When the crappie bite picks up, action can be red hot. They start moving toward spawning areas when water temps hit 50 degrees. (Photo by Mike Gnatkowski)
April 09, 2024
By Mike Gnatkowski
Ice-out in the north country is a certainty. Exactly when it happens isn’t. Last winter was a great example. Ice anglers in my corner of Michigan usually enjoy a hot last-ice bite well into April.
In many locales across the Midwest, however, there was no or little ice last winter. The ice in January and February was thin and unsafe in numerous places. A wimpy winter meant many anglers could begin fishing open water in early March. What didn’t change, though, was the schedule on which panfish operate.
Bluegills, especially larger ones, often don’t move into the shallows until early summer. Like for other panfish, ice jigs tipped with bait or plastics work well. (Photo by Mike Gnatkowski) THE PROCESSION Panfish begin a predictable migration each spring well before the ice disappears. Yellow perch are the first to start migrating from the main basin of inland lakes to the shallows, where they’re the first to spawn in the spring.
Last year, ice largely disappeared by early March, nearly a month ahead of schedule, and the perch were already in predictable ice-out locations. The month was only a day old when I found myself in my boat on my favorite inland lake in the back of a shallow cove. This cove faces to the south, so it’s among the first to warm each spring. It was a first being on open water that early, but I had an educated guess about where fish would be.
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I watched my graph’s temperature gauge as I trolled into the back of the bay. The surface temperature slowly climbed from 35 degrees in the main lake to 39 degrees when I reached 3 feet of water in the very back of the cove, typically the first spot spring panfish move into. Yellow perch usually show up when half of the bayou is still iced up. In fact, my friend Craig Petersen caught buckets full of jumbo yellow-bellies the year before right along the edge of the receding ice in the bayou.
“Areas with a dark bottom are the first to warm,” says panfish guru Jeff Sowa, “but it helps if there are stumps, laydowns and docks to absorb additional heat. Wooden dock posts absorb and retain the heat better than concrete or metal posts.”
Baitfish congregate in the shallows for the same reason. Two weeks later, crappies show up in the shallows around bridge abutments and the docks in the marina there. Depending on the spring, it’s usually at least another few weeks before numbers of modest-sized bluegills appear. It’s close to May by then. And it’s usually near Memorial Day before bull ’gills begin guarding nests. The whole procession works like clockwork, give or take a few days, depending on the weather.
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Don’t be surprised if you show up at your favorite lake and it’s frozen again, though. Late-winter and early-spring temperatures often remain frigid, dipping into the teens or lower. With water temperatures only a fraction above freezing, lakes can quickly refreeze. That’s why sunny afternoons—after the sun has had a chance to fully warm things—are best. A rise of only a few degrees is a lot for a cold-blooded fish, and a dark bottom and direct sunlight intensify the effect.
Keep your eyes on the wind direction, too. The layer of tepid water on the surface is thin and can be easily pushed by even a slight breeze. A warm south breeze can stack lukewarm water into coves and bays, and fish will quickly follow. Current can do the same thing.
South winds and current can sometimes push slightly warmer water into bays and coves, and fish will flock to these areas. (Photo by Mike Gnatkowski) EARLY-SPRING TACTICS Sheltered, cold water is typically clear water in the spring, and fish can be super spooky under these conditions. Plop a big bobber on top of their heads, and you’ll see them shooting for parts unknown. Delicate presentations with long rods; slender floats; thin, clear lines; and tiny ice-fishing teardrop jigs produce the best results. Let’s break the strategies down by species.
Yellow Perch Ice-out perch often school according to sex initially. Inferior males will be clustered under a particular dock or in a spot in a cove, and repeated casts will only produce dinks. Yet, a few docks away, you’ll catch a jumbo yellow-belly on six consecutive casts before the bite dies.
Sometimes, you catch so many runts that it seems like there are more males than females, or that the puny males are faster biters. Many anglers have tried upsizing baits hoping to tempt bigger perch, but usually it doesn’t work that way.
Lively shiner minnows are the best ice-out perch bait. Shiners are likely collecting in the shallows, too, and you’re matching the hatch in using them. Minnow size doesn’t seem to matter much. A 5-inch perch will gulp a big shiner minnow fit for a walleye as quickly as a tiger-striped jumbo and vice versa. Some of the biggest perch are caught on pinhead shiners. You just can’t go wrong with meat.
But there are advantages to using plastic. Plastics are more durable, and perch have more difficulty stripping them off your hook. You’re rebaiting less, which means warmer fingers, and your lure spends more time in the water. Plastics also come in different configurations and colors, so you can easily change things up.
Both minnows and plastics are best fished under a long, slender float. Ice-fishing jigs get the bait down and attract fish. I like 3 mm to 4.5 mm jigs best, and Custom Jigs & Spins’ Chekai and Majmun are two personal favorites. Colors vary from glow-in-the-dark to black, chartreuse and orange. It pays to experiment. Hook the minnow through the lips and pull the knot back on the jig so the bait rides horizontally in the water. Remove the spring on the bottom of the float and replace it with a short piece of surgical tubing to hold the line in place and prevent damage to the frail line.
Ideally, match the jig to the float so the bobber lies on its side until a fish grabs the bait below and makes the bobber stand up. Bites can be delicate, and rigging this way helps you see the most invisible strikes. Let it sit for 10 or 15 seconds, then inch it along. If perch are present, it won’t get back to the boat without getting bit. Because perch are in skinny water, fishing from shore or docks can be productive, too.
You’ll know the perch bite is winding down when you start seeing spawned-out females. The spawn doesn’t take long—a week or 10 days—and then they disappear. It’s fun while it lasts, though.
Docks—especially those with wooden posts, which better absorb heat than metal posts—are great spring spots for both yellow perch and crappies a few weeks later. (Photo by Mike Gnatkowski) Crappies Pre-spawn crappies aren’t too far from the perch while waiting their turn. They won’t be in the shallows exactly when perch are; instead, they’re tightly schooled near structures in deeper water. Docks, bridge abutments, trees and break walls that reflect and absorb spring sunshine attract specks.
Last year, on March 14, I had a vet appointment for my dog. I had to have him there by 8:00 a.m. and pick him up at 4:00 p.m. The vet was near my favorite panfish lake, so instead of driving home and back, I fished while I waited.
When I got on the water, it was 26 degrees. The back of the bayou where I’d fished for perch was skimmed over with ice. I started fishing under a nearby bridge to see if there were any crappies. The rising sun shone on my side of the pilings as I slipped down the anchor.
I set a jig-and-plastic 5 feet below a float. It was 10 or 12 feet along the pilings, but I started shallow first, thinking the specks might be suspended to greet the sun. I flipped the rig near the piling and stuck my hands in my coat to get warm. When I looked up, my float was gone. It was a small crappie, but the next was a foot-long beast. I sorted through three dozen shimmering papermouths to get 20 keepers before picking up Samson at the vet.
Whereas perch relate to bottom, crappies tend to suspend. You’ll often find them just under the surface, sunning in early spring. They can be ultra-spooky then. Crappies are more structure-oriented, too. They love docks, trees, stumps and boat houses, especially if the area has a dark bottom.
In super-cold water, crappies will gather in tight schools. You’ll find them more scattered and receptive as water temperatures creep up. Specks start thinking about spawning when water temperatures approach 50 degrees in the north country, but the actual spawn probably doesn’t start until it reaches 60 degrees.
Don’t be afraid to inspect the skinny water for crappies. Polarized glasses will help you spot them where the perch spawned a month earlier. I’ve found specks in 2 feet of water or less then, and the only practical way of catching them was with a fly rod. I’d watch my soft-hackle nymph sinking in the water column as a white papermouth would open and engulf it. Otherwise, plastics excel for crappies. You can fish them under a float or pitch, swim and twitch them.
Post-spawn crappies will hang out in the shallows long after the spawn, and there’s an overlap when the specks haven’t left and the bluegills begin moving in. Smorgasbord catches are the norm then.
Bluegills Some bluegills show up when water is still cold, but they’re not usually the big bulls. Last spring, a massive school of bluegills were slashing something in the back of a cove, boiling the water. It looked like someone had thrown a handful of pellets in a trout pond. But the ’gills were uniformly 3- to 5-inch dinks.
It’s typically early May before the red-breasted bulls move into the shallows to set up shop in the Upper Midwest. They build nests and wait for females to arrive. The bluegill spawn can last into July, depending on the longitude and latitude. Like the others, it’s a time you should mark on your panfish calendar.
