"The lakes that have these limits," continued Genz, "have been picked because they don't have all the stunted bluegills. Some have been reclaimed and they have a smaller population of bigger fish instead of an overpopulation of smaller ones."

Let's look at a few of the experimental lakes that Genz likes to explore.

"It's not about keeping everything you catch to eat anymore," said Genz. "Fishing has become more of a sport, and the challenge is still to catch fish, but we release more these days. That release has made Little Sauk a great lake for big bluegills and crappies."

There is very little structure in Little Sauk, so Genz says to drill a few holes over the deepest water and do some jigging and watch the sonar. When you're fishing a lake that doesn't have well-defined points, sunken islands and reefs or bars, then it's the subtleties that count. Suspended fish are always an option when you can find them on Little Sauk.

For more information, contact Fletcher's Bait at (320) 352-2155.

When you are on a lake that has some structure, a weedline and some deep holes, Genz says that in January and February the deeper holes are where to look for both crappies and bluegills.

"You're looking for a deep depression surrounded by shallow water," explained Genz. "Any lake you look at, if you have a flat with a depression in it, that depression is going to hold fish in the winter months.

"In Minnesota," continued Genz, "most of the weeds in a lake die in the wintertime and fall down. The forage fish leave the weeds and move into the depressions in the bottom. It's all about survival. The food goes there and so do the fish."

"If you want bigger panfish, there can't be huge populations of stunted fish," said Genz. "There has to be some way to keep the smaller fish in check, and the bigger predator fish do that."

There's not a lot of deep water in Knife, but there are some deeper - it's a relative term when you talk about lake depths - holes mixed in with the shallower sand and weedflats.

"Last year on this lake I was catching crappies and most of them were about 11 inches long," said Genz. "Nothing spectacular, but nice fish. I was using maggots to catch these fish. I switched to the Power Nymph and the next 10 crappies I caught weighed over 10 pounds total. I hadn't moved; I wasn't even fishing a different hole. The nymph was just triggering bigger fish."

For more information, contact Jerry's Sport & Bait Shop at (320) 679-2151.

I need to go into a little more detail about this nymph technique that Genz mentions. If you know Genz, then you realize he is a machine on the ice. He calls it his aggressive style of fishing.

"The standard concept over the years when using plastic trailers instead of live bait has been to use tiny little straight pieces of plastic," he said. "You use a subtle approach with this type of plastic trailer. You work them slow, and that's just not my style of fishing. I need to work them aggressively. When I fish, it drives me nuts to use those slow presentations. I call them the spring-bobber presentation."

Genz came upon the nymph technique by being in the right place at the right time.

"It was during one of the late-season periods a few years ago when I started working with this new technique," Genz said. "I was at the Trap Attack when it was still in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and Berkley gave me some of their Power Baits to try out. I had a bunch and passed some out to some of the other anglers down there. The guys kept coming back for more of those Power Nymphs. It was enough to get me fishing with them."

I asked Genz to describe the process.

"Use the Power Nymph and aggressive jigging in deep water," he said. "It's a 1-inch piece of plastic covered in tentacles, so there is some action to them. I tip a Lindy Fat-Boy (a thin-bodied jig that fishes horizontally) with the nymph. Sometimes I use them whole and sometimes I pinch them in half. You adjust the size to the mood of the fish.

"They look like a little nymph," he continued, "and when you use my method, you get all those arms moving up and down, and those fish get aggressive and hit it. In deeper water, you're using a more aggressive jigging approach. In shallower water, you tend to slow down. The deeper you get the more vibration you need to put into your presentation. Power Nymphs are great and I've had tremendous success with them."

Over 2,500 bluegill and black crappie adults were stocked in 1996-1997. Many of the original adults stocked have grown to a size acceptable to anglers. The maximum depth of this 120-acre lake is about 40 feet, and the water clarity is pretty good, which makes this lake a prime option for using an underwater viewing camera. Genz has become a real advocate for the underwater camera, as long as it is used properly.

"The thing that the camera does to everybody is that it makes them change their presentation when they see that fish," said Genz. "You can be fishing aggressively, but as soon as you see that fish, then you tend to slow down. This can be a bad thing.

"When you change what you're doing, it can affect whether that fish hits the bait. You used an aggressive approach to get them in, and now all of a sudden you see the fish and you change. The fish isn't rushing up and hitting the lure, so you wonder what went wrong. What you want to do is keep using an aggressive motion to trigger that bite.

"My style is to keep it going," he continued. "Don't let those fish examine the bait. It's steel and hardware, it's not something they normally eat. Let them look at it too closely and they're not going to hit it."

For more information on Chester Lake, contact B&M Bait & Tackle at (507) 282-4982.

Genz said a place like this is a panfisherman's dream.

"When you see a situation like this, you just know there are going to be some big bluegills and crappies there," he said. "It's what you look for that makes a lake a honeyhole. I'm a huge fan of rising water in lakes because this condition means that the panfish will be big, and in the winter months, that's what I'm after."

For more information, contact KB Sports at (218) 694-2278.