“Flag up!” yelled a fishing buddy, as I was setting the hook on a nice crappie. I glanced out the window of my Fish Trap Voyageur Ice Team Edition to see a flag up on one of our I-Fish Pros. My buddy unzipped the door to the Fish Trap and jogged over to the tip-up as I landed a 10-inch crappie on my jigging rod. I released the crappie and stood to head out the door to see if any help was needed. but a quick glance at my Humminbird Helix Ice 7 showed fish all over the sonar, so I sat back down and lowered my VMC Tungsten Tubby with a Gulp Fish Fry back down the hole.

I glanced out the window when I heard my fishing partner yell over, “Nice pike.” By the time he had reset the rod in the I-Fish Pro with another sucker minnow and returned to the shelter, I had landed two nice bluegills. My friend quickly lowered his jig down the hole and chuckled, “Gotta love early ice.” “Got one,” I replied as I started bringing up another nice crappie.

That’s early-season ice fishing in the upper Midwest. As soon as the ice is safe to walk on, there are fish to be caught. In the outer portions of shallow bays, and on the outside edges of weeds that are still green, fish of all species are roaming and hungry. This early-ice “bonanza” can be some of the fastest ice fishing action of the season.

The two keys to getting in on this action are caution and mobility. Depending on where you live, the type and size of water body, and your local weather conditions, ice can be safe to walk on in the upper Midwest as early as Thanksgiving and as late as New Year’s. You must use caution. Check ice conditions with bait shops, resorts, the DNR, local guides and on fishing websites. From these sources, you should be able to figure out where you have safe ice to walk on—at least four inches for me.

When venturing out onto thin, early-season ice, take some basic safety precautions. Never go out alone and walk a moderate distance from your partner(s) so if one person would find a weak spot and fall through, there is help on the spot.

Invest in a pair of ice picks and hang them by their cord around your neck so you can use them to pull yourself out in case of an emergency. I like to wear a lightweight life vest when venturing out on early ice as an added safety precaution. Carrying a cell phone in a high coat pocket and a sounding device like a whistle or air horn are smart precautions as well.

Once you find ice that is safe to walk on, mobility is key to success. You often need to move around and drill lots of holes to find fish. Generally, start on the outside weed edge in shallower bays, and then work the weed line to find where the fish are staging. Sunnies and crappies take advantage of the minnows using these green weeds which will begin to die off as the ice gets thicker and snow piles on top of it, cutting off sunlight. Once this happens, the panfish will move to deeper, soft-bottom areas to feed on bloodworms, larvae, etc.

While the panfish are working these weed edges in relatively shallow water, pike and even bass will be in these same areas, feeding on the panfish. It can be fast action for multiple species with some big fish mixed in with numbers of smaller ones.

Equipment is pretty simple for early ice. While you can walk, pulling a sled or carrying a bucket with your equipment, but a portable “flip-over” shelter mounted on a sled is the ticket to stay mobile and comfortable. Clam set the industry standard with the Fish Trap, and I won’t walk onto the ice without my Voyageur Ice Team Fish Trap. I like to jig for panfish from my Fish Trap, and set a tip-up, specifically an I-Fish Pro, somewhere along the weed edge for cruising pike and even an occasional bass or walleye.

The I-Fish Pro is a base that you set a rod and reel combo in and then set a flag to trip when you get a bite. This system can be rigged many ways, from an open bail on the reel with large baits so a gamefish can take the bait and run with it, to the bail closed with a small bait so a panfish will trip the flag and set the hook when it bites. Either way allows you to move the base and fight the fish with a regular rod and reel, versus hand lining in a fish on a traditional tip-up.

In the shelter, I have one hole per angler, with a sonar, like the Humminbird Helix Ice 7 or Ice 55, for each angler. The Helix has GPS in addition to graph sonar or flasher sonar like the Ice 55. The GPS will help you with depth contours and to save and find spots that produce fish. The sonar will tell you at what depth the fish are, so you are efficiently fishing at all times.

I like to jig with a 2- to 2.5-foot ultralight rod like the St. Croix Legend Black Ice paired with an inline ice reel like the Fish 13 Descent. I spool this reel with 2-pound test fluorocarbon line, and then tie a small jig like a Tungsten Tubby or Gill Pill to the end. The inline reel reduces line twist dramatically compared to a spinning reel, and the light fluorocarbon is almost invisible in the clear-water conditions of most ice fishing.

If the fish are very aggressive, as they usually are this time of year, you can tip the jig with a small soft plastic like a Gulp 1-inch Fish Fry and catch fish all day. If the fish are finicky, you may need some live bait like a waxworm or Euro Larvae. For my afore-mentioned I-Fish Pro tip-ups, I like a medium, active, live sucker minnow. Set it about a foot off bottom, and keep a close eye on it as bass, pike or walleyes in the area may pounce on it.

Panfish will move around in these areas and will often scatter if pike move into the area, so you will have peaks and lulls in your jigging for panfish. If the pannies leave for an extended period, pick up and use your auger and sonar or underwater camera to go looking for them. Pike will cruise the weed line, so action for them will have its ups and downs as well. The good news is that these fish hang around while the feeding is still good in the shallows, before the leaner times of deep water during mid-winter arrive. Fishing can be good all day—not just early and late.

Ice anglers look forward to enough ice to venture out on for that first hard-water outing. It is not only exciting to get out for the first time of the season, but this time can be some of the best ice fishing action of the whole winter. Use caution, be mobile and versatile, and take advantage of this great ice fishing action. Remember, though, that no fish is worth your life. Make sure the ice is safe and take the precautions I mentioned to stay warm and dry.