by Mike Banovetz
The optimist fisherman!
We start kids out with abundant easier to catch perch, blue gills and crappies and even rock bass. Where to fish for those tasty treats? If you are new to pan fishing, do as much networking and research as possible to decide what lake to fish before heading out. It is best to fish lakes with a reputation for pan fish. The DNR website lake finder can be a great resource for checking out the local lakes with lake survey results and other information like lake management plan and stocking. We are blessed with great blue gill lakes in the Ely area like Johnson Lake, One Pine, Little Long, and Miners Lake.
There are a variety of sunfish species in MN, but when it comes to DNR fish regulations they consider them to all be blue gills.
Bluegills inhabit many different areas of natural lakes, rivers, mine pits, and impoundments, but can commonly be found close to shore inhabiting areas with aquatic vegetation, brush, downed trees with branches, stumps, docks, dead heads, and rock cribs that ice dragged out in the lake. Deadheads are logs that did not make it to the saw mills. This cover is crucial for panfish like bluegills because it gives them sanctuary from predators like muskies, bass, pike, otters, and from birds like eagles and osprey.
Close-to-the-bank nature of blue gills allows anyone to fish them from shore with minimal and low-cost gear, without the need for a boat. Many anglers do not realize that panfish can also inhabit deeper water. Deeper clear water with deep weed growth can hold large numbers of panfish, especially if there is defining structure with weed growth, like mid-lake humps and ridges.
You can also find bluegills suspended in the middle of the basin of a body of water like a lake, flowage, or reservoir. These fish will travel the open lake in large schools, using sheer numbers as a protection against predatory fish.
Spread your efforts until locating fish by casting to different areas and depth fished with a 1/32oz to 1/16oz jigs tipped with a Berkely Gulp Alive one inch minnow or Waxie or a variety of plastic bugs and creatures just as a jig or as part of a slip bobber rig. Experiment with colors. Once contact is made, a slip bobber works great to keep bait at the right depth because panfish tend to suspend.
Experiment with the depth. Always present your offering above the school. Use a smaller size slip bobber, sinker, and jig for blue gills paired with a light or ultralight rod with a size 10 reel spooled with 4# to 6# monofilament. A good option is 6# braid with a 4# fluoro leader. Small leeches, panfish minnows, short piece of night crawler, wax worms, and crickets are great slip bobber choices with a jig or plain hook. Panfish hooks have a longer shank to help get the fish unhooked. Fishing forceps work great to unhook panfish.
Slip bobbers are used for every species. I started with a book written by Greg Bohn who invented the slip bobber technique to keep his clients from getting snags.
Pro Tip: Greg Bohn says to add a red glass faceted bead just above the hook for more bites. Glass beads are heavy, so use small beads for panfish with light bobbers and bigger beads with bigger bobbers for predator fish. Not plastic!
I also use white, green, or orange rubber glow bead attractors that can be threaded to the hook shank close to bait. These also work great when Lindy rigging live bait.
Pro Tip: When using a jig, be sure to set the knot so the jig sits parallel and not hook hanging down. Jigs can be used with live bait, power baits, or plastics. Practice threading things on a jig in line and not bent up or down.
Pro Tip: Experiment with depth. Do not cut the extra string off close to the slip knot. Leave about ¾” on each end to retighten the knot when it slips and does not hold the depth.
Slip bobber fishing has evolved in the last decade with specialized aerodynamic bobbers and sharp shooter rods designed for lobbing the rig accurately. These are not needed to get started.
Blue gills prefer water temperatures below 85F with 77F to 79F most liked. When fishing vegetation, start with working the edges looking for indentations or gaps. When the sun is high, work deeper into the vegetation and low light days, work the edge. Slip bobbers allow hitting the open spots in the vegetation. Setting the hook in the weeds will require a big rod lift to set the hook to lift the fish out of the weeds and reel out as fast as possible.
There are a variety of vegetation (weeds) and I’ve found that coon tail is easier is less snaggy and leafy weeds are more difficult.
For dead heads, trees, and docks, a jig can be used as well as a slip bobber. Jigs can be used when fishing weed edges. Long panfish rods can be used to drop jigs into open spots and swim them side to side. This is my favorite method with 18’ Korean poles and no reel with just a tag line and jig tipped with something.
Do not harvest male blue gills off spawn beds that are protecting eggs and fry from predators. This will have adverse effects on reproduction. Put those ones back in the water.
Too many anglers have a misconception about releasing mid-sized and smaller fish and only keep the large ones. This can cause serious damage by keeping limits on a regular basis, particularly from the same body of water. Keeping only the largest panfish from the population removes quality genetics from the population, meaning that smaller sized fish can change the population’s average size and the large specimens will become harder and harder to find. It may be years before the average size rebounds again. Keep the middle size and release the others.
MN DNR is attempting to deal with fish harvest issues with smaller limits and special regulations for some lakes in the Brainerd area where people over harvested the bigger fish.
Enjoy time on the water and take a kid fishing!
