late ice "hot bite" vs ice-out sluggishness.

[mainbutter]

I've never fished super late ice for panfish, but have heard other people say that the late ice bite can be very hot.. particularly on the last day or two of ice.

I do tend to hit the water for ice-out panfish, the first day of ice out if I can. I would have never said that the ice-out fishing was ever hot. The fish are sluggish, when you can find them you can catch them, but not fast, and I've found it really requires extremely slow finesse presentations.

Is there just a different sense of what a "hot bite" is between ice fishermen and open water panfishers?

When I think of a hot bite, I think of casting out a panfish popper fly, having it land, and on the first twitch it's pounded by the first of a dozen bluegill that all try to crush it within the same second of each other.

[TruthWalleyes]

My best ice fishing of the season is usually the last week or two before ice out...for crappies that is.

[fishuhalik]

they're still sluggish compared to summer fish, but they're aggressive compared to the rest of the winter, imho

[Scott M]

+1 fishuhalik

I've had the pleasure of ice fishing late March and early April and it's been excellent, plus I've found fish shallow allowing you to sight fish. The weather usually isn't too bad and the days are long and late after daylights savings. Not this year obviously.

The aggressiveness of open water versus hard water is amazingly different. Cold blooded means hot water hot bite, cool water cool bite

[Gordie]

Archerysniper and I caught fish in the lillypads yesturday in about 4 fow We only caught a few and then they just shut off.