Veteran guide George Langley likes to find beds of green coontail weeds, targeting the deeper weed edges along the 10- to 15-foot breakline with orange or bright green ice jigs tipped with wigglers or spikes.

According to Langley, smaller fish tend to school in slightly shallower water with bigger specimens, noting "the south end of North Twin is a good place to start looking."

Little Horsehead Lake sees even fewer anglers, located way back in the boonies off of County B beyond Presque Isle. At only 234 acres it doesn't take long to pattern the perch. Perch spend practically the entire winter cruising out the edge of a rockbar located on the west side of the point out from Ruff's Resort, almost directly out from the private ramp.

Rockbars are a key to perch location in Little Horsehead. With a good topographic map, electronics and a snowmobile, you can figure out this lake's secrets in less than a day. Once you find the fish, catching a limit takes about as long as frying a pan full of potatoes.

Contact: Eagle Sports, (715) 479-8804 or www.eaglesportscenter.com.

NELSON LAKE
This Hayward area lake is one of Wisconsin's most popular family escapes during warmer months because of the willing pike and panfish populations swimming in this stump-strewn shallow flowage of the Totagatic River.

Because Nelson is so shallow and sheltered, it's not unusual to get out on the ice here when the family is still picking meat off of the Thanksgiving dinner turkey carcass. This is a place where a $20 investment in jig poles and a bucket can make you a serious player all winter long -- provided you have the right jig color and bait profile. Bright colors generally work better. Just what bright color will work on a given day is anybody's guess.

Contact: Hayward Chamber of Commerce 1-800-826-3474.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER
In over 30 years of writing outdoors stuff and with over 200 days on the water each year, I've had a chance to fish pretty much all over the state. Wisconsin is blessed with a truly diverse fishery, from Great Lakes to small waters to flowages to rivers.

Eventually we find one or two locations that are especially special. My very favorite place of all is on backwaters of the Mississippi River from Bagley up to Stoddard. There are times when winter fishing on the river is slow, but most of the time the action is somewhere between good and downright incredible.

The Web site www.in-depthangling.com is a real-time source for solid information on fishing Old Man River, with everything from fishing reports to changes in river level just a keystroke away.

I've met some great friends on this Web site. An outing with several of them last winter was hands-down the best trip of the year. Chances are you'll find me out on the ice there right now.

Last year's high point was on De Soto Bay on Pool No. 9. Webmaster James Holst, Dave "Pahoo" Koonce and Mary the Fishing Machine met me on the ice here one morning after some chat on the Internet that may have included a friendly wager between yours truly and Pahoo. Another friend, Joe "Crappie King" Deuster from Ferryville, saved a hole over one of two crappie-magnet stumps for me when we all got down to serious fishin'.

Crappie King and I were just hammering the slabs. Pahoo moved to within 10 feet and could only ice an occasional straggler in a thumping that continued even after we traded poles. Dave is an incredible ice-fishing "stick." Seeing his frustration was almost as much fun as catching all those 10- to 14-inch fish on L'il Cecils and Fat Boys with plastic. By 10:30 a.m., Dave knew he was truly euchered, sat down on a big cooler and started to laugh. Anywhere else a sanity hearing and medication would probably be indicated for the whole lot of us. But hey, this is Badgerland!

There. That should keep you plenty busy until the cows come home. That is, of course, unless someone tipped them over! Now, that's Wisconsin!