Panfishing today

[salmotrutta]

Got out today for my first panfishing outing of the year.

Started sometime around 6:45pm. All I brought was my rod and reel, hooks and scissors.

The goal was to spend some relaxing time by the water barehook panfishing.

99% of my catches today were crappie, with the occasional bluegill and rockbass.

First catch:



Bluegill to change it up a bit:



More crappie:




It was fish after fish action, altogether I landed around 50 in an hour and a half. All were released. The surface was abuzz with flies, and fish could frequently be seen splashing on the surface, gorging themselves on the hatch du jour. As the late afternoon turned to evening, the bite got even better.

I may visit another panfish spot soon, that offers similar barehook action, although with plate sized bluegill and pumpkinseed instead of these predominantly tiny ones.

I took a couple of short vids with my blackberry just for fun.

Basic reeling in of the hook:

[



In this clip, I just move my rod to the right to gently slide the hook near the surface of the water. Halfway through, I reel in my slack, and start sliding again. Usually a fish will hit on the first slide, but in this clip it took a second slide.




Another method I used today but did not demonstrate in these clips was to simply jig the hook up and down, letting it sink to the bottom if needed. Sometimes they strike on its way down, other times on its way up.

Altogether I had an enjoyable outing. Car accident yesterday has temporarily immobilized my business, but managed to borrow my mom's car to go fishing, which definitely helped me relax and forget about the ******* who decided to stop right in front of me in a 70km/h zone yesterday. Fortunately I always leave a lot of space between the vehicle in front of me, so it could have been a lot worse and I got away with some minor bruising (though my vehicle got more than just minor bruising).

 

[staffman]

Sorry to here of your unfortunate accident , but at least you were not hurt too bad. Cars can be repaired or replaced. Never tried bare hook fishing, but might now. You seem to use quite a large hook for the pan fish ,is it part of your technique?

 

[tuhlapsss]

Nice videos! Im planning on going out crappie fishing today and hopefully catching enough slabs to have a fish fry with my family.

 

[salmotrutta]

Sorry to here of your unfortunate accident , but at least you were not hurt too bad. Cars can be repaired or replaced. Never tried bare hook fishing, but might now. You seem to use quite a large hook for the pan fish ,is it part of your technique?

If I had slightly smaller hooks than that, of the same make, I would have definitely used them. They're the Dollarama Mako brand hooks. That was the only size I had, my other smaller hooks are quite light and would have been difficult to cast with.

So yes it's part of the technique, insofar as it helps with casting, but you don't need to go as big as I did yesterday.

The crappie bite is always unbelievable at this spot at this time of year, but part of why I got so many crappies and so few of the other species of panfish (of which this place is filled with), is because of the oversized hook I was using. Crappies have huge mouths, so they had no issues taking that hook.

The key is to make whatever you're using look life like. I caught a largemouth last year with the same technique, then later on last summer I got into a bass hotspot and caught numerous smallies and largies with just a bare hook. This year, I may try buying a very large hook and trying for pike.

As for my car, I just jacked it up and when I grab either of the front tires at 3 and 6 o'clock, I can force them side to side. So some damage has definitely occurred beyond the superficial and airbags. Tranny fluid is also leaking, looks to be coming from the pan, so maybe I just need to reseal it (wishful thinking). I just dropped the pan a couple weeks ago, which was 7L of Dex 6 plus 1 bottle of Lubegard Red. Not to mention I just put in brand new monroe quik struts, top of the line rotors/pads, shocks, and had 2 alignments done with some work on the steering components. Also has new top of the line front hub assemblies and cooper tires, so I'd really like to keep it. It's looking about 50/50 whether I'll need to part it out now or repair it.