Tips for Winter Panfishing
by Jerry Carlson

Winter panfish are fussy. On some days, they love to peck and pick and mess with a bait out of sheer rudeness. On other days, it is nearly impossible to get their attention at all as they ignore everything sent their way.

For those that fish with a spring bobber or use a tightline approach, a key factor in overcoming finicky panfish is to use very light line. When I say light I am talking about one, two and three-pound-test line. 

In order to be able to detect the minute bites of finicky panfish, line has to hang perfectly straight with no memory curls in the line. If curls are present, fish must pull all the slack out of the line before a bite can be detected on the surface. This means the smaller the jig the lighter the line must be.

Both Berkley and Stren make winter line that has very low memory. They also make colored line for those that have difficulty seeing the line when tying knots. The colored line also shows up well on the ice.

Utilizing light line does not guarantee fish. However, my experience tells me it does increase your chances.