Panfishing

[Matth05]

It’s officially panfish season! All of my usual lake spots are littered with bluegill feeding up shallow. One specific local lake (which in reality is more the size of a pond) seriously just has an impressive population of gills. Some catches from the weekend and yesterday:

What you’re seeing is basically the average size for this very small lake. It’s incredible. Beautiful fish too, so many of them have that purple/pink shimmer in the scales that you sometimes see in bluegill.
Plans for the rest of the week are to try my luck at my usual redbreast river spots. Constant Spring showers make river fishing a bit of a pain sometimes so haven’t had any luck so far this spring.

 

[Kayden]

I like catching sunfish species, as most lepomis species can be caught within 10 miles of where I live.
Tired to do a species slam on Friday during my lunch break and managed to get 4

redear

Bluegill

green

pumpkinseed

Longear

A black spot and a warmouth I caught in Florida,
I have caught a dollar sunfish before. Have yet to catch Sacramento, red breast, Florida bluegill, or rock bass. Think I’ve caught most of the rest tho

 

[Matth05]

I like catching sunfish species, as most lepomis species can be caught within 10 miles of where I live.
Tired to do a species slam on Friday during my lunch break and managed to get 4

redear

Bluegill

green

pumpkinseed
View attachment 1541326
Longear
View attachment 1541324View attachment 1541325
A black spot and a warmouth I caught in Florida,
I have caught a dollar sunfish before. Have yet to catch Sacramento, red breast, Florida bluegill, or rock bass. Think I’ve caught most of the rest tho

The Southeast has a couple species I’d love to catch. Warmouth and Shellcrackers (iirc this is the same as a redear?) are definitely two of of them, but dollar sunfish are genuinely one of my favorites. It’s a fish I’d seriously consider keeping in an aquarium as well since they don’t grow as boisterous as the other Lepomis.

 

[Kayden]

The Southeast has a couple species I’d love to catch. Warmouth and Shellcrackers (iirc this is the same as a redear?) are definitely two of of them, but dollar sunfish are genuinely one of my favorites. It’s a fish I’d seriously consider keeping in an aquarium as well since they don’t grow as boisterous as the other Lepomis.

Yep, thats a red ear. They honestly are super underrated in terms of panfishing, get much bigger than a bluegill too IME.
I kept the dollar sunfish I caught, and don’t know where you heard they weren’t as boisterous. Mine are the tail off of my payara, so I put him in the aggressive tank and he bullied a jaguar cichlid that was about an inch bigger than him (he was only about an inch and a half) and killed my baby TSN, this is the only picture I could find of him. Glaring at me from Jain right before I fed him to my grouper for his crimes


I’ve found long ear are probably the least aggressive sunfish species, and it’s good cus they are the prettiest too!

 

[Matth05]

Yep, thats a red ear. They honestly are super underrated in terms of panfishing, get much bigger than a bluegill too IME.
I kept the dollar sunfish I caught, and don’t know where you heard they weren’t as boisterous. Mine are the tail off of my payara, so I put him in the aggressive tank and he bullied a jaguar cichlid that was about an inch bigger than him (he was only about an inch and a half) and killed my baby TSN, this is the only picture I could find of him. Glaring at me from Jain right before I fed him to my grouper for his crimes
View attachment 1541327

I’ve found long ear are probably the least aggressive sunfish species, and it’s good cus they are the prettiest too!

Wow I had no idea they had the potential to be so feisty. I was under the impression they had a more docile temper. Nonetheless, still a fish I’d love to try one day. Probably wouldn’t go about mixing them with any kind of cichlid either lol. The smaller max size is another plus in my book as well. Feel most Lepomis would seem cramped in anything smaller than a 6ft tank. 4-5 inch max size however, that’s a lot more reasonable for a smaller tank like a 75g for example.

 

[Kayden]

Caught some studs today

(Finnish fillet knife blade is 11ish inches)
And was graced with a gorgeous hybrid,

With the rain and murky water, I’ve switched to a and orange microjig tipped with worms. I bounce it a few times near a drainage pipe or a felled tree and usually get some nice bites. Excited to try for crappie soon now I’m getting some expirience jigging

 

[Matth05]

With the rain and murky water, I’ve switched to a and orange microjig tipped with worms. I bounce it a few times near a drainage pipe or a felled tree and usually get some nice bites. Excited to try for crappie soon now I’m getting some expirience jigging

Small jig heads and soft plastics is where almost all my confidence lies when it comes to panfishing. Most of the time it’s a small 1/16 or 1/20 oz jig head with some variety Zman plastic. The price and durability of Zman’s soft plastic is hard to beat for me. I’m able to use the same rig over and over and I usually only re-rig if I get snagged and break off.

My other confidence setup is a small drop shot rig. 1/8 oz weight at the absolute max, depending on the kind of water I’m fishing. Along with like a size 8 or 10 hook. Like 95% of the time I’m using a Powerbait floating trout worm on my drop shot.

 

[james99]

Terrible picture, but I caught this one Saturday evening. Really wish I was using my Shakespeare micro spin reel, would've felt like trying to pull in a truck.

 

[Matth05]

Couple of nice catches over the last few weeks. Finally able to get out to the creeks and rivers to catch some redbreasts, my favorite of course.
The pumpkinseeds have been out in full force, spawning I assume. I live within walking distance, literally like one block, of one of the larger lakes in my area. It’s tough for bass but just like last year I had no idea that my local lake had such a healthy pumpkinseed population. This first male’s eye color was just ridiculous.
Went with a buddy later last week to what has become my go-to pumpkinseed lake. About a 30-40 minute hike to this lake so it gets significantly less pressure, and almost always produces. Some really nice sized pumpkinseeds and gills.

 

[Matth05]

It must be massive bluegill season in NJ because as far as panfish goes that’s pretty much all I’ve been catching.
This caught me off guard as well the last few days. Rainbow trout in mid June?! Managed to catch two rainbow trout, both at separate locations. The one in the photo was at a river, where the water usually stays pretty cold year round. That’s more of a normal catch. But today I caught another rainbow at a lake, where as far as I know they don’t stock trout.

On another note, there’s a pretty good chance my father and I take a several day trip to my grandparents’ in Puerto Rico this summer. And if we do go we both plan on bringing at least one ultra light rod each, maybe a medium light spinning rod for Peacock bass. The entire island is basically infested with feral cichlids so seems like it’d be a fun time. Everything from Peacock bass and Parachromis to Convicts and Midas.