By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan
Bass may not be the first image your mind conjures up when you think about ice fishing, but more than one panfish-seeker has wrestled a pudgy largemouth through a frigid hole barely large enough to accommodate its girth. No, Florida-strain bass simply cannot survive such temperatures, but northern-strain largies and smallmouth that live in Ice Belt lakes are well accustomed to the seasonal extremes.
But why not wait until open-water season returns next spring? In a word – opportunity.
Hard-water season concentrates the fish due to shrinking habitat. Seasonal weed bed die-off reduces the areas in which aquatic insects and the forage fish that eat them can thrive.
Bass don’t fight as hard in the icy water and, since there’s no jumping, thrown hooks are less of a concern. However, a big fish on the relatively light tackle common to ice fishing (2- to 4-pound line) presents an undeniable challenge.
Where To Look
True, the majority of ice anglers are targeting panfish, crappie, walleye, yellow perch and maybe trout; but targeting bass is fully doable. They like the same stuff they like during open water, but just consider that point about shrinking vegetation zones.
“At times you can catch them on purpose by targeting deep, sharply breaking weed lines or fishing over wintering holes,” said North Dakota guide Jason Mitchell. “Usually, nice warm days are best.”
Minnesota ice guru Brian “Bro” Brosdahl adds this: “Largemouth bass tend to hang around weed beds that are still standing in the winter time, but if all the weeds in a lake die off, they will be roaming the flats off the edge of (where the weed bed had grown), near the first dropoff.
“Smallmouth bass will hold to deep rocks or wood that meets the edge of the lake or river basin – the best structure available near deep water where they can feed on crayfish, insect life and minnows.”
A few things to bear in mind:
> Largemouth love their structure, so if your lake lacks vegetation, look for sharp contour breaks that drop into deep water. Stumps, rock piles, humps and river-channel bends will also hold potential when ice tops the lake.
Gas-powered augers are a lot more efficient than the traditional hand-turned versions used by previous generations of ice fishermen.
> At the beginning of ice season (“early ice”), toxins released from recent weed die-offs typically keep bass out of the shallows.
> Conversely, “late ice” tends to find a lot of the action moving back toward the bank, because melting ice running through naturally-occurring cracks, as well as hundreds of augur holes, flushes the skinny zone with oxygen and nutrients. This ignites the food web and makes for happy times.
What You Need
Like all fishing, you can spend as much money as you're willing to part with on ice fishing, but here are a handful of foundational items.
> Auger – Drilling holes grants you access to opportunity below and while old-fashioned hand-turned augers are cool, you’ll appreciate a gas-powered unit, or a lighter outfit powered by a portable drill plugged into a Clam Conversion Kit. Ice forming in a hole can seize your line and mar your presentations and fish-fighting ability, so keep a ladle handy to scoop out ice chunks.
> Portable sonar unit – Park next to a hole and watch for fish approaching your bait (kind of like “video-gaming” deep smallmouth with dropshots).
> Underwater camera – Brands such as Aqua Vu make impressively clear units small enough to fit in a jacket pocket or hold in your hand for a mobile “hole-hopping” strategy. Surveying bottom makeup and watching for fish complement the sonar returns.
Pop-up shelter - From single-angler “huts” to multi-person tents, these lightweight structures block the wind and make the outing more tolerable. Inside, portable propane heaters can make a big difference.
Tackle and Baits
Bass are gluttons during open-water season, but winter’s chill finds them preferring morsels to mouthfuls. Full-sized baitfish, crawfish, inattentive panfish – all fair game; but you’d be surprised how many aquatic insects and tiny minnows bass will eat when the cold season finds them with slower metabolism requiring less fuel.
A set of ice cleats that can be pulled over boots will greatly improve traction on the slippery surface of a frozen lake.
Small tungsten jigs of 1/16- to 1/8-ounce tipped with a bug-imitating soft plastic and sweetened with a live maggot (aka “spike”) will tempt any bass lurking nearby. (Tip: glow jigs help fish spot those jigs under thick ice and/or dim days.)
Rattle baits or rattling spoons also appeal to hungry bass. Vary those retrieves to dial in what the fish want on a given day.
If you sense that a warming trend and a falling barometer might have the fish chewing more aggressively, bump up your line size and free-line a shiner on a 1/0 hook.
Although his panfish outfits will often handle ice bass, if Brosdahl’s targeting these bigger fish, he’ll go with a little beefier outfit like the 32-inch medium-light Bro Series combo with 5-pound Sunline fluorocarbon.
“This combo is light because the bass strikes are light in the wintertime. However, the rod has enough backbone to do the job and the reel has a silky-smooth drag system,” Brosdahl said.
Comfort and Safety
If you’ve never tried the hard-water routine, let’s dispel the two common objectives — too cold and unsafe.
> Clothing: Depending on weather patterns, some people ice-fish while wearing jeans and hoodies. But when the bitter stuff sets in, turn to the weather-appropriate apparel like the flexible and insulated ice suits made by Clam and Frabill, which are designed to keep you warm and mobile in extreme conditions. Also helpful are stocking caps, facemasks, fingerless gloves (ideally with pull-back finger covers), insulated socks and sturdy boots made for frozen conditions.
> Safe Ice Levels: Ice thickness dictates what’s doable and the generally accepted guidelines state:
2 inches or less – stay off!
4 inches – foot traffic
5 inches – snow machine or ATV
8-12 inches – car or small pickup
12-15 inches – medium-sized truck
> Safety equipment – Most ice anglers wear linkable ice picks around their neck. If you break through the ice, these picks provide essential gripping points for hoisting yourself to safety. That’s an extremely unlikely scenario, especially if you’ve scouted the area with a spud bar (a metal pole used to jab at the ice in front of you to test thickness and solidity).
Consider that ice of any thickness is usually pretty slick, so slipover ice cleats will improve your traction. Safety whistles, throw ropes and a snow machine/ATV flotation device called a Nebulus further enhance the sense of security on the ice.
Basically, with proper preparation, you won't worry about comfort or safety. You can just focus on that screen and wait for the next bite.
