To investigate new areas, drill a few holes, look around with an underwater camera, and quickly move on if fish aren’t present. If fish are visible, give them a quick try. No action? Move on. Genz says drilling holes attracts fish (I believe it sometimes attracts fish, and sometimes not). Come back to those holes and check them again, especially if you’re pulling up green weeds with the jig. Leave the weeds next to the best holes for a quick visual reference, and toss decaying weeds off to the side.

Genz generally prefers to fish for shallow panfish the same way he fishes for deep panfish—using the same jigs, line, and rods. Most of the time, he uses Berkley ice rods that he designed, with 2-pound line and small Lindy ice jigs (most of which he also designed). He baits the jigs almost invariably with live maggots (Eurolarvae, in various colors). The Trap Attack tournament trail, however, opened his eyes to the effectiveness of certain shallow tactics.

“Some of the anglers from southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and Illinois are effective in shallow water, but they’re kind of lost in deep water,” Genz says. “They’re learning fast, but some of them thought they could adapt their shallow-water methods to deep basin fishing and discovered it really wouldn’t work. But deep-water fishermen can’t beat these guys around shallow weedbeds.”

Midwesterners with lots of shallow panfish under the ice have developed some interesting techniques. Ice fishermen from Indiana showed us over a quarter century ago how effective they can be in shallow water. The weapon of choice is an old-style rod with a set of wooden pegs just above the handle. Line is looped around the pegs, which serve in place of a reel. The line of choice is original golden Stren, which is tough, coily in cold weather, and highly visible.

The pegs and the memory in the line are integral to the technique. The lure is an unbaited ice fly—basically a weighted nymph, much the same as might be found in any fly-fishing vest. Bright green or chartreuse threads are favorite colors among the materials used to make these flies, due to the darker waters these men fish. The hook is wrapped with just enough copper wire to ensure a slow, vertical drop. Nymph hooks used to tie these flies vary from a #10 to a #6, and the size of the body varies accordingly. The fly can’t be extremely small, because visibility is poor. The fish being caught were only 3 to 6 feet under the hole most of the time, yet they couldn’t be seen.

As the fly is lowered into the hole, the line is slowly uncoiled from the pegs. It retains kinks, and that’s the key to the technique. The kinks become, in essence, the bobber. A lightly weighted fly is slow to drop. When drop speed increases or kinks in the line straighten, it’s time to set the hook.

Setting the hook into a bull bluegill or rogue largemouth with 3 feet of line out can prompt a real fire drill. Pegs don’t have drag. Veterans quickly turn the rod and hold it over the hole, letting line run off the pegs while pressing a finger against it to keep it from all uncoiling at once. These boys use some pretty stout line—6-pound test or so, and original Stren is pretty tough. If they choose a good nymph hook for the fly, landing big fish isn’t that much of a problem.

Many of the shallow winter bites encountered, however, involve clear water. Black crappies and bluegills are the most likely species found shallow in extremely clear water, where weeds have the best shot at staying healthy under the ice. Stealth becomes critical. Don’t move around much, drill holes early, leave the area, and quietly creep back later.

Use 2- to 3-pound-test fluorocarbon line and tiny 1/100- to 1/200-ounce jigs tipped with a single maggot, or use a #12 treble with a small crappie minnow. Forget the split shot. It takes only 10 to 20 seconds for a tiny jig or unweighted treble to fall 5 feet or so on fluorocarbon line. Use a shelter to keep sunlight from flooding down the hole, and use your eyes as opposed to a camera.

Shallow winter bites for panfish are one of the last frontiers under the ice in the North and in many southern reservoirs. Most anglers apparently refuse to aggressively pursue some of these possibilities until classic patterns thin out. They’ll find intrepid anglers with a flair for exploration waiting for them.