One of my favorite quarries during the ice season is the sunfish.  WIlling biters and excellent table fare, the sunfish is sought after by many ice anglers.  Here is a general overview as well as some basic tactics to catch sunfish.

First sunfish have relatively small mouths, so the bait and lure should be a small combination.  I like the smallest Lindy Frostee jigging spoon with the treble hook attached with wax worms.  Many people like spikes.  You can catch the largest sunfish with crappie minnows, but as a general rule they are too big to catch many.  The rod and reel combintation helps to be light to ultra light to detect bites and improves the fight for these fish. 

Some key areas to target are green weeds next to drop offs.  The sunfish is sought after by predator fish, so they do attempt to hide most of the day.  The weeds are a big help in this regard.  If you can't find any green weeds, try to find a small indentation to the bottom in deeper water.  They will often hide down in there to avoid the hungry northern pike.

Try targeting sunfish this ice season.  You will find a fish that can be caught in good numbers, puts up a good fight, is not shy of underwater cameras and is great table fare!