Fishing for Crappies Using Live-Scoping Sonar
Tony Sheppard hasn’t put the rod holders in his boat all year, and that’s odd for a professional crappie fisherman whose home waters are Kentucky and Barkley lakes.
Tactics for Summer Crappie and Bluegills
It’s always surprised me that as the spawn season wraps, a lion-share of anglers forget about crappies and bluegills—at least anywhere panfish vacate shallow water in favor of deeper, less-conspicuous haunts. Deep water has undeniable appeal to the lake’s largest specimens. Every time I’ve crossed paths with crappies in basins or bluegills on deeper flats and humps, they always are hefty, healthy animals, tails spilling well over the palms of our outstretched hands.
Finding Big Bluegill in Spring
There are several reasons why spring is the season to invest most of your bluegill-hunting time: Fish are bigger than they’ll be all year and the tall corn—the cabbage, rice, cane, and pads they use to break free—won’t be fully developed yet. From spawn time through fall, the rules change.
Fishing Spring Panfish
The watery world is no exception. Melting ice gives way to a revitalized food web: micro-invertebrates and other tiny critters flitter about, vegetation germinates, minnows cruise the shallows, feeding opportunistically on the influx of nutrients, and panfish and larger predators like bass and northern follow.
The Search for Giant Perch
Yellow perch hold a special place in the hearts of hardcore panfish anglers. Seasoned anglers can recount the precise details surrounding the capture of their biggest yellow perch from decades past as though it was yesterday. Others spin tales of the day they got into a mother lode of jumbos and filled a fish basket too heavy to lift.
Thermocline Panfish
A story or two beneath the surface lies an almost supernatural veil of water where more life, death, and other astonishing things happen than any of us probably care to imagine.