What’s In Season:

Smaller Is Better
Micro ice techniques

By Nicholas Smith

If you are still fishing the last ice of late March, you most likely fit into two main categories: commercial angler or fillet fanatic! Whichever hat covers your frozen ears, you are out for blood. Buckets of bluegills, pails of perch and a legal limit of crappies is the quota. But landing your paycheck or flaky dinner is not as easily done when fish have felt the pressures of an entire winter. Dropping any common jig or fly into a likely spot may have landed a catch during first-ice, however, most pan fish are not as easily fooled as they were in late December. 

The move towards late-season success involves a change in bait presentation and technique. Many anglers could be mistaken for rock drummers with the enthusiasm seen in their jigging. However; what worked early season is not necessarily the case now. 

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