Poppin' for Pannies

[Matt Johnson]

Panfish are often times an aggressive fish, and when approaching aggressive fish you have more options on how to catch them, and thats because they are willing to bite more presentations. Sure, a worm and a bobber will catch you panfish, so will a jig and plastic, but have you ever tried poppers? You might have seen fish feeding on the surface in the past, feeding on things such as mayflies, bugs, and other insects. This is the time for poppin' for pannies!

You find these schools of surface feeding panfish amongst weed beds, just off the weed line, in shallow bays, all over the lake. This panfish are eager to strike anything that is squirming on the surface, and they will strike with a splash. You can use your normal panfish equipment to pop for pannies, a fly rod will work very well too. But there are a few minor adjustments needed to get these lightweight poppers in the strike zone.

Since the popper only weighs a fraction of a fraction of an ounce, you can't cast them too far, you really can't cast them at all with your spinning gear, but by adding a small bobber about 2 feet above the popper you not only have a further cast, but a no-lie strike indicator. I bet you are wondering why you need a strike indicator, I mean isn't the splash enough? Nope, these panfish can be so aggressive that they will sometimes miss when attempting to inhale the popper, causing the fisherman to set the hook only to find the popper and bobber flying back towards boat or shoreline at high speed. Another reason is that the panfish might only momentarily grab hold of the popper, only to release is shortly after. The reason why the bobber acts as a strike indicator is that after a panfish makes a successful strike on the popper, it will cause there to be tension between the popper and bobber, and this will cause the bobber to either stand up or move indicating that the panfish has the bait. See, because the popper floats, and there is no weight below the bobber, the bobber will stay on its side, while the popper floats helplessly behind it. Just add some twitches and small jerks and be ready for the splash.

I like to use light line, no heavier than 4 pound test, rigged on a 6 foot ultralight spinning rod when popper fishing. I like to work a twitch/pause retrieve, and most of the strikes will come on the pause part of the sequence. Be ready to chase the school of panfish, they will sometimes move as you approach them and pull up a few fish, so just pay attention to the small surface eruptions and you'll stay hot on their tail!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[This message has been edited by Matt Johnson (edited 06-16-2004).]

[Lost]

Been considering that myself this year. I've been seeing a lot of top-water eating. Wish they could get rid of all these pesky syringes with wings.

Are there color preferences? Shape preferences? What about hair-covered ice-fishing jigs? Do you think they'll work as they slowly sink?

[united jigsticker]

You have just let a nasty Cat out of the bag Matt!!!

The secrets out. Beware all Bluegills everywhere!!!

Truth be told, I have a bunch of them little poppers in my tackle box. The bumble bee color pattern works best in my opinion...

However, I do not target Sunfish, but find them eager to bite these morsules when I use them for Crappies (yep, works for them too!)

------------------
Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[Corey Bechtold]

Very true and if you fly fish this can be a blast! You always seem to get a few Bass this way too. Good post again Matt.

Corey Bechtold

[CrappieJohn]

This can be an exciting opening act for the summer fishing theatre. Lots of activity is getting up and running in the waters and insect hatches are beginning to change crappie and sunfish eating habits. With the crappie spawn winding down and sunfish at full bore with the deed, we will be approaching a period that can yield very fickle fishing.

One of the best ways to find these bug eating machines now is to take a look at your pet water in the evening when it is quiet or on days when overcast and wind free. See any dappling? Just inch over there and toss a fly/popper rigged as Matt has suggested and hold on. You may get more than you bargained for.

As the water warms the bug life seems to come from everywhere. Hatches are frequent and the fish...all fish...will take advantage of feeding on this nutrient-rich food source. Crappies will be found out over/in weeds in open water, maybe near some deeper water for safety. Sunfish will be near weeds- often times right in with the crappies, or along shoreline as they gaurd nests. Remember though, waldos are bug eaters at times and if they are present in your lake and the crappies are on bugs- so are they. Different waters have bottom contents which are prime for supporting bug life and reproduction....consentrate on those ares. Look for sandy, muck, or a combination of the two, for bottom make-up and then look for cover that fish will use.Be there just as things settle down for the evening and watch the water. Fish dappling and feeding wqill be very apparent and might even be noisy. Keeping your distance, quietly slide close enough to cast your fly/popper rig and enjoy.

Personally, I'd increase the leader length a foot or even more from what Matt has suggested and I'd use a 7' ultra-light rod. There are clear casting floats available for this sort of fishing. Can't find any of these?....no sweat.Just look for the evry smallest of the snap on hard plastic red/white or orange/yellow ones. Just be sure that when you're fishing that you keep that leader as straight and tight between the lure and the float as you can. The hits may be a simple sucking action down into the water or they can sound like the fish is try to suck in a pop can. Either way, this can be some exciting fishing and can be an excellent way to introduce kids old enough to cast on their own to the world of the artificial bait. This method of fishing can be red-hot at times!

------------------
Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
Catch-n Tackle
[email protected]

[danny berg]

I agree with Corey. Fly fishing with a popper, or a dry fly for panfish is DA BOMB.
I will throw a few bigger flys and poppers for Bass. My favorite fly for late summer/fall bass fishing is a grasshopper dry fly. I don't know where to get these in the metro, I usually pick up a few every year while in Montana, where I go to fish the Bighorn River.

[mnrstrider]

Ohhh yeah I can't wait to dust off the fly rod for some popper action.

[Trapr]

I have been using white foam spiders for the last 3 weaks now with great success. I tied them up with craft foam from Walmart and white round rubber legs. I have not had my fly rod out yet just used 'em behind a small weighted bobber in my spinning rod. I also tried black spiders but they were harder to see. It is great fun to watch those bluegills come half out of the water to hit the spiders. On the longer casts the bobber or a strike indicator is a must as the fly does not ride all that high in the water. You have to wait to see the bobber move or feel a tug on the line before setting the hook. Kinda like fishing topwater baits for bass. If you strike on the swirl, you will miss more than you catch. I have to try a spider with a split shot and no bobber next time out. Like a floating jig head and then some.

[codeman]

These little poppers work especially well in the early spring when the main body of water is still iced over and the north bay or channel opens up. The gillies and crappies have a tendancy to migrate to this open water. If the fish pop and drop, try tipping with a little maggot. The panfish will usually hold on to the popper longer, if they don't inhale it, with this presentation.

[troutbreath]

Trapr,

If you are willing to share, I'd love to know the pattern you are using for those spiders.

TIA,

TB

[Rino]

My favorites are the lemons as shown above the gills can't leave them alone. When we were kids we fished a spot that was loaded with bullheads, we would float poppers over them and pull out some nice bluegills.

[Matt Johnson]

Rino,
Thats a very good topic to bring up. Bullheads and gill relations. I've noticed in a few lakes that the gills will roam around with the bullheads, especially in dirty water. Anyone else have any comments on this one?

Good one Rino!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[Lunker]

I haven't fished a lot of arti's for gills, but I can say it's quite amazing when I'm fishing with bigger bass poppers and these big 7"-10" gills slam these things and actually get the bigger trebles in there mouths. Reminds me of why they're my favorite ice fishing/light tackle quarry.

[This message has been edited by Lunker (edited 06-25-2004).]

[Guest]

I used to fly fish with poppers as well as wet flies years ago at my parents cabin in Brainerd. Man was that fun. Especially the poppers because the lake had very clear water and you could actually watch the fish come up and hit it. Sometime they would come up within 2-3 inches of the popper and you could actually see their eyes moving as they watched the lure. Most of the time if you gave it a little twitch and smack, they'd hit it. What a blast! Thanks for the memories!!!

[Matt Breuer]

I have to pop in on this one, the bullhead bluegill relationship. A number of my favorite bluegill lakes hold a number of massive brown bullheads and I've never seen any correlation between the two. Am I missing something? We don't have huge numbers of bullheads in this area, but we do have good numbers of bull 'gills, and I never find them together.

------------------
Matthew J. Breuer
Northcountry Guide Service
[email protected]
-----------------------
Custom Jigs and Spins
Phelps Tackle
Today's Tackle
Stone Legacy
Bluewater Bait

[Matt Breuer]

By the way Matt, great article, and great times fly fishing on calm days for crappies and 'gills with topwater stuff like poppers, ants, and grub flys!!

------------------
Matthew J. Breuer
Northcountry Guide Service
[email protected]
-----------------------
Custom Jigs and Spins
Phelps Tackle
Today's Tackle
Stone Legacy
Bluewater Bait