Late Ice Pannies

Was out on northern lake yesterday in search of crappies. Took a bit to locate them using mega live. 1st spot along shallow weeds was loaded with tiny Perch and occasional hammer handle pike. Moved deep in basin and nothing out there. Moved into tight contours adjacent to basin and shallow weeds and mega live was lit up. 11 fow and fish cruising through in 3-4 fow. Definitely crappies with how they marked, how fast they moved up/down the water column. I tried everything and couldn’t get them to go. They’d chase up and pump the brakes. Tried UL ripping raps, spoons, tungsten, etc, etc. Had to leave lake around 5 pm. Are people seeing the same thing? Would they have turned on at dusk? Was wondering afterwards if the mega live was causing them to lock up and if I wasn’t fishing with it would I have fared better? With them that tight to the ice would that have been an issue?

Similar pattern to the crappies here in Southern MN. They have been about 2 feet under the ice and are very spooky. Best bet was just dropping my jig in the hole and watching them take it. No sudden movements or transducer in the hole or they would spook.

Spooky for us too, in central MN.-we found big schools of specks with 360 but spooky, some lakes have fish that only start snapping at dawn or dusk, or maybe on that particular day, I always try to plan for that but with family stuff it could not happen this weekend. Crappies compete with other panfish and they are not the most zippy panfish out there, their only advantage is low light vision.

Ice out Crappies can be difficult at times. We hit 3 different lakes on sat. and found the mood of the crappies different on all three lakes. One lake they would do just as you described. Normally you need to keep the lure moving up and away from the fish to get them to bite. These fish would charge up and not hit the lure. Were able to get a few bites by stopping the lure dead and just shaking the rod tip slightly and let it sit. Fish often would wait for 30 of so seconds and then just inhale it and swim up. Without a good spring bobber it would have been hard to even detect the bite. another of the lake we fished it was near impossible to get then to bite. The few fish we did catch was with the smallest tungsten Jig and working it really slowly down to them. The third lake the crappies would meet the jig half way down to them and just crush it. Crazy how different the bite was on these 3 lakes on the same day.

So spring or noodle make sure the lure is loading the tip, you need to see when as Thump says the crappie enhales and then moves up.

tim hurley wrote:

So spring or noodle make sure the lure is loading the tip, you need to see when as Thump says the crappie enhales and then moves up.

I know some who say they can detect as light of a bite on a Noodle rod as on a spring bobber. I own several high end noodle rods and I can tell you they can not. It takes a much heavier tungsten jig to put a slight load on a noodle rod than on a Ultra light spring. Far easier to see that slight uplift bite on the spring bobber than on a noodle rod for sure. Some of those uplift crappie bites are REAL light. Being able to detect them is often the difference in a limit of crappies or just catching a few.

This is where the jt panhandler comes in to play

Noodle vrs. spring bobber debate is back! I own and still use both.

tim hurley wrote:

Noodle vrs. spring bobber debate is back! I own and still use both.

I seen that once

I have a nice throne bros ul with a spring bobber on it. Just can’t get used to it and prefer my snitch and precision noodle. Not saying thumper is wrong it is hard to detect a really light upbite.

Bearcat89 wrote:

This is where the jt panhandler comes in to play

Yes it is. One of the Best panfish rods out there !!!!

tim hurley wrote:

Noodle vrs. spring bobber debate is back! I own and still use both.

So do I. No debate. Each has a time and place. I love fishing my Noodle rods, if the bite allows for me to get away with them.

John Rasmussen wrote:

I have a nice throne bros ul with a spring bobber on it. Just can’t get used to it and prefer my snitch and precision noodle. Not saying thumper is wrong it is hard to detect a really light upbite.

If your interested in a trade for that Thorne Bros spring bobber rod, I think I could find a Precision Noodle I’d be willing to Trade.

We might be able to make a deal. Let me know what you have.

John Rasmussen wrote:

I have a nice throne bros ul with a spring bobber on it. Just can’t get used to it and prefer my snitch and precision noodle. Not saying thumper is wrong it is hard to detect a really light upbite.

I broke my thorne ul spring bobber rod. I loved that thing.

Aren’t Thorne brother rods warrantied, thought that was a bonus for them being so expensive?

John Timm wrote:

Aren’t Thorne brother rods warrantied, thought that was a bonus for them being so expensive?

Not after 8 years of use. And pinching it off in a rod box

Could have used a stick with mono tied to this last week on SD. Fished in 8′ of water 2′ under the ice could watch them come in. Pull it away from the small ones then drop back down for the big ones. That was a blast.

Thanks for the feedback all. I’m a walleye purist posing as a panfish fisherman just to get a line wet before I get the skeeter on open water. I suppose I could’ve been missing some light up bites but they sure seemed to stop short of the bait. With this colder snap coming in (lows of 6 degs on sat) I’m going to give it a try again and see if they turn on at dusk. Slush should firm back up so skeeter won’t be wet for awhile yet.

Ryan Haller wrote:

Thanks for the feedback all. I’m a walleye purist posing as a panfish fisherman just to get a line wet before I get the skeeter on open water. I suppose I could’ve been missing some light up bites but they sure seemed to stop short of the bait. With this colder snap coming in (lows of 6 degs on sat) I’m going to give it a try again and see if they turn on at dusk. Slush should firm back up so skeeter won’t be wet for awhile yet.

Rivers wide open