Brian Brosdahl reveals his late-season ice fishing techniques, to help you catch more crappies.

Most fish leave deeper waters in late February through early March. The timing and progression of the fish movements in spring toward shallower water usually depends both on the length of the days and the weather patterns. March can see swings in the weather in Minnesota as the jet stream moves north and south. The melting snow running into lakes often plays a role in determining when fish move into shallower water. The fresh oxygen from the melting snow revitalizes the shallows and often causes crappies and sunfish to feed closer to the bottom of the ice to take advantage of the feeding opportunity created by freshwater flowing in.

If anglers know the location of the crappies during the winter and where the crappies will likely be going in early spring, then it’s only a matter of connecting the dots to find them during late ice.

Crappies have become my new favorite fish for guiding the last couple of winters due to the lower numbers of big perch as well as my reluctance to sort through small perch or other fish coming out of deep water. My area has some really big crappies too, with a good mix of those in lakes that have different sizes and numbers of fish. Some have mostly large crappies, while other lakes have a mix of sizes with a few that have a strong age-class or two of crappies at the perfect eating size.

Once crappies start to leave the deep water I’ll head closer to shore in the direction of their spring locations. I use the LakeMaster chip on my Humminbird Helix7 to look for structures that are located between their winter and spring locations that might appeal to crappies. The first thing crappies do when they leave the deeper holes is to start suspending farther off the bottom and head for the nearest break line. This species likes to hold off the sides of structure when they’re inactive and move into structure when they get active.

Each lake gives crappies different options. The types of locations crappies use are mid-depth flats where they roam for minnows and insects. Some lakes may have standing vegetation like cabbage, coontail or milfiol that’s still partially green that they can use to feed. Other lakes may have brushpiles or timber, so crappies may be feeding in the wood or in the weed stubble. MWO

To find out where other species are located during late-ice, be sure to check out the March issue of MidWest Outdoors magazine, available the first full week of March at a newsstand near you.