26 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

first bit of wet water after ice melts.

Sorry for my ignorance ... I had no idea you experience iced over waters ... Learn something new every day

1 hour ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Sorry for my ignorance ... I had no idea you experience iced over waters ... Learn something new every day

NC has had ice on lakes for a month or more the past three winters - the winter before last - notably a full 3 months of ice for us. Back in 2022 it was already 50 degrees up shallow in early February. It just varies a lot down here is the honest truth.

We have a lot of 50/50 Florida Northern hybrids and a lot of 70/30 Florida Northern hybrids from what I’ve been told by local fisheries biologists. The 50/50 tend to show out more during the ice out conditions and cold fronts in the fall and such. The 70/30 tend to show up more during the warm spells after prolonged melts and hang shallow in the dead of summer more.

From what I understand there are still small but significant populations of pure Florida and pure Northern in most public lakes that are 50 years old or older.

Over time the two unique hybrid largemouth phenotypes (70/30 and 50/50) have emerged and it’s something observable and repeated and consistent in most NC lakes - I affectionately call them the Tar Heel Bass and the Blue Devil Bass - you can guess which hybrid is which. 😉😂

This weird winter means I'm already fishing ice out in Montana. Only the local pond is available so everything I'm throwing is small enough to catch anything swimming in there. Currently tied on is a mini ned rig. Also in the box are:

Caperlan MNW 90

Euro-tackle Nage

Yo-zuri L minnow 1/4

Johnson Beattle spin 1/8

Moondog baits micro bladed jig

I think I'll add a dropshot rod this week if it stays warm.

4 minutes ago, MontanaBasser said:

This weird winter means I'm already fishing ice out in Montana. Only the local pond is available so everything I'm throwing is small enough to catch anything swimming in there. Currently tied on is a mini ned rig. Also in the box are:

Caperlan MNW 90

Euro-tackle Nage

Yo-zuri L minnow 1/4

Johnson Beattle spin 1/8

Moondog baits micro bladed jig

I think I'll add a dropshot rod this week if it stays warm.

Love the Beetle Spin (black w/gold blade)!

8 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Prayers for a speedy recovery and safe surgery for @bwillis !

I appreciate it. I look forward to fishing as soon after ice out as I can safely do so.

Generally a jig, jerkbait, blade bait, tailspin, and spinnerbait.

I will normally start out small and slow. As I target deeper structure now, a blade bait is hard to beat, smaller/compact jigs with a subtle trailer like a Zoom Super Chunk Jr. I like to hit shallow bodies of water now as they warm faster, so for those I'll give a Mepps spinner and a smaller jerkbait serious consideration.

If you're more of a soft plastics guy, a 4in. stick worm Texas rigged and worked like a jerkbait (you can go with a Fluke) or a tube bait on a light jighead can be worked anywhere in the water column.

On 2/16/2026 at 10:39 AM, Pat Brown said:

NC has had ice on lakes for a month or more the past three winters - the winter before last - notably a full 3 months of ice for us.

Thats strange, you at elevation or something?. Up here in NJ its rare we get ice for more than 2 weeks at a time. We average 1 or 2 ice overs a winter, with a total of 2 to 3 weeks locked out. Normally we get a blast of cold air for 4 or 5 days that will lock the water up. After that the jet stream moves back up and we get a blob of warm air from the south with enough rain to thaw the ice or at least rots the ice to where it breaks up or holes open up around sluice gates and bridges, which is where the fish are anyway. On average years you notice the feeding windows of bass and crappie really start to open up and the fish become noticeably more aggressive. Prior to the fish becoming more active, instead of starting big and downsizing, I throw micro bucktails, keitech mono jigs, 3" ES and other smaller baits. I have a JB, a suspending trap, flatside or Shad Rap, and a jig or bladed jig rigged up and ready to go if I find a concentration of fish. Barring sustained sub freezing temps, by the end of the first week of march the shallow lakes are warm enough for sparse grass and lilly roots to begin to sprout. Once that happens the lily fields become ideal for crankbaits and even swim jigs.

@GetFishorDieTryin

Wish I understood the science behind the weather - but it seems like not even the local meteorologists have it figured out - so I’m not too worried! 😂

Last year we had ice for about 3 months on everything down in central piedmont NC lasting from December until mid March.

This year we accumulated about a month of iced over conditions across the December - February span with melt/refreeze happening pretty chaotically from week to week.

Year before last we had about a month where lakes were frozen at the end of the winter and then it was spring.

3 years back it was fall and then it was spring.

Truth is - we get quite a bit of variation from year to year ranging from Florida or Texas like conditions to Iowa like conditions and everything in between.