Typically, once flickers are uncovered, Genz continues drilling holes until finding the outer edge of the zooplankton horde. That's where new, hungrier fish will likely enter the buffet line.

Now, the zooplankton thing isn't a full-throttle dining experience, either. Fish fin a bit and gobble, loiter, spot another couple victims and glide in their direction. There'll be no shower of scales and body parts. With that in mind, Genz is quick to move from hole to hole seeking one or two fish from each hole, knowing that it'll be tough to draw numbers of fish to a single location.

Genz continues fishing heavy, favoring small but well-leaded lures like a Lindy Fat Boy or Genz Worm loaded with maggots. Pounding is OK, too, but to get things rolling, he'll first rip the jig a couple of times, mimicking the darting escape maneuver of a copepod.

Depending on the quality of the bite, he might also incorporate a dropper arrangement. Genz ties a 7- to 9-inch section of 4-pound-test monofilament line to the jig's hook and finishes it off with a No. 14 or smaller single hook and lone maggot. By doing so, total weight is maintained while concurrently offering a smaller, more palatable morsel.

Brosdahl busts out a dropper, too, one that's been appropriately dubbed the Bro-Dropper. His apparatus is anchored by a Bro Bug, but instead of tying onto the hook, he ties around the lure's neck and drops down with only a few inches of mono and ends with a No. 18 or No. 24 Mustad sproat or Viking fly hook.

Friends of Genz's achieve similar outcomes by tying - via a blood knot - a tiny fly 10 to 12 inches above the primary lure. They'll jig until a fish materializes on the flasher, gawk at the lure, and then they'll swiftly drop the fly down to fish level. The rest is history. Tightliners are notorious hole-hoppers, too. They understand the merit of fishing active fish in fresh holes.

A final bug-related phenomenon worth considering befalls at last ice. Genz says that at season's end as water seeps back through the ice, the actual ice covering begins to float. As a result, weedtops sealed in the ice rip their roots from the bottom, stirring the already re-oxygenating shallows. As this occurs, oodles of aquatic insects race to the surface and are trapped beneath the ice - and opportunistic panfish arrive to feed on the prisoners. During these episodes, Genz recommends fishing large stands of bulrushes, especially those with cabbage or coontail.

Soon thereafter, fish return to larger, more satisfying open-water fare with the arrival of spring.