Key Fishing Patterns in March

In some of these situations in lakes and rivers it’s difficult to find a place that concentrates fish. At times fish filter steadily past a point at the mouth of a bay. At times, there’s a deeper hole in the bay and the fish move along the edge of the hole. If you can find where the edge of the hole nears shore, that can be a hotspot.

I’ve also caught a lot of fish in a bay in one lake where a stand of rushes stops. The line of rushes runs for a couple hundred yards before it hits the transition area where I fish from shore. It’s 2 to 3 feet deep along the edge of the rushes—a nice travel area—then it flattens out when the rush edge stops into 2 feet of water. This spot isn’t good until the fish start moving quite a bit about two weeks after the ice goes. You’re always looking for areas with the potential to congregate fish, or for travel areas that fish pass by as they move into, out of, or around areas.

In some reservoirs pike move into cuts off cuts, following a creek channel progressively farther into each cut. Once they’re in the back end of an area they fan out to feed on winterkilled baitfish. So this is another classic situation for deadbait. Cover such as any kind of vegetation or blown-in weeds like tumbleweeds may attract pike.

Again, find some kind of high-percentage travel and feeding area. It might be a point at the mouth of a cut. It might be a flat just off a bend in a creek channel. Set out the baits in strategic spots and wait.

If it’s cold and miserable, it’s possible the fish aren’t going to feed much and at times you’re better off just sticking it out in a known spot. If the weather’s better, I sometimes switch spots four or five times in a day, looking for a pod of fish that might not be moving that much.

Casting with lures like the Countdown Rapala or Husky Jerk produces fish, especially as the water warms into the mid-40°F range. Many anglers also like to cast spoons or plugs near their deadbait sets in order to attract pike to their baits. I’ve used this tactic from river backwaters in Iowa to reservoirs in the Dakotas to marsh areas in southern Manitoba and Ontario.

Casting near a deadbait set also gives you a clue how active the fish are. At times, the fish want lures fished slowly instead of stationary baits. You never know if you don’t try casting sometimes. Slow and steady is the way to go when retrieving lures.

I love ice fishing, but at some point it’s just nice to begin again—to smell the impending change in the air, to see that first robin, the swans and geese passing overhead. Our neighborhood ground hog is bound to come lumbering down the wooded trail behind the house, looking like a winter-worn hermit from the mountains, stopping every few feet to sample the air and scratch at this and that. Soon enough there’s a pike flopping on the shoreline instead of on ice.

It’s this sort of seasonal renewal that gets us going again this time of year—plenty to look forward to. Plenty of big fish but also hopefully enough for the pan.