Trolling for Pan Fish

[Pat_Rodger]

The other day I was preparing my fishing gear for a trip with my brother Mike and my son Luke. We were going to fish a metro lake and we were going to concentrate on pan fish. I realized that I needed to take a trip to the local sporting goods store to get some tackle and bait. I have some confidence lures I like to use and they just happen to be considered ice fishing lures. As I’m searching thru the aisles and coming up empty handed I asked Tom the stores associate if they had any Northland Mud Bugs or Lindy Fat Boys. He gave me a dirty look and jokingly said the ice fishing season is not here yet. Unfortunately I struck out on getting my favorite lures and Tom asked why they were so important to me. “I troll with them” I said. Once again Tom laughed at me and said “you use those lures to troll for pan fish?” As he was walking away from me he was giggling saying “trolling for pan fish.”

I know that there are a few certain stores that carry ice fishing lures year round but they are what you could say not in my back yard so travel to get that tackle is at an inconvenience. Just because the ice melts does not mean I have to put that tackle on the shelf, I use it all year long and think that certain lures should stay on the shelves all year long.

I discovered trolling for pan fish as I was fishing from my kayak. It has become a very successful method of catching both Crappie and Sunfish for me. I have done it in as shallow as five and as deep as 20 feet. This style of fishing is perfect for moving over deep weed beds to locate fish or to stay in touch with moving schools of fish. If you have not tried this you may be missing out on some great fishing action.

My rod of choice is a six foot medium action with a quick tip, one that you can feel the slightest resistance. A good spinning reel with 4 pound test line usually monofilament. Two lures that are common for me to use are a Lindy Fat Boy and a Northland Mud Bug in bright colors and I tip these with either some Berkley Gulp Alive 1” minnows or some Northland Impulse minnows.

My troll is slow generally around ½ mile an hour. With practice you can judge your depth of your lure by pumping your rod up and down. For me three pumps is good for eighteen feet of water and I try to keep my line at a 45 degree angle, so if needed add a split shot either right at the lure or up the line some. I tend to find that a split shot separated from my lure draws attention away from the lure so I generally just pinch it on right at the lure, I have found that this does not seem to affect the fish at all.

I hope that this method of trolling for pan fish is as successful for you as it is for me. I believe that movement is a big key to success. Good luck and remember that select harvest is a must for our future.

Pat

[Fuzzbient]

Pat - I've had some awesome times trolling for panfish too! I tend to use small crank baits like rattlin raps. Seems to weed out the smaller fish and sure is fun! Good luck!

[Fred_Bear]

I am simply astounded at how few people take advantage of trolling for panfish.

The following pictures all feature fish caught trolling in the couple days I've fished panfish this summer:

[grey ghost]

When fishing for panfish I troll 95% of the time with a 1/8 ounce jig and 3in grub body. Caught many nice fish that way. It's been very productive for me over the last 10 years for both crappie and sunfish.

[Lunker Luke]

Nice pan Fish.