Even in southern Michigan, bass and panfish populations eventually establish themselves in ponds created by highway construction. Many of these ponds are only 12 feet deep or even less, yet support bass over 4 pounds and crappies over a pound, which would be unheard of in North Dakota or Minnesota.

By late winter, even the harshest panfish environments of the Far North begin to develop shallow patterns. The first places where the ice thins are near shore and throughout shallow bays. The thinner the ice, the higher the plankton count. More sunlight hits bottom, and water warms fastest under the ice in shallow bays. With ice pulling away from shore, air and water once again mix, providing another source of oxygen. Up North, reedbeds surrounding these shallow bays, even out on the main lake, can provide hot fishing for bass and panfish under the ice. As holes develop through the ice around the stalks of old reeds (also thermal collectors), allowing both sunlight penetration and a slight mixing of air and water.

In river backwater areas, in extremely clear lakes that freeze over, and throughout the mid-latitudes of the United States, shallow patterns for panfish persist all winter long, and some interesting techniques have developed for approaching fish swimming around just a rod length under our feet.

Shallow Winter Tactics

In southern reservoirs, where open water permits casting, checking for big midwinter slabs in shallow water can be relatively quick and easy. Find an inlet protected from the wind, anchor, and ply two or three methods at once. Cast one line rigged with a minnow on a light jig under a slipfloat, while casting light jigs and 2-inch plastic grubs on 4-pound line. A 2-inch actiontail grub can be retrieved slowly and sometimes draws following fish toward the bobber rig.

Use a 7-foot ultralight rod to propel these little packages out there, and cover a lot of water from one spot. In deep hill-land reservoirs, cover the top 5 feet of the water column over nearby openwater areas, too. Sometimes crappies suspend just off the first or second break from inlet streams. In shallow reservoirs, check the surrounding flat. My favorite plastic colors when searching for slabs in reservoirs are white, salt-and-pepper, and natural shad patterns, since crappies are hunting shallow shad and shiners in most (if not all) of these environments.

Up North, look for reedbeds near openings to shallow bays. If panfish have evacuated these areas, they might return during the late-ice period sometime in March or, farther north, in April. Check shallow bays with inlet streams that have enough current to prevent the creek from freezing up altogether. And find shallow areas where green weeds persist well into winter. The easiest way to find the densest patches of healthy weeds is in a boat, just before ice-up.