Bob Jensen carries minimal equipment, dresses properly and follows ice safety precautions at early ice.

For those of us who enjoy fishing through the ice, winter brings excitement. If you’re one of those people, you might want to consider the following ideas. If you haven’t discovered ice fishing but would like to, they will help you get started.

First things first: Make sure the ice is safe to walk on. Some anglers don’t think about going on the ice until there are vehicles on it. Others want to be the first ones out there. I’m always content to follow. There are lifejackets made for ice fishing. Clam’s Rise Float Parka will help keep you afloat if you should find a thin spot in the ice.

Matt Johnson spends more time on the ice than almost anyone. He’s fished in a lot of places early in the year for a variety of fish, but he really likes to go after panfish. Crappies and bluegills, mostly. Matt says that mobility is a priority early in the year. He likes to wear Ice Armor Bibs with a Blackfish Gale top. The bibs are durable and don’t absorb water, while the Gale allows him to be very mobile. He can drill holes and set the hook comfortably with this setup.

John Crane is another guy who ice anglers might envy. He’s on the ice from as soon as it’s safe until the time when it’s no longer safe. He gets to the area that he wants to fish and drills a bunch of holes. He uses a K-Drill because electric drills are quieter than the gas drills that many of us grew up with. He uses the 6-inch hole size. A 6-inch hole can be created with less noise than a larger hole simply because there is less ice being drilled. That sounds like a small consideration, but it’s an important one.

Matt and J.C. don’t spend much time at a hole unless they see fish on their sonar. Both use Vexilars to determine if there is a potential biter below. If they see a fish, they fish. If they don’t, it’s on to the next hole.

Plastic bait on small jigs are traditional favorites for panfish, but a bait called a Pinhead Pro is quickly becoming a very important part of many ice anglers’ arsenals. These baits are made of zinc alloy. Zinc alloy can be machined, so the detail on these baits is incredibly lifelike; sometimes, especially when panfish are skittish, lifelike is very important.

However, on early ice, the fish sometimes aren’t skittish at all. Remember, these fish haven’t seen fishing pressure for several weeks. There can be a considerable time lag between the end of the open-water fishing season and the start of ice fishing. If you keep quiet and show the fish a bait, chances are good that fish will bite. Start ice fishing in the areas where you last caught them in open water.

If you enjoy winter fishing, you’ll enjoy the winter issues of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.