Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Pan Fish Baits

I am expermenting with float and Betts spiders for Pan fish does anyone have their Favorite for pan fish, Bluegills, Crappie, etc for light tackle

Beetle spin micro, catalpa colored grub on a tiny safety pin lure..

Ingwe

small jigs and twister tails. the new Panfish Gulp! works pretty well too. I like it and it lasts longer than crawlers.

Beetle Spin for panfish

Fin S Clear with sparkles for crappie

does anyone use a leader line for 6lb test example 10 or 8 lb Flora Carbon

The only time I use a leader is when I'm using fireline or power pro for my main line.

How about Mepps spinners are there any more I want to get a good start in ultra lite fresh water fishing

I have better luck with Panther Martin spinners, about size 2 in your choice of color, though Mepps have put alot of fish on the table for me in years past. Basically I like them both in still water, and MUCH prefer Panthers in moving water.They have a slower start up speed ( to get them spinning) which comes in handy on upstream presentations....caught a lot of Warmouth ( see other thread...) with them in moving water back in the day...

Oh, and one other thing...NO swivels!!

Ingwe

We have good luck with tiny tubes or twister tails on a small jig retrieved under a weighted (for casting) cork for crappie in spring. When they are a little deeper, just forget the cork. Jig tipped live minnows on the bottom in very deep (20-30') water. Bluegill seem to like a tiny piece of live nightcrawler on a long shank #4 hook retrieved with a little splitshot to help the cast and to fish deeper, (usually no cork). Good luck.

4 fun and giggles go to a 3 or 4 weight fly rod, once you do you'll never go back to spin tackle..

Dober

I sold both my Sage Fly rods 5 WT and 6WT and replaced with Ultra Lite spinning and just love it. Fly Rods do have a place but ultra lite is a dream come true. So many options so many different size fish can be caught. Micro baits are a challange and a lot of fun . So many experienced people on this site helped me to get going in right direction. Just learning every day Pan fishing and Trout fishing with ultra lite for me is the way to go.

You are in the heart of good panfish country....I miss fishing in the south..especially for bluegills.....


Ingwe

I hurt my shoulder and went the spinning route for a couple of months. It's a productive way to fish, as you can fish a lot more water with a spinning rod than a fly rod.

But you can fish poppers with a fly rod and they're deadly on bream and bass. I'd look for a lighweight popping setup in an ultralight rig. An old-time popper is the Hula Popper, which I've fished on regular weight spinning rods. Or a small minnow-looking crankbait as second choice. And third would be a 1/16 oz. lead-head jig with a rubber tail. Jerk-bait.

Went pond fishing today, in fact. Caught about 16 bass and a few bream, including one nice one on poppers.

I like to fish wet for crappie and sunnies are fun as well. 4 me...spin fishing has become too boring (didn't quite dare say too easy)...grin

Dober

Crappie are meat fish, and they use jigs around here off poles...lots of poles. It's a harvest more than fishing. They are delicious. I catch a few on a wooley booger, but never fish for them. They give up pretty easily, even the big ones.

Down South, all panfish, sunfish, bluegill and mostly catagorized as "bream." Pronounced "brim." A bream that weighs a pound will give you a turn. He is a scrappy fellow and not afraid to die. But the majority aren't big enough to give a lot of sport, but they sure taste great.

As for catching other fish with a flyrod, I've caught my biggest trout, which probably weighed 10 pounds, on a 5wt rod and a 4x tippet. And I've caught many, many 3-5 pound bass on that rod. I now use a 6wt rod for bass and bream, as it's the right length for pond fishing from a boat (it's a lot easier to cast standing than sitting.)

When I go river trout fishing, I drop down to a 7'6" or 7' 9" 4wt rod, or an Orvis Far and Fine.

Mostly 2" tube jigs for crappie with a Berkley floating power egg. Use 2"-3" berkley powergrubs with either a gold or silver spinner for goggle eye, perch, etc.

CK

Anybody ever tried 2" tube jigs for stream trout???


Ingwe

No but was told at Bass Pro at Clarksville, Cin. in fly shop to use a light float with small leader, tie leader behind float use spiders, Poppers or wet flys for Pan Fish. When Fly Fishing I used indicators with wet flys below indicator worked well. With ultra lite can do the same with float and leader under float with use any wet fly or Popper etc .

The float/fly combo on ultralight works great on mountain lakes, especially if theres a little wind..on streams...not so much...( for trout that is,I'll bet it would work great on panfish....in both venues...)

ingwe

What great about ultra lite you don,t need 3 or 4 rods you can use one for a lot of different fishing 2 lb test to 6 lb test will do quite a bit

In our area it is tough to beat a small Northland Gypsi Jig tipped with a Power Grub or as tzone mentioned a Gulp bait. We have early open water this year and they worked very well for both crappies and bluegills this morning. The biggest problem was keeping the guides on the rods from freezing shut, then the line of the spool of the reel wanted to freeze as well. But we were fishing in a boat in open water when most years we would be just looking at a frozen lake wishing for open water.

Fun ain't it?

I'm taking the Alumacraft out this Saturday.

No doubt!!

Sure beats sitting home thinking about fishing. Those first spring crappies and bluegillls certainly do taste good deep fried with Roach coating on them.

Good luck with the first run of the year. I had no issues with mine. Everything worked and that is always good.

No, but I've used six inch ones for lake trout! They are pan fish up here.




Ted

Ingwe has his best luck with Panther Martins, I do best fishing essentially the same way with Mepps. I catch fish on both, just more on the Mepps.
I do usually use a # 1 though. Carefully slice the little red tube on the hook and try fishing with and without it to see what works for you. Try the different colored blades.

The small Rapala can really produce too.

LousieB: You ever notice you have your best luck on what you have the most faith in??? Doesnt matter if its bass, trout, panfish, what have you..

My stream tackle box has about 16 or so lures in it...all Panther Martins, one Rainbow color,one holographic thing, one all gold, one silver with dotz, and 12 Gold ones!!!!

Guess which one I do best with...?


Ingwe

Ingwe what is your Best of the Best Panther Martin

#4PMR-G.......


Ingwe

My favorite bait for bluegill and crappie is a small spinner, about an inch long with a feather tail. They smack'em hard!!!

Doesn't work well in the trees, but in open water over structure, it's a killer and a ton of fun too. Heck...I've even had bass and catfish hit it!

Dan

My favorite bait for bluegill and crappie is a small spinner, about an inch long with a feather tail. They smack'em hard!!!

Ok what brand and color
Thanks

lfd

I answered your pm. Sorry i haven't been back since posting this. For the rest, I don't really recall what brand. I bought three different colors from WalMart that were the same size. I thought they looked cute. If I recall, they were about 1.99 per spinner.

As an aside, this afternoon, just goofing around at the local city reservoir, I cought a small catfish and a 1.5 pound bass on one! I couldn't believe the catfish took it! They are real weird fish!

The bluegills were smacking it too.

Dan

I agree with you, in moving water the Martin Panther has a better action than the Mepps and seams to hang up less. I only use two colors, black / gold or yellow / silver.

And swivels are for people who don't know how to tie knots. If you like the action a swivel gives, tie a bowline and leave an open loop. It's a better action without hanging a lot of hardware on the lure.

pds: Exactamundo! Across the board....
I use the same colors, tie the knots, and off I go!

Havent found a fish yet that wont chase a PM...I carry about a dozen gold for every one silver...but once in awhile..when the light is just so.....


Ingwe

Gimme a foam slip cork, a long-shank #8 hook, split shot, and a cricket, all on an ultralight spinning rig. Kids love to watch that cork go under.

I took my 5yr old out to a pond recently and we caught big bream until we ran out of light. The most fun she had was tossing out the last 15-20 crickets, one at a time, next to the boat. Those big bluegill would rise up below, just like sharks, then WHAM!

Out on the lake, we often catch chinquapins (redears, shellcrackers) when after catfish. Most often it is a big chunk of nightcrawler on a #6 hook, fished near the bottom. We'll be trying out some redneck catfish jugs (swim noodle floats with PVC pipe) tomorrow while we try to jerk the lips off some bream and channel cats.

Black 1/16 and 1/32 oz Roadrunners.

I fish crappie and bream with an ultra-light, spooled with 4 lb test. I slow retrieve a #16-20 dark nymph with at least 6ft of 2 lb test attached to a clear float. Retrieve it so slow that the nymph stays deep. I'll pull 4-6" fish all day with spinners/tubes/etc., but when I use this set-up is when I hook the mega-slabs! Give it a try when you tire of the little ones or action is slow.

Best bait for bream is the Catalpa worm. A very distant second best is the larvae you can dig out of wasp nest.

But Catalpa worms are the best for bream, if you can keep the bass, catfish, and crappie from getting to them first.

How about a leader line of Flora Carbon. I use a 6lb test with Grand Children. Use a flora Carbon leader because it is advertised as invisible, Use a 6 lb test leader. 2 lb test will it hold up ok. Do you frequently retie your leader?

Pan-fish Assassins work great, in you can find them.

Tiny Panther Martin spinners.

Pure evil on panfish.

Can't tell you the last time I fished anything other than ultralight for anything.

Same here Sean..from little brook trout to monster pike..the new lines etc. make it feasible, fun and more effective...


Ingwe

Cant beat the ol micro beetle spin in white and black, I think I must of caught 60 short specks and a dozen blue gill on one last week.

In Az we have impoundments that have bluegill, warmouth and red ears. The Rebel teeny wee crayfish works very well.