The pan fishing here on Champlain is really amazing. Early in the year I targeted gills then switched to perch. The end of the season is always back to flat fish due to the sheltered weedy bays that keeps the ice longer than the broad lake where we get perch. Most flat fish spots we fish are from 3' to 8' deep so safety is a factor too. The end of the season always brings huge catches of very large fish. I usually bring 3 seven gallon buckets(they each hold about 50 pounds)with me and a 100 pound grain bag on the sled. When I use my wheeler I can carry 2 sevens a square 5 and keep a grain bag in box. I gage my successful days on pounds since we commercial fish here. A great day of flat fish brings from 150 to 200 pounds of them. Average days are from 50 to 75 pounds. 3 days ago I had a 130 pound perch day with 120 pounds large and 4 days ago was a 155 pound flats day with several crappie to boot. Before I started this in 1991 I talked with state biologists about taking too many of them. They said harvesting them actually would improve the fishery since they are such prolific breeders and the lake is so large. There are hundreds of us fishing for them right here in the islands and the fishing is better than ever. Selling them is just a hobby for me and is fun since I can fish almost every day and not have to clean fish. I just drop by the neighborhood fish buyer, dump the buckets on his sorting table and he weighs them and pays cash. I never had a day where I couldn't get all the fish off the ice in one trip but am looking forward to that problem.