Spring Panfish

[icyguides]

This past weekend and today I hit two local lakes for panfish. On Sunday a friend and myself spent most of our time trying to find the fish. Once we found them we caught 20-30 in short order. After enduring some intense rain, today i was able to find the fish faster and caught 40 or 50 in a little over an hour. All the fish were small-medium sized but it was nice to catch mostly crappie. The water is still a little cold (47 today) and it's still early, but the fish are staging up and feeding in preparation for the spawn. I found all of the fish in deep cover. Hopefully some better sized fish will start showing up.

 

[STONEMAN]

Ok, help me out. How do you find the fish? Are you in a Kayak? Wade? What fly? Sounds like a fun diversion from the overcrowded special reg areas this month.

 

[streamerguy]

I'm jealous. The crappie bite should start heating up soon on my local lakes.

 

[jay348]

sweet...was wondering how the rain treated ya today.

 

[icyguides]

Stoneman, so far I've been wade fishing because my kayak isn't ready yet. Kayak fishing is better for covering water, but if you know where the fish are, it probably isn't necessary because crappie spawn in the shallows.
This article is great for getting started. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&mode=article&objectID=32071
My go to set up is a hand tied 1/124th ounce white rabbit hair crappie jig tied with red thread and a few strands of flash suspended under a thingabobber. Cast it as close to the cover as you can get and work it back with very slow twitches.
My advice on finding them is look for protected water with lots of cover. I suggest looking at maps and satellite images to try and find these areas, then you just cover as much water as you can/ need to. Once you find 1 crappie, there are usually more. Watch for fish breaking in and around brush. This time of year it's usually a dead giveaway for crappie.

 

[jay348]

Good article there...but I think the pic of the crappie whisperer pulls it all together.

In all seriousness, I still cant believe how all the fish on sun were hugging that one downed tree (out of maybe a half dozen we hit?).

 

[addictedangler]

Thanks for the post and pictures. I enjoy fishing for panfish also. My wife will only eat crappie so that is the only fish I keep. We are headed for Lake Anna for a Crappie trip for Sat. and Sun. I find this time of year white streamers work well also there are some stoneflys around so a size 12 dark colored wet seemed to do them in also.

 

[icyguides]

Yeah, admittedly the article is of the basscar genre (it's on bass pro's website). I think the pic illustrates the origins of the word "overkill." Regardless, it's got some good general info on when and where.

addicted, i enjoy keeping a few nice crappie over the course of the year for the pan too-they are called panfish for a reason. In my opinion there aren't many fish that are better tasting than crappie and perch.

 

[STONEMAN]

icyguides, thanks for the info. Pinchot and Marburg are on my list of lakes to hit in the near future.

 

[addictedangler]

I was headed for Pincho this afternoon but ran out of steam so perhaps tomorrow. Also it snowed and blew fairly well. I fish the dam breast there. Stoneman, can you give up a spot on Marburg? I live a hour from there so will not catch them all. I promise.

 

[ratgunner]

Looks like you had fun. I do most of my pond fishing when the streams are too high or too low. Love those ultralight flyrods for panfish.

 

[jay348]

Interesting day today...the bite was on while it was cold and windy. Wind died down around noonish, and so did the action. Perhaps they were a little less weary with the choppy water? I dunno...

 

[Mike]

March crappie angling has a very specific pattern on many lakes. Fish the coves into which the wind is blowing and windy days are often the best days. Additionally, the fish may not start biting until about 7PM DST (6PM EST before the clock change) and often continue until 9 PM or so. If the coves have week beds about 3 ft below the surface, all the better. Just fish over the weeds. If there aren't any weeds, I would still recommend paying attention to the pattern that I have described. There are biological and limnological explanations for this, but I'm not going to get into them.

 

[STONEMAN]

Tony, haven't been to marburg yet. It's on my list of spots to hit with my kayak buds this spring/summer.

 

[addictedangler]

We fish Lake Anna for crappie last weekend. Saturday it was in the high 50's Sunday 35 deg. Most fish were in 16 to 25 ft of water so it was tough to fly fish for them. However those little berkley power minnows on a 1/32 ounce jig did them in. I usually do not keep fish but my wife and I enjoy eating them. It will be a couple of weeks before the water warms and they migrate into shallower water to target with a streamer. If you like to fish for warm water species this is a great lake.