PANFISH.......EVERYONE’S FISH

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What fish can you catch the year around? What fish spans the fisherman's age gap? What fish is the easiest to catch? What fish is in all lakes in Northern Wisconsin? What fish is one of the best tasting table fare? What fish ounce for pound does not give up easily? The answer is quite simple. It is our abundant crop of bluegills, crappies and perch.

A bluegill smacks the tiny wax worm suspended a few feet below your small Thill bobber and proceeds to run in circles trying to tie your line around every weed in the lake. The count so far today is close to 100 fish caught and released, with just enough kept for the spectacular lunch they will provide. I haven't been able to fish much myself because it was a job just to keep my grandchildren's hooks baited and releasing the fish they caught. It was sure a good idea to bring my needle nose pliers along today. These little guys have a tendency to swallow the hook. This is my favorite eating fish. Scaled and cleaned then lightly coated with flour and fried in butter until the outside is a golden brown. The firm sweet taste would please even the most discriminating diner. Twenty feet down a jumbo perch grabs a small minnow that I have lowered through an eight inch hole in the ice and suspended six to twelve inches off the lake bottom. You know right away that this is no seven inch fish. This one feels heavy on the light line with the super light rod and reel. This fish is giving a good accounting of himself. The fish comes up reluctantly....flit does not want to come through the eight inch hole. With the light line you fear that the fish will break off so you reach down the hole into the icy cold water bare handed to guide the fish onto the ice. You hold up the fish for all to see. Its belly sags and the fish looks like a small football. A quick trip to the yardstick lying on the ice shows the perch to be a shade over 14 inches. A small minnow falls from the fish's mouth as you handle it. So that is why it is so plump. The perch are gorging themselves on this year's crop of minnows. The fish's coloration really shows in the bright sunlight against the sparkling white snow. Green, black and yellow, in just the right proportions. An artist couldn't have picked finer colors for this fish.

A Blake's "Road Runner" splashed down just inside an open pocket of weeds. A few turns of the reel's handle and you feel the tell-tale tap of a fish grabbing the lure. You know right away that it's a crappie by the character of the light strike. But this crappie is no ordinary crappie. She fights with a twisting, surface splashing vengeance. You get her near the boat and you see that she is nearly 18 inches long with a mouth that would put any big bass to shame. You lip her just as you would with any bass and take a moment to look at the tiny hook imbedded in the transparent whitish-blue membrane around her lips. This fish is really beautiful with the dark markings speckling the slab-sided fish. This one goes back in the lake. We need more of the babies that she can produce. There are plenty of 13 to 15 inch fish to fill today's bag. We need only a few more for our dinner. The crappies have really cooperated on this day. It seems that closer to evening these fish really go on a feeding binge. The other plus is that most of the boaters are off of the lake getting their evening meal. That's just what I like. The fish are biting and I have the lake to myself.

All of these trips really happened. Maybe they were your trips or maybe they were mine. It seems that when your targeted species decides not to bite the pan fish will always be agreeable to go a round or two with you. A small, light weight spinning rod or one of the new telescoping cane poles is all that you need to make any day complete. The pan fish are always there and seem ready to bite 99 per cent of the time.

Pan fish are not just for young children but for everyone that enjoys a tug on the end of their line. One of my most enjoyable trips on the water this past year was with a father and his two sons on a pan fishing expedition. The weather was great, the fish bit well, and the company was good. A lot of memories were created on that day.

Some lakes will have multitudes of small pan fish and will make any youngster's eyes shine. Other lakes will have a mix of species with some fish being of a larger size. If you are targeting a particular species ask around for some tips on where the crappies, perch or bluegills are biting or, better yet, "Hire a Guide". Winter spring summer or fall, there will always be something biting. Take time to take someone fishing.

Paul Hansen
715 617-4800
paulh@nnex.net

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