LIVE BAIT FOR PANFISH

Worms, medium sized ones of the light colored variety, are the traditional and most consistently successful live bait for panfish, although small minnows, crickets, small crawfish, hellgramites, weed worms and many other live baits are also good. Use a 7 ft. to 9 ft. leader, tapered from .015 to 2 X (.008 inches diameter), with a light wire hook, No. 10 or No. 12.
A long, fine leader is very important in panfish angling. Hook the worm lightly through the skin. Do not let the ends of the worm dangle too much or the sunfish will take the worm ends without ever getting hooked. Again don’t make too big a bunch of the worm, and do not string the worm through the body up the shank of the hook, small boy fashion. This reduces your chances of hooking a fish and, besides that, kills the worm. You want the worm to wiggle in the water. No panfish can resist a wiggling worm dangled in front of him.

45°-60° Water
In water from 45° to 50°, panfish begin to roam into medium depth water-5 ft. to 15 ft. mostly. As the water warms, they go further into the shallows; between 55° and 60°, you will usually find them in water from 3 ft. to 10 ft. deep, near the shore lines, in weed beds and in brush pile cover around stumps or the tangled upper branches of underwater trees and logs. Rocky shores and gravel bars are also likely places for panfish.
In this water temperature bracket, live bait is still the most successful method of catching panfish, though nymphs, small streamer-flies and small bucktails begin to take more and more bluegills and sunfish. Perch and bullheads remain bait fish clear through—except that perch will take a spinner-andfly or, still better, a spinner-and-worm at all medium depths.

60-80 Water
In water from 60° clear up to 80°, you’ll find the sunfish and bluegill type of panfish in shallow water-6 inches to 3ft. or 4 ft. They spawn in the spring, on sand bottom, in water around 62° F. While in shallow water sunfish, bluegills, crappie and rock bass all take flies freely. When in the shallows you can either fish for panfish from the shore, by wading or from a boat. If you fish from the shore, pick out a good spot, then work the water by first casting along the shore line, parallel to the bank on either side with a fairly short line, then fish in a circle fanwise from the shore with the same length casts, each cast four to six feet from the last. When you have completed the arc, lengthen your line; and repeat the process with the longer line, casting parallel to the shore both ways, and then covering the arc fanwise with your longer line. Don’t overlook the deeper water.