The heart of the panfish pundit is often bigger than the quarry they seek. These are passionate folks. Fortuitously, the perceived size of a hardwater crappie or bluegill is bolder than an identical specimen taken from softwater. An 8-incher in July looks like a pounder in January. It might be due to honest youthful enthusiasm, or perhaps wintertime scope and orientation to the hole in the ice. Whichever, they always appear larger in the winter.

 Now to stroke a legitimate pounder ‘gill or buck-and-a-half crappie – ice or no ice – is a real feat. Achieved by few, yet claimed by many.

 Boasting size panfish, although scarcer by the season, aren’t untouchable. If the right lake, spot, presentation, and peak season align – sprinkled with a little luck – anything’s possible.

 Luck isn’t something Ice Team’s Dave Genz chooses to rely on, however. Rather, Genz, a hardwater mastermind, steers his own destiny. During early ice, with panfish on the table, he combines his knowledge of fish behavior with historical fishing data and slots spots for winter conquests.

 It starts with the lake – for even Genz is relegated to nothingness if he’s not standing atop fish. Early on, Genz goes for the small stuff, lesser sized lakes with shallow basins and or shallow and weedy bays.

 Weeds are the key. If weeds are ever going to play a role, it’s right now, before snow and ice stifle the sun and brown the greens. And you’ll be surprised at the shallowness of the weeds. If there’s a bay sporting vegetation in only 5 or 6 feet of water, Genz is there.

 Locations like that are often weed plagued and unfishable during the summer month, says Genz. But at first ice, you might find a choice cocktail of “good weeds,” versus “bad weeds”. In an ice fishing sense, good weeds are varieties like coontail, curly leaf pondweed, and other broadleaf cabbages. Junk weeds, says Genz, are the slimy types that choke your prop and foul your spinnerbaits.

 By autumn, most if not all of the junky sorts perish. And when October and November welcome particularly tepid weather, there’s often a reemergence of good weeds, which is good, and foreshadows a weed-oriented bite at first ice.

 Once he’s secured a bay, Genz scours for the thickest and healthiest greens, as well as their edges. By day, panfish – both crappies and sunfish – “float”, as Genz says, amidst the heavy stalks. Characteristically, the fish don’t cover much ground, so Genz picks pockets and fishes heaps of holes.

 Nearer dawn and dusk, however, the same fish make way for clearings and edges and become increasingly active, making it important to earmark prime edges in advance and drilling them out.

 This bay phenomenon doesn’t last long, though. Soon, maybe just a couple of weeks into the season, oxygen levels wane and water temperatures sink. According to Genz, the optimum subsurface temperature is 39ºF. He searches for that mark, or closest proximity thereof, with the Temp-Tech feature on his Aqua-Vu underwater camera. Once the bays and shallows drop into the middle and lower 30’s, they lose their charm.

 Genz probes northward, too, right out of the chute. He says that autumn’s prevailing winds – north to northwest – chill surface temps and drive the coolest water to the south end of the lake. He might discover a 5 degree variance between waters to the north and south. That’s an important fact to bear in mind…