Deep water pannies

[palisade1kid]

Fish deep water

for pan fish

With the water temperatures hovering around 50 degrees fishing those deep basins are where the pan fish are holding.

Yes they have made their move and if you have spots in the winter to catch those crappies and gills, well those are the same places to hit now and for the next 6-7 weeks until the lakes freeze up with their 1st coat of skim ice.

You will notice if you have electronics that the crappies are all suspended in their schools. The gills may also run up a bit higher too along the plankton lines that will be evident on your locator. You may need to bump up your gain a bit to see the plankton.

You should also see the gills just off of the bottom too.

There are a few different ways I like to fish to catch these cold water pan fish.

The 1st is pretty simple…vertical jigging.

By looking at how deep these fish are I’ll lower my small baits to just about the depth they are running, maybe a touch higher as they do feed up.

If you have a flasher you can fish just like you do in the winter. The key here is to anchor down with two anchors and keep the anchor rope tight to the boat. Slack will allow the boat to swing and make it nearly impossible to keep your bait in the sonar. A shorter rod helps too. Just make sure you drop down right next to your transducer puck. You’ll see your bait show up. Then it’s just a matter of dropping into the school and rising up. When a fish rises be ready to set the hook. You can even use your ice rods vertical jigging and yes it’s a hoot.

The other ways would be to have a slip bobber set up. When I watch my flasher I can see them stack up and that’s when I’m fishing vertically. Then as they disperse I’ll switch over to my slip bobber rig. Those fish did not move that far. A few casts and they are located again. While I’m fishing with the slip bobber rig I always keep an eye to the flasher. When I see them stack up again I will reel in my bobber rod and go back to vertical jigging.

Lastly another tried and true method is drop shotting. This technique works well if you are fishing an undulated bottom. Meaning that depths change. If I want to be 2 foot from the bottom the idea is to put the heavy weight, say 3/8th of an oz weight on the end of the line with my jig and say waxie about 2 foot up the line. Then by casting out you will have to let the weight settle. Then very slowly by reeling it in pausing several times for a few seconds.

You’ll feel the weight or the tap depending on how much sensitivity your rod has. The key here is to keep tension on the line.

This is a great time of year to fish for Crappies and Blue gills.

Tight Lines

CK

[Greg Clusiau]

Nice Keith. Hope we get a few like that tomorrow!

[dairyman]

thanks for the tips---looks like I'll be taking out the flasher sooner than I had expected

[Jack Peterson]

i fish with my flasher all year long!

[Greg Clusiau]

Not many gills today but we caught a bunch of crappies. We had to do a little traveling but we finally found some active fish on our third lake of the day. In the pic, Travis Sorokie and Greg Clusiau. Pic by Crappie Keith Nelson.

[mainbutter]

So here's the question for this thread:

How do you fish for deep panfish while being low-tech?

The only electronic equipment I use on the water is my cell phone and my point and shoot digital camera.

My watercraft is also powered by a mere two-armpower motor

Without a depth finder, fish finder, GPS, or flasher, is it worth trying to find deep pockets via a topography map to target panfish?

[Greg Clusiau]

A low-tech approach would be to:

Go to a lake that you are familiar with during the ice fishing season. It shouldn't be too deep, 20-30' preffered. Fish the same area.

Row out there and drop a small jig and minnow on the bottom and drift through it. Make sure the bait is on the bottom. Add a sinker up above the jig about 18" or so. Or use a live-bait rig with a crappie minnow.

Once you have found the fish, toss out a marker to keep you "in the game." Once you have found a good school of them, anchor to make staying on top of them a bit easier. Then you can experiment a little and lift your jig, for example, 2-3' off bottom, or use a slip-bobber.

And this part, which is really key, it all depends on what part of the state your are fishig in. The northernmost part of the state will offer good fall crappie fishing before the southern part. You may have to wait for it to get colder or head north.

Good luck.

[palisade1kid]

Here's some action from Sat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDnMvnigieo

[Greg Clusiau]

Hey,very nice job Keith. It was fun reliving the day. Keep up the good work!

[palisade1kid]

MainButter....if fishing is something you like and you want to catch fish more often you may want to invest in some electronics.

If you ice fish you may want to spend a few hundred on a marcum flasher.

[fisherdog19]

I sure am missing the fall crappie bite right now, but I am looking forward to the fall Redfish run. One of my favorite fall lakes is Leech Lake, and it has some monsters in it. I am soooo looking forward to my January trip to Lake Winnipeg for some monster greenbacks and a few days of panfishing in MN prior to heading up that way.

[pushbutton]

it has been a good fall, but since i have had my fix, would gladly trade you for the redfish run.....guess the water is always greener on the other side of the boat!