Late Season Ice Fishing Tips For Slamming Backwater Fish

Crappies, bluegills, and perch are perhaps the most widely pursued fish across the ice belt due to their excellent table fare and willingness to feed throughout the entire winter. Panfish can be caught through the ice in the small farm ponds in Iowa, in the immense lakes of Minnesota, along the vast shores of the Great Lakes, and almost everywhere in between. Growing up with the Mississippi River in my backyard, I have spent my life chasing trophy panfish during the winter. Although panfish exist in so many different environments, the tactics that have proved effective for targeting panfish on the Mississippi River, easily translate to nearly all other waters.

Locating Last Ice Fish In Sloughs & Backwaters

Perch, crappie, and bluegills are often lumped together into one category, but, unusually, I target any of them the same way. This is mainly due to their preferred feeding locations throughout the winter. Bluegill can be found in the slowest moving backwaters, usually along weed lines or within weed patches. These vegetation corridors act as a shelter against pike and other predatory fish that remain active throughout the winter, but they also harbor the bluegill's main food sources. Big bluegills will feed on small fry and small invertebrates that also live among these vegetation patches. When fishing in these patches, I like to use smaller auger holes and an ice shack to minimize the amount of light pouring through the hole. Fish in water less than five feet can be very skittish, and a huge ray of sunshine shooting down the water column will be like a warning alarm to these wary fish. It's not just the light that can spook panfish. The large crowds that often plague the backwaters and lakes of the Upper Midwest make a lot of commotion on the ice. Avoiding the hordes of other anglers is one of the biggest factors to improving your chances of finding feeding schools.

Perch move much more than crappie and gills throughout the winter. By investigating the stomach contents of my catches, I've found that the true jumbo perch will feed almost exclusively on young of the year bluegill. Perch will chase their quarry through thick weed patches during much of the winter. Finding small openings in these vast vegetation plots is one of my best tricks for finding trophy perch. Setting up the ice shack and sight fishing in around three feet of water is a fun and productive way to land piles of perch. These fish can also be found patrolling weed lines, but mobility is the key to catching big numbers. Perch are constant movers, a trait shared by successful perch fishermen. During low water periods on the river, like the current year, perch can be found in deeper water and even in the main channel. The usually strong currents are more manageable and allow the perch to feed in these turbulent but fruitful waters.

Crappie are schooling fish, so if you can find one, there are bound to be more around. On the Mississippi and in most lakes, I find schooling crappies suspended around structure or in large basins during the winter. Basins are deep, open areas of water that tend to hold oxygen in the upper portion of the water column. This disproportionate oxygen concentration will push baitfish, plankton, and crappies alike toward the bottom of the ice. There are few styles of ice fishing that rely more on the use of flasher units or other electronics than chasing suspended crappies. Using a flasher, you can find these fish feeding just a few feet below the ice. It's not just deep water crappies that will feed high in the water column; even in shallow backwaters, I'll find crappies feeding within inches of the ice.

Ice Fishing Gear For Backwater Fishing

Live bait is my favorite way to catch the biggest perch and crappie the river has to offer. For perch, I like to set my iFish Pros with the largest rosie red minnows I can get my hands on, usually between three or four inches in length. I am compulsively picky with my live bait sets, but by being particular with hooking minnows between the head and the dorsal and keeping fresh baits on hooks, you'll start realizing the results. I use a small treble to hook my minnows and run them about a foot from the bottom. For crappies, I like to run large crappie minnows or walleye minnows on a more sensitive tip-down. First, I try to locate the depth that the fish are suspended using a rod and line, and then I put out my set lines.

When I first pull up at a location, I like to start jigging with a rattle bait and use my flasher to locate feeding fish. For perch, I prefer the Rapala rippin' rap in the numbers three and four sizes; and for crappie and bluegill, I like to start with a Z-Viber from Eurotackle, or a small Kender's T-rip. These micro rattle baits act as search baits and will attract feeding fish if there are any in the area. Once I've pinpointed the schools, I'll continue with the rattle baits, or downsize if the fish aren't committing.

Spoon Fishing For Slabs

Another one of my go-to baits is the Custom Jigs and Spins slender spoon. I am a big fan of using spoons through the ice, and the slender spoon, in particular, is one of the slowest falling spoons on the market. The light, S-shaped design tempts panfish of all sizes. During the slower mid-winter bite, I always make sure to keep my jig box handy, filled to the brim with a variety of tungsten jig-heads. Tungsten is a denser material than lead and allows the angler to feel the weight and movement of the bait more easily with light line. I like to pair my jigs with red spikes or small plastics, a deadly combination for all three panfish species.

For me, ice fishing for panfish has been a lifelong addiction. The years I've spent targeting these fish on the Mississippi River have allowed me to develop these simple strategies that I have used on waters across the Midwest, from big to small. By staying mobile, avoiding the crowds, and using the other methods I've outlined, you'll be able to develop your approach for your home water so that each time you hit the ice, you'll already be one step ahead of the fish.