Photo by Tom Evans

Some die-hard Delavan Lake hardwater anglers were quietly smirking last winter because many of their fair-weather brethren skulked off the ice with few little fish flopping in their buckets destined for the frying pan. After at least six years as southern Wisconsin’s premier frozen panfishery, some anglers rated the action last winter somewhere between “fair” and “good” -- which is a dramatic change from hearty laughter followed by “do ya wanna see some pictures?” from previous winters.

Ice-fishing is a community sport. Well, pretty much anyway. Although finer points and subtle nuances are held close to the parka vest for bluegills, perch and Delavan’s legendary night-bite crappies, enough common knowledge was available to enable casual, average anglers to venture forth on this 2,072-acre Walworth County fishery with high expectations for success.

Not so last winter. Consistent success here required more than a little effort. More often than not, even the saltiest bucketeers found themselves digging deep into their bag of tricks to ice a nice mess of filets.

At first ice, there’s good fishing for bluegills on Delavan’s shallow west end along the weed edges. Bluegills are still cruising the weeds on the long bar off Lake Lawn Lodge now like they have every winter since the lake was drawn down and rehabilitated in 1987.

But fishing is getting tough again as we move into 2007, causing many people to ponder the possibility that the good old days of ice-fishing on Delavan Lake are gone. The answer is probably “yes” if you are a couch potato looking for an excuse not to fish in January’s sometimes brutal weather.

January is probably the toughest month Wisconsin anglers ever have to experience. This is a statewide status quo driven by a perpetual Arctic high-pressure system overhead bringing bitter cold temperatures and a predictable decline in metabolism of cold-blooded creatures like fish. Fish still have to eat, but the active feeding window could be only 30 to 60 minutes per day.

For Delavan’s bluegills, this feeding time typically comes at the break of dawn and the cusp of dusk. Perch are willing biters a few minutes later in the morning and a few minutes earlier in the evening. Crappies -- when they feel like biting -- should be making their move over 45 to 50 feet of water out from the Yacht Club and off Willow Point at about 6 p.m. Last January, the “peak” bite was about 9 p.m., with the most active fish coming through at about 12 to 20 feet. At least this was the case in my portable tent.

If there is a “ninja fish” in Delavan, it has to be those black crappies. Crappies are notorious for biting light. Through the ice, the bite can be even lighter. But over the gin-clear waters of Delavan at night, bite detection is akin to hearing a whisper in a windstorm.

The first key in defeating this survival trait comes from a close look at crappie anatomy. A crappie’s eyes are positioned near the top of its head. This optimizes a feeding attack from below. When a bite comes from below, the strike indicator is a bobber that comes up or moves laterally rather than going down.