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Bay of Quinte Fishing

Stealth Strategies for Shallow Water Panfish Through the Ice
By Tim Allard

When targeting panfish in in shallow water the quieter you are, the better. Panfish, like bluegills and crappie, can be skittish to overhead noises and movement. Here are some tips to help with your hushed hunting.

Stealth Best Practices

Start by arriving well before the bite and drilling all your holes. Firing up an auger in the middle of great action often shuts the bite down. Don't bang items on the ice, like ice skimmers. Conversations should be quiet too. Also, walk instead of running or jogging on the ice. Walking on snow instead of ice also helps dampen noise. Bare ice can be extremely slippery. Ice creepers create a safe way to traverse the slick sheet, but make a scraping noise. Aim to walk as softly as possible if wearing them. Also linked to travel methods, avoid driving vehicles on the ice to your favorite fishing spot.

Snow and Portable Shelters

Stealth isn't just about keeping quiet. You need to try and reduce the signs of your presence. If on ice mixed with snow patches, drill holes over the snow. Snow aids in traction when drilling and hides your movements. Fish may also relate to the shade created underneath the snow drifts. Portable shelters are important tools in shallow water for the shade they create when closed. An open ice hole will tunnel sunlight into the water and potentially turn fish off. Using a shelter's cover helps cut out the sunlight, creating a more naturally lit area under your fishing hole.

The Best Shallow Water Spots

Although different panfish prefer different areas throughout the winter, here are a few overriding areas to consider. In rivers, look for fish to hold out of the main current for the entire winter. Top spots include sheltered bays, shorelines, tributary slack-water spots, as well as back-water areas. In lakes, similar areas also hold crappie, perch and sunfish. Shorelines and large, slow tapering shallow flats can be particularly hot, especially when combined with features like sunken logs, stumps, rocks, and weeds.

During early and later ice healthy weed growth is one of the biggest factors to finding panfish. At late ice, look for panfish to stage near spawning areas. Bays and shorelines strewn with reeds, wood and weeds near feeder streams are prime areas.

Spoons for Skinny Water
As a rule, I try and fish as fast and with as big of a bait as I can for any species. It often produces the bigger, more aggressive fish at the onset. My favorite baits for this are spoons. At times fish prefer the toned-down action of a straight spoon, like Northland Forage Minnows or Acme Kastmasters. Yet, light-weight, bent spoons can offer an advantage when fishing shallow water. Their more flamboyant flutter causes them to descent slower. Good options include: William's Wablers or JB Lures Angle Eyes. Although spoons will take all panfish, I find them particularly deadly for perch and crappie.

Ice Jig Suggestions

Ice jigs are the other major category of baits I use for panfish. Carry an assortment of profiles, sizes and colors. It's not uncommon to mark fish on a flasher and have them come in to inspect baits but refuse to bite. Sometimes it takes several attempts with different profiled and coloured lures before you find the day's hot bait. Once you find it though, the action can be non-stop. Top panfish jigs include: HT Enterprises Marmooskas, JB Lure's Candy Canes and Ants, Northland's Bro Bug or Forage Minnow Jig, Lindy's Genz Bug and Fat Boys, and Custom Jigs and Spins Diamond Jig, Poppee and Rat Finkee.

Bait Often
Just as critical as shape and color is continuously rebaiting ice jigs. Maggots are my number one choice when it comes to ice fishing pannies. When fish seem sceptical on your sonar or perhaps spooked from a bit of overhead noise add fresh maggots. A good percentage of the time recharging the jig with fresh scent and wiggling maggots is enough to get the sniffer to bite.

So many factors, such as weather and fish temperament, are out of your hands one of the easiest things you can control when ice fishing is the amount of noise you make. No matter your skill level, keeping quiet in shallow water will ice you more panfish; it's that simple. Now, head thee ice-ward and tread lightly my friends.