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I spent a few minutes on the phone with Zack this morning at Frankie’s Live Bait and Marine, and he reported that the panfish bite has been absolutely outstanding lately. The cold weather we’re experiencing is keeping the ice (out from the shorelines) in good shape, so the question now is whether the public accesses will blow out sooner than later and prevent folks from getting onto the good ice.

At the risk of sounding either like a broken record, or worse, a writer that doesn’t do his homework, I’m reporting yet again that the south end of Chisago Lake continues to be a consistent panfish producer, particularly from the A-frame and Eagle’s Nest to the south end of the lake. Sunfish are abundant and are being caught in high numbers. If you’d like to pick up some crappies on Chisago, go deep and give the 30-foot hole in the main basin a shot during low-light periods.

Another area that has yet to let folks down all season long is the area around Pancake Island on South Center Lake. At any given time for the past few weeks, that area of the lake has been full of anglers, but reports indicate that everybody is catching plenty of sunfish there during the daytime. If you enjoy fishing with a crowd of other anglers nearby and hope to see some friends and familiar faces, Pancake Island is the place to go. A few crappies are being caught there as well in the early morning and evening hours.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend that from here on out, it’d be a good idea to pull your equipment out onto the lakes by sled and keep the vehicles on shore. That being said, this upcoming weekend just might be the perfect couple of days to put a limit of sunfish and crappies in the freezer. With highs in the upper 40s and low 50s forecasted for the following weekend, opportunities to get out on the ice are fast drawing to a close. So pack some lunches and hot chocolate, get the sunscreen on the kiddies and bring plenty of waxies and larvae along. There are plenty of hungry panfish under the ice just waiting for an easy meal.

Dan Brown’s weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankie’s Bait and Marine, in Chisago City, and St. Croix Outdoors, in St. Croix Falls, Wis.

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