Standing a few feet over the head of your targeted species, drilling holes in ice with 4 feet of water underneath seems ridiculous. Everybody knows that the warmest water in a frozen lake is down near bottom in deep to mid-depth basins, because water is most dense at about 39°F. Water warmer or colder than that rises. Panfish, as a rule, leave the shallows to trout and pike in winter. Even in reservoirs with open water, in states like Arkansas and Tennessee, most of the panfish move deep—usually somewhere between 20 and 40 feet. But not all of them, and not all the time.

Exceptions to the winter-equals-deep-panfish equation abound, even in the ice-bound states. In-Fisherman Editor In Chief Doug Stange: “In several Iowa lakes I once fished, several series of canals are dredged for homeowners. These canals are no deeper than 5 or 6 feet, yet sometimes draw panfish during winter,” he says. “A typical canal might go straight for 100 yards, then elbow or branch off in another direction for another 100 yards or more.

“Panfish sometimes push all the way to the back end of these features during fall and throughout the ice season. Eventually, they settle into some little pocket of slightly deeper water, or a spot with slightly better environmental stability, or something of that nature, until anglers or pike find them.

“Fishermen find a pocket of panfish on these canals and catch them until they thin them out—or pike move in. Then they catch pike for a few days, and eventually the panfish set up in that spot again. Or not. It really isn’t a stable pattern. But, for those who find it, it’s theirs and theirs alone for several days to a week.”

Dave Genz, professional ice-fisherman extraordinaire, says marginal-ice states like Iowa have more green weeds throughout winter. “The weeds stay green and oxygen counts are higher in states where the ice doesn’t get as thick and snowfall measures less,” he says. “In places like Michigan’s lower peninsula, Illinois, New York, and Nebraska, I’ve found lots of panfish biting in water less than 8 feet deep during January.

“You’re looking for 39°F water,” Genz continues. “When the sun is up, the water under the ice will actually warm up, warmer than the ice itself, late in the season. At times it can reach temperatures up to 44°F a few feet under the ice. That’s why panfish locate right under the ice sometimes. I always thought it was because of food—which is probably a factor—but since I started taking temperature readings with Aqua-Vu underwater cameras, I’ve noticed surprising variations in temperature 2 to 6 feet down. That phenomenon only happens late in the year up in Minnesota or Canada when the sun gets up high in the sky and melts the snow, and water runs through holes in the ice. The rays of the sun penetrate at that point, and the angle of the sun is high enough to actually warm the water just under the ice.”

In more southerly latitudes, that warming under the ice or on the surface of lakes that cooled over the previous months is possible at any point during winter. “In lakes that support vehicle traffic in winter, you won’t find as many shallow patterns in midwinter,” Genz says. “In southern Michigan or northern Indiana, weeds tend to stay green all winter because more ultraviolet light gets through.”

Yet, even in northern Minnesota, shallow panfish bites can occur in shallow water. Stange says: “We have a few large lakes near the office (in Brainerd, Minnesota) that have little bays or basins connected to the main lake by small channels. These often hold panfish all winter. In one case, panfish have to squeeze through a little channel that’s only 4 to 5 feet deep. They might have only a foot of water under the ice to travel through.

“Nobody was fishing these bays through the ice until about 12 years ago,” he says, “and now it’s a popular spot. One small bay beyond the channel has a 20-foot hole, but no inlet. Somebody has to investigate before most of these shallow patterns are found throughout the country, because factors that can’t be registered with the naked eye play a role in determining where panfish might hold in winter.”

Genz directs the Trap Attack circuit of ice-fishing tournaments each winter. “In southern Michigan, during the first weekend in January, fish are caught in 6 to 15 feet of water, inside the weeds. In Illinois, during the Trap Attack in mid-January last year, participants were catching Chain of Lakes panfish inside the weedline in 5 to 7 feet of water, because the oxygen content was high in the shallows. Some of the weeds were green, but a lot were brown, too. The oxygen counts remained high, possibly because of plankton counts. What we can’t tell by looking at the water is the plankton count.”

Zooplankton requires oxygen, too, and it’s provided not only by green weeds, but also by phytoplankton—plants of the microscopic world. Biologists studying plankton counts throughout the year have noted that populations can crash during winter, especially in the Far North, and especially during harsh winters with thick ice and heavy snowfall. The more snow and ice a lake has over its surface, the harder it becomes for sunlight to penetrate. Sunlight is, of course, the key to photosynthesis—the process by which green plants create food, giving off oxygen as a by-product.

Dying weeds not only stop producing oxygen but also create an oxygen deficit. The bacteria and other organisms that aid in the process of decay increasingly consume oxygen as death rates and decay increase. Normally, larger fish can’t be found around brown, decayed weeds. But in the presence of unusually high counts of phytoplankton, panfish sometimes remain. The only way to find out is to look. Traditional thought patterns are hard to break—something any fisherman can turn into an advantage over the locust-like swarms of winter panfishermen we find out on the ice.

“On the Finger Lakes, in New York, we caught nice bluegills in the weeds during late January last year,” Genz says. “We don’t catch panfish deep in those lakes during winter. The water is exceptionally clear, and the weeds stay green all winter. And it doesn’t freeze until Christmas, giving wave action an extra month or so to mix oxygen into the water, compared to lakes in Minnesota, Canada, or northern Wisconsin. In cloudier lakes near the Finger Lakes, however, deep panfish patterns exist. The thing to keep in mind isn’t what panfish generally do, but what they generally do in your area. In all the mid-latitude areas we’ve mentioned—southern Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa—deep patterns for panfish persist all winter. It’s just a matter of knowing the environment where you’re fishing.”

And even that can change. “When heavy snow comes early, look deep. When snow cover is light, look shallow,” Genz advises. “Mild winters tend to promote shallow patterns, while harsh winters tend to drive panfish deep in many of these systems. The key is knowing your lake.”

Pattern Identification Systems

The keys to winter patterns for panfish are oxygen, food, and environmental stability, which includes water temperature, sunlight penetration, and mixing effects caused by convection. Certain systems and their characteristics tend to promote shallow panfish patterns in winter. River backwaters probably comprise the best-known shallow patterns for bluegills and crappies during the cold months. Some of the finest ice and shallow open-water fishing for big crappies from Minnesota to Louisiana occurs in 6 feet of water or less on backwaters of the Mississippi River.

Panfish really don’t want to deal with current during winter. When the water is cold, current becomes for fish what wind chill is for humans. In long stretches of river between dams, where panfish have no lakes or reservoirs to retreat to, they push back into oxbows and backwaters off the main river, as far from current as possible. In many cases, these backwaters are no deeper than 5 or 6 feet throughout.

A 10- to 12-foot hole can stack panfish dramatically in these environments. If no deeper holes exist, panfish tend to find areas (1) protected from north winds, (2) with islands, reeds, or cane between them and the current, and (3) with a mix of substrates. Different bottom types hold different kinds of invertebrates, so a mix of hard and soft bottom is good to find when hunting backwater panfish in winter.

Even though river backwaters become encased in ice in Minnesota, North Dakota, and northern Wisconsin, panfish populations can flourish in 6 feet of water because the main river delivers oxygen and plankton to the periphery of these environments, and it mixes in through the process of convection. If oxygen content drops in backwater areas, panfish are forced to relocate in areas closer to (but never in) the main current.

In southern reservoirs that never ice up, crappies still tend to locate deep. Here, vertically jigging for crappies in 50 feet of water is not uncommon during January and early February. These fish tend to congregate near primary and secondary points, near the confluence of creek channels with the main river channel. But creeks entering secondary arms within these major creek arms can sometimes collect large numbers of crappies in water 10 feet deep or less. Flowing creeks become solar collectors, pushing warm or highly oxygenated water into the reservoir.

As Genz mentions, clear lakes permit more sunlight to reach weeds even with a layer of ice on the surface. And in latitudes where ice cover lasts only two months or so, panfish can survive in much shallower environments. In Canada and Minnesota, it’s rare to find panfish in lakes with main basins shallower than 20 feet—shallow lakes “freeze out.” Oxygen content becomes too low during winter to support anything bigger than a minnow. As you move south, panfish can persist in increasingly shallow environs.

In the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska, for instance, lakes with basins no deeper than 8 feet support trophy bluegills—some weighing more than 2 pounds. Genz, who has fished the Valentine lakes, says the key is just to keep drilling holes and looking for the thickest patches of green weeds, then concentrate all your effort there. Most trophy bluegills are caught in 5 feet of water.

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.

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.