Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - January/February 2020 - 19

Drill your ice fishing holes in a strategic manner, and check for crappies using a sonar
unit quickly and efficiently.

bobber, it can be an excellent "static line"
that you do not have to watch closely, until
the bobber goes down. If you find fish on
sonar, suspend your minnow rig at the top
of fish schools as fish move through the
area. Crappies will commonly move up to
take minnows, but higher fish will rarely
move lower in the water column to find
bait. Try to have your bobber set nearly
neutrally buoyant. It should take almost
no effort for crappies to pull the bobber
under the water. Buoyant bobbers can
startle fish.
If you are using waxworms, or similar
bait, try tipping worms on a small ice
fly. Ice flies in sizes 10-12 and colors like
green and glow-in-the-dark are good
choices. Actively jigging in a productive
area with 1- to 3-foot rod sweeps may
bring fish to your hole that are not initially
visible on sonar. When fish are present,
lower your lure to the fish that is below
the hole. Then, 1- to 2-inch motions
can entice fish to bite. Finicky fish may
often be convinced to bite by very slowly
raising your bait until the fish feels
pressured to follow. Be prepared for a
hard strike.

of these fish for bait. Fathead Minnows are durable, live
a long time in a bait bucket and are active on the hook.
A color variant of Fathead Minnows, called "rosey red"
minnows, is often available at bait shops. If you cannot
find small Fathead Minnows, small shiners can also work
well, though shiners are often a bit large for crappies and
are a much more fragile baitfish, in addition to often being
more expensive to purchase. As with all baitfish, never
release unwanted baitfish into the body of water that you
are fishing.
The other category of crappie bait, larvae, consists
primarily of waxworms and maggots. Waxworms are more
readily available, and the larger size of waxworms work
well for crappies. Waxworms also last longer when kept
refrigerated. Maggots, also known as spikes, are great when
fish are picky and work well when targeting Bluegills in a
mixed panfish fishery.

Fishing strategies

When you have found a crappie hotspot, it is time to tempt
and tease fish into biting. Most successful crappie anglers use
an ice fishing jigging rod with a spinning reel spooled with 2or 4-pound-test line. Stronger line is not needed for crappies
and other panfish. While tip ups can also work, it is extremely
common for crappies to trigger a "flag", drop the bait and be
gone before the angler ever reaches the tip up to set the hook.
Do not count on tip ups as your primary crappie rig.
When fishing with minnows, a plain hook or ice fly on the
end of your spinning rod line is a great idea. Paired with a
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Use a sonar unit to locate crappies under the ice. Crappies tend
to roam during the winter and are often found suspended over
deeper water.
Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * January/February 2020

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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - January/February 2020

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