With Valentine’s Day in the rearview mirror and the Daytona 500 taking the green flag tomorrow, Northeast Ohio anglers are setting their sights on melting ice and springtime fishing.

Our annual transition from the dead of winter to the promise of spring brings hope and optimism to anglers suffering from cabin fever. Dreams of big crappies, spunky walleyes and hungry largemouth bass fuel our final sprint to the day the thaw opens the boat ramps at Mosquito, Pymatuning, Berlin, Milton, West Branch and Shenango.

With the thaw, however, also comes worries that winter has ravaged our favorite fisheries. As the ice recedes, visual evidence of fish kills often compound the concerns and rumors percolate that something is wrong in the environment.

Rafts of floating fish carcasses certainly are not a pretty sight, but the truth is they usually are no reason for concern. The dead fish typically are shad, which succumb to stress induced by the cold water.

The die-offs occur every spring at all of our local reservoirs, as well as Lake Erie, and it is not uncommon that those who see the floaters sound the alarm. Social media will soon be peppered with posts from fishers worried that something rotten has happened.

While environmental mishaps do happen, the spring thaw fishkill is just another natural phenomenon. But who doesn’t like a good conspiracy theory? So we push the panic button and find another good excuse for our bad luck on the lake.

The natural fishkill phenomenon helps control the size and health of baitfish populations. Too many shad, for example, can result in wiping out their food base and starving the baitfish that sustain the game species.

Nature copes by cycling. We have good years of fishing followed by down years. Some years yield bumper crops of crappies and bass, but the walleye fishing is off. Then the next year the walleyes might be going gangbusters, but the crappies seem to be running small and few and far between.

Our lakes’ habitat also goes through cycles, especially reservoirs that have been bolstered by the recent introduction of aquatic vegetation.

Mosquito Lake is a classic example. For 60 years, Mosquito supported barely a sprig of grass. Its walleyes were mostly open-water fish that lived through spring, summer and fall on the points and stump flats in five to 10 feet of water. Crappies and largemouth bass thrived in the wood cover on the shoreline, especially the willows, buck brush and laydown trees, as well as the cattail spreads on the west side south of the causeway.

Recently, however, Mosquito has experienced a dramatic increase in aquatic vegetation, including invasive hydrilla and milfoil, along with native coontail and curly-leaf pondweed.

The lush grass flats extend out to 10-foot depths and provide shelter for bluegills, yellow perch, minnows, crawfish and young-of-the-year walleyes, crappies and bass. The grass thus is prime hunting territory for the lake’s apex predators.

Mosquito Lake is a classic example of the fact that change can be good. The expansive new habitat is good for the fish, but it requires different fishing tactics than those our fathers and grandfathers practiced a generation ago.

Spring brings new opportunities. Take your cues from the changes in nature and try something different when the ice thaws and you visit your favorite lake.

Trib and Vindy columnist Jack Wollitz annually starts his countdown to spring fishing when February passes the halfway mark. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.