Spring Panfish: A Shore Fisherman’s Dream
By Mike Frisch

Spring is a time of year when various species of panfish head for the shallows in search of food and to complete their annual spawning ritual. Not only does that often mean willing biters, but it also makes the fish accessible to those who enjoy fishing from shore. Maybe you don’t have a boat, or it’s still in storage or maybe you just enjoy a quick hour or two at your favorite shore fishing spot. Regardless, spring is a great time for shore angling and here are a few quick tips that can help make your shore fishing trips successful.

A bobber-fishing set-up often works great for anglers pursuing panfish from shore. When fishing a bobber, I prefer a slip-bobber over the traditional clip-on bobber for several reasons. First, the sliding bobber stop, which is at the heart of this system, allows me to easily change my fishing depth by merely sliding the stop up or down the line. With a fixed bobber, I have to take the bobber on and off the line to change the depth. A slip-bobber is more convenient, especially when I’m trying to determine what depth to fish my bait at in order to generate the most bites.

Another advantage of a slip-bobber is that when fighting a fish the bobber is free to slide down the line and the bobber stop can be reeled right up onto my reel. This makes landing the fish easier than with a fixed bobber where I can only reel to the bobber, maybe resulting in several feet of line between the fish and me and lost fish as I try to get them those last few critical feet to shore.

Slip-bobbers do offer several advantages. One thing to keep in mind regardless of the bobber style being fished is the actual size of that bobber. Bigger bobbers are typically more buoyant than smaller bobbers; therefore, they are harder to pull under the water. That can be bad because panfish can be spooked by the added resistance they feel when trying to sneak off with a bait fished beneath a bobber. For that reason, I like to fish a small bobber or weight my presentation enough so that the bobber just barely floats. That makes it easy for a wary bluegill or crappie to make off with my bait.

Choosing the right bobber can be important to catching spring-time panzies. Another important factor is the bait fished below that bobber. Small jigs tipped with wax worms or small crappie minnows are often my spring favorites. Another bait that I’ve experienced success with recently are the new Power Natural worms and maggots. These are artificial baits, but they feel like live bait, they disperse fish-attracting scent and flavor, and I can often catch several fish without having to replace the bait.

A final tip concerning bait is to make sure that when fishing minnows that you keep them fresh and lively. Often anglers buy “a scoop or two” of crappie minnows, usually more than we’ll need for the day. That’s okay, except when we crowd too many minnows into a small bucket and they start to die. The new Min-O-Life bait bucket I use offers a solution to this problem. It’s a bucket with an add-on aeration system that does a great job of keeping minnows fresh when fishing from shore where there’s no live well or bait well to store them.

Regardless whether your bait of choice is minnows, wax worms or some other bait, spring is a great time to fish that bait from shore. So go ahead and head to your favorite shore fishing spot and use some of the tips just provided. You just might get in on the season’s first good fishing action.