"A mid-winter trip up north for a 3 day weekend on a nice panfish lake is in order. Any favorites ?"
here in michigan we have sooo many inland panfish lakes. and the cold belt area (around lake orion) probably has ice on a couple right now. they freeze before any other lakes that I know of. we won't have ice at the boat ramp but a couple of those tiny lakes will freeze over with thin ice. problem is when the ice gets thick, the crappie seem to stop biting. that whole area is mostly springfed little lakes.