterns.