Fishing Articles — Crappie

Catching panfish on first ice is not rocket science. Bluegills, sunfish, crappies, and perch are still relatively active when ice first forms. It’s basically an extension of the hot fall fishery for a while. Weeds are still green and producing oxygen, waters are not super chilled yet and panfish are still actively feeding. On first ice, you can get away with heavier line, larger floats and jumbo wax worms and still catch panfish. Things change though as winter deepens. As weeds die they become less hospitable to panfish. Oxygen levels plummet and oxygen-starved panfish become increasingly dormant. Forced out of...

Ask most folks what’s the first fish you have ever caught? The bluegill will most likely be the answer. Many anglers first love affair and introduction to the sport of fishing were through fishing for panfish. The gill is native to North America and lives in streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds. It is commonly found east of the Rockies.  If I had to choose one of my favorite fish to eat you would hear me mention species like a perch and walleye, but at the top of the list; I would have to say the bluegill. Those tasty fish belong in a...

Great Lakes Angler – August-September 2016   Lake Erie perch fishing was on fire! (2016). After a productive spring fishing season off New York’s large chunk of shoreline, anglers will be looking for a repeat performance in the fall. In fact, perch action can be good all year long if you know where to look and how to fish for them. Seeing 150 to 200 empty boat trailers at the parking area of Sturgeon Point Marina in Derby was not an uncommon sight in the spring … when the perch are “on.” Finding the fleet of boats to mark the...

The Lost Perch of Erie's Central Basin “For the past three years, the perch fishing has been bad. I’ve been running half the perch trips that I ran four years ago,” said Vitas Kijauskas, Captain of the Cleveland head boat, the Linda Mae. “This past spring looked promising, and then the perch fishing from June through November was dismal.” This has been a common refrain from the perch fishermen in Lake Erie’s central basin. Ohio’s central basin runs from Cranberry Creek, in the west, to the Pennsylvania line, in the east. While the caught perch tend to be huge, their...

Lake Ontario was silky smooth as Captain Frank Campbell slipped the boat into position along a shoreline break. “Uncharacteristically flat for April,” he said. “Boat control won’t be the problem. Let’s see if the fish stayed home in this clear water.” We came to Niagara Falls to drift bait for steelhead in the Niagara River, and maybe drop some spoons on the Niagara Bar for lake trout. But Campbell said we had to spend at least one morning experiencing the pre-spawn smallmouths on the shallow shoals of Lake Ontario. The water temperature read 43°F. After a long, cold winter in...