Anglers in the know have made the switch from live bait to plastics for winter panfish. Photo by Ted Peck

There are few serious hardwater panfish anglers in the northcountry who haven't heard the plaintive call of a snowsnake rattle followed by an outburst of profanity from a disgusted bucketsitter trudging off the ice.

We've all seen waxies, maggots, spikes and mousies in 35mm film canisters and chewing-tobacco tins morph from viable bait into snowsnake calls when exposed to freezing temperatures. The biggest wail of despair is found in the call of the "Maximus frozenwaximus" -- when the $20 cottage cheese tub full of waxies sounds like a maracas full of hard beans and sawdust. Cue the singing fat lady, because your day of ice-fishing is over.

Until just a couple of years ago, some kind of larvae was the critical component for icing a mess of crappies, bluegills or perch. Sure there were times when small Swedish Pimples, Jigging Rapalas, Hali Jigs, Rembrandts, Purests and Little Cecils could get your string stretched even better than live bait, but almost every panfisher out there either had a tin of spikes close to the vest -- or forgot to bring 'em along.

A few years back the Ratso jig started raising eyebrows as this marriage of a Rat Finkee jig and a small plastic tail quietly led panfish to a rendezvous with the frying pan. Sometimes you could catch fish on tiny tube jigs, even pieces of medical latex glove. Several entrepreneurs started pouring "nailtail" profile plastics specifically for winter panfish.

These plastics caught fish with a degree of consistency for those who believed in them. But the plastic was a little stiff. And many bucketeers found themselves back digging through the sawdust looking for a little maggot with some meat on it. The temptation to resort back to the old live-bait way is strong, even though plastic technology continued to improve, finding quiet favor with tournament and professional hardwater anglers alike.

A series of panfish tournaments called Trap Attacks that have been held across the Upper Midwest the past several winters has been a real eye-opener for serious ice-fishers. Top anglers waved a tin of waxies around for all to see while pre-fishing for these events, then they dug out the plastics in the solitude of portable shanties when the time came to jig for money.

Trap Attack events are put on by the Ice Team, a loose affiliation of hardwater anglers who freely exchange ideas and techniques. At the core of the Ice Team is a corps of winter fishing pros known as "power sticks" who work with manufacturers and the general ice-angling public in promoting fishing's "fourth season."

Head fish among them is ice-angling legend Dave Genz, who is more responsible for advancement and popularity of ice-fishing than any other human. Genz designed the Fish Trap tent, created a smorgasbord of ice-angling lures and is primarily responsible for other technologies like high-tech graphite ice rods and cold-weather lines evolution in portable electronics for hardwater use.

For less than $1,000 you can purchase all the trappings of a professional ice-angler, including portable tent, power ice drill, electronics, rods and tackle. Genz calls this package his "winter bass boat."

Unlike anglers who are tethered to the comfort of a permanent ice shanty -- or flat out whipped after grinding a few holes through 2 feet of ice with a hand auger -- those who have adopted the entire winter system have mobility and ability to locate active fish. In many cases these fish are holding in less than 8 feet of water where the latest generation of plastics will outfish traditional live bait every time -- if visibility under the ice is 5 or more feet.

I make this statement after three winters of serious research on dozens of lakes across the Midwest. Last winter I didn't even buy a single tin of live bait, and I iced as many -- if not more -- panfish than during any winter I can remember over the past 25 years.

Several factors combine to make plastics a better choice than live bait under the ice in clear, shallow water.