Looking back, it has dawned on me that practically all the bass of 18" or better that I have landed on a jig rod through the ice have been victims of panfish lures and were caught incidentally while targeting panfish. More than once, I have been hard pressed to tame a beast of a fish on wimpy gear, and always small spoons and ice jigs have been responsible. I have noticed that this tends to happen in shallower water. While I have used larger and more obnoxious lures, I can't recall them ever producing nicer bass.
I suppose I could draw all sorts of conclusions from this, though most of them would probably be erroneous.
Could it be that bass are sluggish in the winter, and seek small and infrequent meals? That doesn't gibe with the philosophy endorsed by the bass assassins in my area, who advocate large live bait for the undoing of the hawgs they catch on tip-ups.
Is it simply a result of probability? If panfish and bass share the same wintering areas, it would stand to reason that sooner or later, if a bass were present, it would chow down on a small morsel.
Could it be because bass and sunfish are more alike than different? What works for one member of the family may translate reasonably well up or down the scale. Bass are equipped with larger mouths and therefore more piscivorous , but I think in behavior and habitat and temperature preferences they are not far removed.
What have your experiences been with bass through the ice? How do you target bass while jigging?