Fall pannies...

[CrappieJohn]

We have seen discussion here about fishing the fall pannies and where to look for them. A while back we looked at breaks, what they consisted of, and how they played into the late season fishing senario. And just yesterday Corey posted about finding fish loaded up on a steep break.

More and more waters will be turning over now and things can get a bit hectic while trying to stay with the fish, but one place that will hold them will be a break. It may be a vertical column of deep weeds, it may be drop-off with very sharp edges, it may be a point with deep water on one or both sides, it might be a simple as a vertical piece of submerged wood, but one thing is certain....the break will hold fish at this time of year.

With the water temps going downhill, I usually look for fish to be re-locating to areas where I found the immediately after the spawn dispersal. The big difference is that post spawn fish will go into a horizontal disposition- they spread out thru the water horizontally- and now they are going to be more of a vertical creature- they will move horizontally to get from spot to spot, but they'll feed in a fashion more in tune with winter fish. The fish will tighten up as far as schools go and become far less scattered.

Not unlike the period of open water right after ice out, you need to approach these fish being prepared to do battle on thier terms. That means hitting the water with very complete tackle assortments and at the very least waxies or grubs of some sort. Minnows for those who lack confidence in artificial baits.

At this time of year, electronics can really shine on your behalf in locating schools of these fish once you understand where they are going to be found. When I find numbers of fish I will either work them using the electric if it is calm enough, or I'll quietly slip a pair of anchors down just to the side of the bulk of the school. Done as such you can fish these fish very near to vertical. If a simple drop gets only smaller fish and I know there are larger fish there I will cast away from the school and allow the lure to drop , then bring it into the school.

As mentioned, bait preference can be variable and might change quite often, so being adaptable is essential.....don't be afraid to try different baits and techniques. If the fish are going great guns, it doesn't hurt to hang something different on the line to learn more about it and how to fish it and you can always go back to the tried and true quickly. On the other hand, if fish are not cooperating it will certainly not be doing any harm to try a different approach....you aren't catching anything anyway.

Fall fishing is great. The fish can be anywhere in the water column, but the steeper the structure, the better. As a rule, the feeding fish will be off the bottom, but by all means do test those that are the deepest as they can be the hottest on occasion.

Be it hair, plastic, jigging spoons, or live bait, these fall fish are structure junkies and have usually got a pretty good feedbag on. This is an excellent time to have an absolute ball with pannies. Get out and enjoy it!

[Corey Bechtold]

Good post Tom! How are the fish doing down in your parts?

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[CrappieJohn]

Since getting back from the cabin I have not been out, but plan to start up again next week after the temps drop back. I know that the crappies will begin to get aggresive shortly and they can be a riot on the Zumbro then.

The river might not see much of me with these high gas prices. A trip or two might get made before the deer season and a few afterwards for the walleye and sauger bite, but things will get peeled back this year unless something happens with the petroleum industry and the unreal prices for us to have some fun.

[Matt Johnson]

Great post Tom! Man, I need to chase some pannies!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CrappieJohn]

Last saturday and yesterday were absolutely nuts with sunfish! The fish in the lake I have been hitting are relating to the first primary break in quite deep water and if the water depth at the point they begin to hit along that break is, say 5 feet, you can fish at that depth well away from the break and still be into very nice fish.

Ya,ya I know, I am supposed to be the plastics fanatic, but.... The best bait I have found for these fish is a 1/16 go-devil in glo red fished with a waxie. I simply cast it out, count it down to where the fish are hitting and "hop" jig it back to the boat. Glo purple in a couple other bsimilar baits has been a very decent producer along with glo blue. All of these baits are "typical" ice fishing lures and I have been murdering the fish using them.

Plastic? Yes the fish are still dong the plastics bite, however I have had to come down in profile dramatically to get results. An orange 1/32 head with a chartreuse "little worm" put out by Southern Pro has been the hottie in this department.

How do they stack up against one another? The go devil has outfished the plastic by about 4 to 1!

[lars0926]

Tom. I've been experiencing the same thing with plastics. Need to go small. When I was using larger plastics, I was getting nudged, but no connections. As soon as I downsized, dramatic improvement.

With the warm weather (prior to today) we were picking gills and crappies out of the same dropoff line as post-spawn (about 14-18'). They were holding very tight to the bottom. The crappies, unlike the gills, were definately not afraid to come up the water column after a jig.

P.S. We had two crappies that we reeled in a little quick. They both did the dead float for about 10 mintues before swimming down again. I know it's been covered in posts before, but it seems to be happening like it does in early spring where some of the fish don't react well to being pulled from the deep quickly.