Panfish Tricks: Bait, Tackle & Presentation Tips
Story and Photos By Spence Petros

Many anglers think that fishing for panfish is pretty much for the old, young or inexperienced. But this couldn't be farther from the truth. I get just as much satisfaction from getting into a bunch of slab crappie, bull bluegills or jumbo perch as I do uncovering bass or walleyes.

To be consistently successful with larger-than-average-sized panfish, you need a "bag of tricks" that will help you cope with finicky fish, smaller species or adverse weather and water conditions. Here are some of my favorite "go-to" presentations that have helped me fill a bucket or livewell many times with tasty panfish.

Leeches For Big Sunfish/Bluegills
I stumbled on the hottest warm-weather bait for big bluegills by accident many years ago. While fishing a deep sunken hump for walleyes with a slip-sinker rig and live leeches, I ran into a school of thick-backed 9½- to 10-inch bluegills. After a few missed bites, I caught a big bluegill. Once it was noted what was grabbing my bait, I searched for the smallest leeches in the bucket and had a ball catching a bunch of lunker bluegills.

I also learned a couple of lessons, including how big bluegills in summer were often 5 to 15 feet shallower than walleyes on deep-water structure, and how they absolutely go crazy for leeches.

The best leeches measure about 11/2 to 2 inches long and usually go by the name of ribbon, cobra or Minnesota leech. They are tough and often allow you to catch more than one fish on them. They also can be pulled away from smaller fish with minimal damage. If you feel the rapid tap, tap, tap of a smaller fish or see one moving in for the kill in shallower water, a long, slow, steady sweep of the rod will generally cause the smaller fish to let go of the bait or give up the chase. Often smaller panfish will back away from a lively leech.

For best results hook the leech right behind the suction cup with a short-shank No. 6 or 8 hook. Use these baits from the spawn on and for everything from sight-fishing big, tough-to-catch bluegills in the shallows to fishing the bottom in deeper waters with a slip-sinker.

Jumbo Perch
There are not too many fish dishes that get me as wound up as much as a platter of deep-fried, crispy lake perch. Much of my perch fishing is done on the Great Lakes and deeper, clearer lakes close to home. Minnows are the preferred cold-weather bait, but during the warmer months small crayfish are as good as it gets. Generally as the waters begin to warm, minnow-caught fish will often spew out some crayfish. Put one on the hook and you can almost bet on an instant bite.

While these small crustaceans are excellent bait, molting crayfish called "soft shells" are the ultimate warm-weather bait for perch. Unfortunately, they are expensive and easily tear off the hook.

To get the most out of this fragile bait, tie up "spawn sacks" like trout and salmon anglers do with fish eggs. But instead of using eggs, put pieces of soft-shell crayfish into the small mesh squares before the ends are brought up and tied. This enables you to catch perch after perch on a much more durable presentation.

Another great tip that will help you avoid the smaller perch is to measure the mouth of a larger perch and make the spawn sacks big enough so the smaller perch can't get them into their mouths.

Most of our big-water perch fishing is done from a drifting boat. On windier days when your presentation might be too fast, consider using a drift sock.

I've found a specific two-rod presentation to be deadly when drifting. In my left hand, where my feel isn't as good and my hookset is a tad behind my dominant right arm, I hold a soft-tip 7-foot rod and a reel spooled with 6-pound test Trilene XL. My right hand is holding a slightly shorter, stiffer rod and a reel spooled with 10-pound SpiderWire Stealth with a fluorocarbon leader. I set the hook fast on any bite with my right hand, but I watch the rod in the left hand for extra bend that signifies a perch has latched onto the bait. Watching the rod-tip action for bites on the left and feeling for bites on the right always seem to work.

Ice-Bucket Shock For Crappie
Sometimes crappie hold under floating cover such as duckweed, bogs, matted vegetation, floating wood scraps or anything else that provides relief from bright skies. Unfortunately, these fish are usually not chasing and are very hard to entice into biting. In this situation, lures are almost worthless. Minnows can be pretty good, but a "shocked" minnow is usually more than even a neutral-mood crappie can turn down.

When a baitfish goes from the cooler water in a bait bucket into warmer lake water, it dies pretty fast. The shock kills it. But what you don't see is the little "shock dance" it goes through because of the change in water temperature.

This action can be made even more dramatic by putting ice in the minnow pail to get the water even colder. Now when the minnow is dunked into the warmer water, it often swims wildly for a few seconds before it expires. You'll also note that if some of the minnows are fatter with spawn, they won't have the action of the slimmer male minnows.

Once crappie are found under some surface-shrouded cover, a back-hooked, shocked minnow rigged with a small slip-float is the ultimate presentation for enticing a bite.

Modified Drop-Shot Rig
Crappie often hold higher off the bottom than sunfish or perch. A great presentation that generally appeals to all these species is a modified drop-shot rig. Instead of putting a weight on the bottom, you can attach a soft-bodied jig such as a tube or a swirl-tail lure for weight.

A number of options can be used on the higher presentation, which can be as much as 3 to 5 feet away. Rigs where the hooks are spread farther apart are best cast with a 7-foot or longer rod. On the top hook, which is attached first and tied with a Palomar knot with a long tag end, a soft-plastic lure or live bait can be used.

To increase your percentage of hook-ups, double up and pinch the line around the top hook and then tie an overhand knot with it. You want the hook to stick out a little farther from the tight main line so the fish can more readily suck it in. This is especially important if minnows are being used.

Cast the rig with a lob cast rather than snapping it out. After every movement, pause and even drop the tip back a bit to allow the fish to suck it in, especially if live bait is used. If bluegills or perch are the dominant species, a little slower speed seems to work better. Getting more aggressive may be more effective for crappie. This is a great rig for drifting, slow-trolling or for casting along piers.

Fly-Fishing Tricks
While I'm not a fly-fishing expert, catching big bluegills on a fly rod is something I enjoy every year. I start in early summer when the fish are on the beds. Catching them on small poppers is a lot of fun, but there are two tricks that can help. One is to simply use a popper with a hook that sits a little farther back from the popper's head. This ensures that a higher percentage of strikes will be hooked.

Another good tip when using a popper, especially when after wary bluegills in clearer water, is to tie a small trailer to the end of the popper and attach a small nymph. A 2- to 3-inch piece of 4-pound test fluorocarbon leader is ideal. Fluorocarbon is a little stiffer than mono and will give you better separation between the two lures, especially if you cast carefully and put a little tension on the line just before the lures hit the water.

Often I've seen big sunfish come up to a fly floating on the surface, look at it for a few seconds and then sink back down into the depths. One time I made a fly leader out of fluorocarbon line, forgetting that it was denser than monofilament and generally not recommended for surface lures because it pulls them down. As the wet fly floated on the surface, several large bluegills came up to investigate the offering. Showing no real interest in the fake insect, they began to turn away. About this time the sinking leader began to take a toll on the floating fly and caused it to slowly sink. That was the trigger needed to fool those wary fish, as they sucked in the slow-sinking insect on cast after cast. Another trick had been added to my panfishing game plan.