THE HARDWATER BRONZE LENS

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It was shortly after noon when I finally got around to packing up the truck. It had been a busy morning at our house and my plans for a trip to the ice had been somewhat delayed. At one point, I had considered giving up on my plans for an outing, but then, the best time to go fishing is whenever you can.

It was nearly 1:00 pm when I finally arrived at the public landing of this relatively small lake. Although there were a few locals working sunfish in the shallower water, no one was in the deep basin looking for crappies.

Part of the reason for this was due to the very deep snow, slush pockets and relatively thin ice. The overall travel situation was poor.

It was a 20-minute hike to get to the deep basin area I wanted to check. Fortunately, there was a snowmobile track that I could follow for much of the way. Still, I was hot and sweaty when I began the search for crappies.

I knew exactly where these crappies should be as they tend to set up shop in the same location each winter. It did take some drilling, but I soon located a small group of fish.

After plucking a couple of ten-inchers out of this group, they moved as did I. This cat and mouse game went on for some time before I located the main school. Once that happened, I quickly finished off my limit and began the long trek back to the landing.

Midday panfish angling is something I have participated in and promoted for years. I have been very successful with this strategy and have convinced many other anglers that you don’t always have to get up early or stay out late to be successful.

My midday preference is almost always to work a deep basin. On many lakes, panfish, especially crappies, head to deep water for their winter home.

Because of the 25 to 40-foot depths I target, lowlight conditions are naturally occurring. I believe this is part of the reason midday activity takes place.

I am a very big believer in utilizing glow jigs in this deep environment. Although fish have excellent lowlight vision capabilities, a glow jig seems to get their attention better than a standard jig. Red glow is my favorite.

Because the food source for these deep fish is mostly invertebrates, I always use plastic on my jig. The plastic helps mimic the invertebrate look as well as add action when I am jigging. I find the suppleness of Maki plastics is hard to beat. I usually tip my jig with one Euro larva for a little extra scent.

These daytime fish are often on the move. Trying to keep up with these roaming crappies can be a challenge from time to time. It is just part of the process and you have to be willing to drill holes to chase them down.

I do need to point out that this midday panfish system is not perfect and works better on some lakes than others. I have been on lakes where the morning bite died once the sun was up. I have also seen situations where you couldn’t get a fish to bite until the setting sun hit the tree line.

Finding a lake that has midday activity is not that hard. It just takes a little looking. I have been making it work for me for 30 years.

If you are a little lazy like me and don’t like to get up super early or stay out really late, the midday bite scenario may fit you perfectly.

Racing around on his snowmobile the Fish Hound was shuttling from hold the hole. Normally a pleasant fellow “ Captain James Vladyka” did not look happy. he was plowing through more than a foot of compacted powder and new heavy snow had already started to fall. “We’re having a midwinter crisis,” he said as he rode up to my one-man shelter, they were tight in here earlier this week but with all the snow they’ve scattered out. As he started into the squall, I’ll find them I know where else to look.

Human Fish Finder

Vladyka disappeared for a time and then returned around 30 minutes later with a pair of jumbo perch the fish were long and round bellied and as bright as autumn leaves at his suggestion I packed up my jigging stick hopped on the back of the snowmobile. And rode off into the snow for about 5:00 yd there’s something else I want you to try Veronica said when we drilled fresh holes near where he had caught his caught his Perch. He reached into his voluminous pocket took out a plastic Puck of wiggling spikes and impaled 3, one on each one of the treble hooks of his wonder bread colored ribbon flutter spoon a fresh new bait from the CPT (Clam Pro Tackle) line up. The effect was a Trident of waving white bait. when things get tough in the Winter this is one of my tricks, he said the bait is going to flutter when you work it. I’ve seen it on the camera they move just like a soft plastic something that Vladyka is very well known for using. I dropped the spoon and buggy trio into a hole and raised it about a foot above the bottom and let it flutter its way back to bottom a minute or 2 later the stick bowed and I raised a big bodied perch another couple of minutes in a hole a few feet away a second jumble flopped on the ice returning to the 1st hole I nabbed a 3rd, Captain Vladyka was doing the same. Off in the distance I noticed a few other ice anglers were looking as disheartened as I had been but vladyka had moved me to slightly deeper water and the addition of the 3 spikes made the winter day brighter.

Mix it Up.

Most anglers know that fishing gets tougher as midwinter sets in even vladyka admits that it takes a certain stick-with-itness to catch fish during the tough season. but it also takes adjustments pounding the same hole over and over isn’t going to increase your success in many cases you need to change the depth to find fish. it could be as little as a foot or two but in tough conditions it’s even more important that you go to the fish because they are not likely going to come to you vladyka said.

The depth change and bait trio worked that day but the Fish Hound from Benson, Vermont has a larger bag of tricks he uses to solve ice fishing’s toughest time of the year. in midwinter anglers often encounter thick milk colored ice, layers and layers of snow quickly decaying weeds and the circle of life that somewhere between hibernation and the dream state. In this environment gamefish are certainly hard to stimulate but Vladyka heads out day after day in the midwinter guiding because all though the bite can be tough he often catches the biggest panfish of the ice season in this period the panfish that he specializes in perch, crappies, and blue gills are robust and surprisingly well fed he knows where the bigger fish hang out and he has learned how to catch them.

An Underwater Eye

One of vladyka’s best gambits includes a tool that anglers can use year-round a Vexilar flasher. I don’t like fishing without my “Vexy” Vladyka said but during midwinter it’s imperative. Sonar gives him the ability to find fish and to a large extent that’s why he uses a flasher, but the fish hound said the real value is because of the need to anticipate bites. panfish will come along see your bait and take a nap he said a lot of these strikes are more curiosity than hunger so all you get is one brief bite or two, if you miss the strike the fish is gone. But he explained with a flasher that angler doesn’t have to be blindsided. I see the fish move