Windows For Big Panfish

Tactics from the Oasis

The oasis bite differs from those bites that bracket the season. Panfish are less aggressive and less competitive. Even bigger panfish seldom seem to prefer big meals in mid winter, responding better to smaller packages. My best presentation for big bluegills during an oasis of unseasonably warm weather is a 1/80-ounce Innovative Sports Group (I.S.G.) jig tipped with an I.S.G. Plankton Series plastic tail.

Don’t listen to me, however. I’m a known heretic. Daring to promote plastic tails over livebait at an ice-fishing show is commensurate with proclaiming the edicts of the Church to be mere pish-posh during the Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials; so it is only by the grace of a more liberal modern society that I am able to proclaim this widely suppressed fact: Little plastic tails catch bigger panfish throughout the doldrums and any attenuating oasis each winter.

Brosdahl and Genz don’t believe me, however, so I’m an outcast, a heretic and a fuddy duddy. “Stick with droppers and lighter stuff in that window,” Brosdahl says. “Panfish aren’t ready for 1/8-ounce spoons loaded with wax worms the way they are in spring. My main attraction during an oasis is a size #16 to size #24 Mustad or Umpqua Feather Merhants fly hook on 2- to 3-pound fluorocarbon attached to a dropper weight. In some states, the dropper can be a jig. I use a Lindy Genz Worm to get the rig down, with a 4-inch dropper looped over the gap between segments of the Genz Worm. I tie a loop knot then cinch it down. The finger of line coming off that point on the jig is easier to see with the down-view (Aqua-View pointed down). I occasionally catch fish on the larger Genz Worm, which I bait with two or three wax worms. They often come up to look at this big chunk of meat in the water, then take the smaller hook, baited with maggots.”

The bottom line is the practice of downscaling baits and lures. The smallest plastic baits are about 1/2-inch long, like the I.S.G. Copepod (my favorite). And, probably because bigger fish are active yet less aggressive during an oasis, I always seem to do better with natural colors like black and motor oil, as opposed to the more highly touted chartreuse, pink and metal-flake affairs. Even in relatively cloudy water, I find natural colors work best.

During an oasis, big fish are less likely to feed competitively. “A lot of times fish make a pass at the bait with their mouth closed and it moves the rod tip,” Brosdahl says. “People not using cameras are setting hooks at this point. If it was a big fish, it’s gone. Big fish are spooky. When you set the hook hard and miss, bigger ’gills won’t reappear in the hole.”

Winter turns landscapes into deserts, replete with blowing snow storms over vast stretches of frozen water. The oasis, here, comes not from a sheltered spring surrounded by palms, but from a turn in the weather during the heart of winter. The sweet relief of a January thaw signals a serious upturn in the panfish bite—and it could be your best window of opportunity for trophies.