Ice out is something that is highly anticipated by the northern anglers. Many lakes, reservoirs and ponds can freeze solid for several months, keeping you away from catching bass, unless you’re an ice fishermen. As the end of winter approaches, all we keep saying is “when will the ice finally start to melt?” When the winter continues to linger on the excitement for the ice out builds. For those of you who didn’t spend your free time during the winter organizing your tackle boxes, cleaning your reels and all the other stuff us northerners do, you’ve got some work ahead of you if you want to be ready for ice out
bass fishing!
Ice out can be a great time of year to go bass fishing, if you understand the transition bass make from their wintering holes to their spawning grounds. The bass have been hunkering down all winter in very cold waters, as the ice and snow melts away, water temps begin rapidly increasing drawing the bass to move to more shallow areas where the water is warmer.
Locating Bass
Largemouth and Smallmouth bass can be found in many locations from steep bluff walls with stair-stepping ledges to shallow, dark bottom areas near rocks and weeds where there’s more heat. The one common factor you need to search for is the transition areas that bass will use to get from deep to shallow. On larger man made impoundments, old road beds, creek channels and stone walls can be used as a road map that shows you how bass will move from point to point:
A (wintering holes) to
B (deep transitional structures, bluffs, rock ledges, points, etc.) to
C (shallow transitional structures like rock piles, docks and emerging weed beds) to
D (Spawning flats)
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Finding Bass When the Ice Melts
