Catching Panfish: Year Round

Prize Panfish

By Bruce Litton

          Rock bass, pumpkinseeds, bluegills, redbreast sunfish, green sunfish, crappies, yellow perch and white perch, they all taste great when fried in a skillet, but more to them exists than a grab bag taken home after fishing. I mention rock bass first for two reasons. They’re a secret favorite of mine because of my fly fishing as a boy at Stony Brook in Mercer County, and because my son and I never caught any on our favorite Lake Hopatcong until last year. One of those, almost a pound, took a herring set for walleye, 25 feet down. They’re not proper bass, but not sunfish, either, and the more familiar you become with them, the less of a nuisance they may seem.

          Every panfish is a beauty. Rings, pearls, and all the rosy hues of sunrise. Steal away under cover of twilight, and let the sun’s first rays find reflection. Even brown tones on a rock bass have luster to admire. Pumpkinseeds feature fantastic colors. When hooked, rock bass and crappies don’t kick like bluegills or pumpkinseeds, but if every fish fought the same, we could never feel variety in the game’s wonder. Redbreasts don’t grow as large as other panfish. Nor do green sunfish, although I’ve caught some weighing nearly a pound on the Delaware River, fighting hard on light tackle.

          A good friend of mine, Noel Sell, specializes in panfish, using a Loomis rod and Daiwa Certrate 1003 spinning reel. He fishes VMC Mooneye, Lunker City Fin-S, and Cubby jigs, among others. Jigging, even plugging for perch and crappies, will satisfy in sporting ways, but why turn your nose down on small nightcrawlers? Live bait given, for fish taken, immerses you in nature. Lures never balance natural approach to natural pursuit as bait can. We never bother with bobbers, crimping split shots and often pressing a Berkeley Worm Blower, instead. A hypodermic needle injects air into a crawler’s tail. Some fishing is hot enough to skip this tactic, when we use nightcrawler pieces to save supply.

           It’s up to you. My son and I fish lures or bait as we find fit. You don’t need a Loomis rod and an expensive reel for either purpose, unless the likes suit your pleasure. We use ultra-light rods I built myself from St. Croix blanks, not to save money, savings were little, but for the personal value of craft well done. The 1000-series reels we mount cost about 50 bucks. I also enjoy catching redbreast sunfish on nymph patterns at the North Branch Raritan, on my 2-weight TFO fly rod and Flyrise 1 reel.

           Panfishing happens year round. When Orion the Hunter slips behind sunlight, silvery white perch are a South Jersey winter chase, yellow perch classic ice fishing statewide. I never forget a January foray for sunfish at a Stony Brook pool, edged by ice, below a dam eight feet high just upstream of Carter Road. I was 12 years old and desperate for a bite on my worm, which never happened, but in the mansion of memory, it is the best attempt. I still feel the bitter cold. And relish it.

          If you fish a pond early in the spring for bass, and that water temperature you’re so eager to witness hit the 50-degree mark isn’t there, you might spot sunnies in the shallows. Usually they’re small, but the size you want to hook position a little deeper where you don’t see them. They’ll take worms or nightcrawlers. They’ll knock a jig, too. On lakes, such as Hopatcong, Greenwood, Assunpink, or Union, various reservoirs too, maneuver a boat into coves and fish those residual weeds. If coves aren’t weedy, such as Spruce Run Reservoir’s, you’ll still find fish in protected spots. White perch will position deep, however, and during the fall, we often catch them on herring in Lake Hopatcong, while fishing for walleye and hybrid stripers.

         Warm water finds panfish almost everywhere deep as weeds grow, and shallower, but white perch roam openly. On Manasquan Reservoir, we once trolled Rat-L-Traps behind the electric-powered boat as we shuttled between spots, seeking largemouths. Maybe hybrid stripers would hit.

          Whack! “Hey, it’s a pretty good fish!”

          But not hybrid. One after another, we caught white perch in deep open water, each about a pound-and-a-half. I regret not tossing them on the boat’s floor to take home and fry. My specialist friend might commend our releasing them, since he’s conservation minded, but he does own a meat smoker and uses it on fish.

          Panfish come easily. Go light and you’ll get some. Unless the challenge involves a frigid stream, you can almost always count on plenty. The ultimate test is to get over any denigration and prize them. I’ve secretly acknowledged their status ever since that day near Princeton.

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2011/09/stony-brook-princeton-carp-attempt.html

          

Feeling the Urge

I felt dormant over the winter. Very busy, very active, but not much out-of-doors. I finally felt familiar urges to get out, and on a notepad while at work, sketched in few words plans to wake early and fish salmon eggs for trout, and if we get a warm morning, cast spinners for bass again. I did get out and fish spinners twice unsuccessfully in recent weeks, and feel good about that, but I'd like to connect.

I was up at 7:00 a.m. today, but not on way to the water, but to Bernardsville Auto for front brakes, thinking I was a fool not to have Mike Maxwell do them and save me an hour-and-a-half travel and time there all-round. (We picked the car up tonight.) Mike lives here in the neighborhood and replaces brakes in front of his condo. Less expensively, too. Not to mention that he's a good friend I could have helped out, but he doesn't do oil changes. John at Bernardsville Auto did that last week...when he discovered the need of brakes. And, since he's done work for us for the past 20 years or so, we couldn't skip out on him and be polite.

So, in short, I'm too busy to get out. I had hoped to fish salmon eggs with Mike Maxwell on Opening Day, and if I couldn't get out then, as it happened, then on Monday or Tuesday. I later remembered, almost just in time, my doctor appointment Monday morning, and something else knocked out Tuesday.

I haven't fished with Mike in ages, and would really like to.

Plans will hold--I'm sure--for Wednesday with Jorge. Salmon eggs for trout, but we're bringing some rather large jigs, too, after Fred Matero sent me a photo of his 19-inch rainbow Saturday that struck a two-inch Powerbait paddletail. We'll use those on heavier so-called "ultra" light rods. We will enjoy a big day.

The microlight rod I've been building is almost done. I put the first coat of varnish on the wraps tonight. I have a 2.5/64 rod tip I got from Mudhole for it, but it's an ice fishing rod tip with a large diameter ring to combat ice formation. I have searched and searched online, and just cannot find a tip top with a 2.5 tube or smaller and a ring with narrow diameter. The microlight I bought at Ray's Sporting Goods in North Plainfield--my wife and I lived in that town for a year, good memories--had the perfect tip top until I broke the tip section immediately below it and lost that tip top, but when it comes to finding the likes, the market seems completely empty. There just isn't enough demand, or not as yet. Maybe if my book gets published, demand will develop. After all, for a couple of decades after I broke news about the microlight method in The New Jersey Fisherman, 1977, microlight rods did become available on the market. You find anything like them very rarely now. Stanhope Bait and Boat did carry a four-foot Mity Master a year ago. I don't find the brand online. Three-and-a-half feet is more like it, though I have no complaint about the three feet, 10 inches of the rod I bought at Ray's.

At least I found a 2.0/64 tube tip top at Jann's Netcraft with a somewhat smaller diameter ring. That goes to show just how light the tips of my microlights. Ultralight rod tip sections are about twice as thick, taking 4.0/64 tip tops. I ordered two at $1.05 each and they should arrive in days. With shipping, the order was $9.45. (You could mail them in a little envelope, they're so light.)

I also got Suffix one-pound test, which will be interesting.   

Tried Bedminster Pond Again

Told Mike Maxwell earlier they'd be hitting over there. Two of us stood outside, temps in the 60's. It's funny how in society we tend to be so sure of ourselves, even when, at least on a deeper level, we know better. Bass are fickle this time of year. Fishing can be real good, like March 31st last year at 56 degrees when I caught eight in about an hour at this pond. Or, despite even "better" temperature, they don't hit at all. There has to be some reason for it, and it is true wind had come up, the front blowing in, temperature slipping easily, but I don't know if that was why.

I soon switched out my Blue Fox for a Mepp's Aglia that allowed me a slower retrieve through shallows. I like the reflecto tape on the blade, too, in sunlight like this afternoon's. Soon after casting that more than a dozen times, I switched to a Senko, and after nothing took it along a sunny shoreline where I catch bass when they're hitting, I headed towards that deep corner I remarked on last week.

I began fishing the edges of all that brush in the water. You would think a few bass would be there and willing to take a Senko, but nothing happened. In the meantime, I noticed someone else was fishing the corner itself, so I left him alone, and eventually got back to that sun-exposed shoreline, switching out for the Mepp's again.

I did get some suspicious bumps. No weed came in on the treble. And you'd think one of those bumps, if it were wood, would result in some grab, but that never happened. It was if bass just bumped the blade momentarily. Who knows.

Bass are certainly there somewhere in that pond. I also saw a golden/white carp about 28 inches long, when I finished by fishing a pretty deep corner out of the sun near the lot. That fish moved along the edge just out from shore persistently, active as I expected of the bass.

Some kind of duckweed growing in the water.

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2018/03/18-inch-largemouth.html

South Branch Raritan 53 Degrees this Morning

South Branch Raritan Ken Lockwood Gorge six days before the Opener.

If I were a true diehard, I would have got up at dawn this morning and fished Bedminster Pond. I know this, because I was right on the pulse of local waters during my teens. Yesterday, temperatures climbed to nearly 80. I think it was in the 60's when I walked Sadie near midnight. If I were still a true diehard, I would have realized dawn would be a real good time to fish bass today.

Trish walked Sadie early. It was warm out.

Instead, I had introduced Trish to Jim Holland at Shannon's Fly Shop in Califon this afternoon, and in the course of conversation, he told us the river's temperature this morning was 53. I was taken off-guard by this information, truly astonished...kind of like a greenhorn. Not like an angler who thinks first and foremost about the condition of his local waters.

I'm just being honest with you. First and foremost with myself. Such an angler as I admire in my mind at present is an ideal that possibly doesn't exist, perhaps, but he's certainly possible. And actually, by reading the NJ Fishing.com message board, I think quite a few of them do exist.

About a year ago, my life came to a critical juncture. I thought I could go deeper into fishing yet, immersing myself so deeply in nature that I would cross the line to identify myself primarily with the world outside, instead of with home and culture. Or I could stay within limits that, especially at my age, might be thought sane.





https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2013/09/four-pound-smallmouth-bass-south-branch.html

Gave Bedminster Pond a Try

It was cold last night. The water might not have reached 45 degrees, but I really couldn't tell. It's unusually clear and the dark bottom of such shallow water absorbed today's sunlight, possibly enough to have warmed it more than last night's cold would make me think. 

As I write just after 4:30, it's 48 degrees. Maybe I'm the diehard--you be the judge of that--who just got in a little reel time, but I did see baitfish, surely sunnies, abandon their position en masse at the surface when I approached a beaver mess near shore. (Photograph is below.) 

Not as much of a breeze on the water as I wanted, but if I had taken Senkos along in my bag, possibly--not likely--I would have felt otherwise. Because I did get all the way to the back of Bedminster Pond where water is deeper, although no more than about five feet deep. This is a very shallow pond that becomes all but unfishable by May 1st. Right about now, though, it often offers some very good bass fishing. 

To hit it just right, water temperature should be about 50 or warmer, a breeze rippling the surface, and maybe some sunlight. Last March 31st, I caught eight largemouths, one of them over three pounds, all on the Savko Special, a homemade spinner weighted lightly so I can retrieve it slowly in shallows. Like today, I wasn't out much more than an hour, perhaps.

Intended to work on the rod, but realized I forgot about the epoxy to secure the reel seat to the blank. Rather than driving to Bernardsville Hardware and possibly not finding the 30-minute epoxy I need, I ordered Rod Bond on Amazon. That arrives on April 2nd at the earliest, but I have time to do the job on April 10th; I should have it done before we begin trout fishing.

Have to phone Steve Vullo in 10 minutes. Talk about fall fishing for very big bass. Soon I'll write an article for The Fisherman including quotes from him.

Sunnies or other baitfish hung by this timber in large numbers.

Building a Rod

This afternoon, throwing an inline spinner might have worked for bass. Even in the very shallow neighborhood pond, the water wouldn't have warmed much higher than the low to mid 40's, but 45 is my magic number when it comes to water temperature and possibly scoring this way.

Instead, I had to install fire alarms or pay a stiff Condo Association fine. Otherwise, I worked on building a microlight rod for trout, very deeply satisfying. The sanding of the solid graphite ice fishing blank. And it sure felt good to see that annoying green paint on the tip disappear.

Had to order a bristle brush to apply rod coating to the now bare blank; even though I finished off with wet 600 grain sandpaper, I want that nice shiny finish. Believe it or not, though, it does add a little weight, logically a detriment, but practically negligible.

Looking to Sunday as another day to throw a spinner, I'll probably spend time with my wife instead. And then there's a week from today. Twenty six in the morning forecast, 48 for a high....no, not so good. If I were really enough of a diehard, I'd get out there and cast that spinner anyway. 

Think It's All Over

I'm not going to bug Laurie by emailing her again about it, but I think the ice is unsafe by now. She wrote me a week ago that she pretty much expected ice fishing through this past weekend, and maybe that did happen, but as the very last of it all this season.

Joe Landolfi said Wednesday he would phone me tonight and we would arrange ice fishing on Hopatcong this coming Wednesday, but he hasn't called, probably because he figures the same. I told him Wednesday I'm definitely up for a try next year. Guess that's just my normal prescience.

It's late. Mid-March.

Matt says he wants to fly fish Wednesday.