Low flow panfish

I can’t believe how low the river is right now I don’t ever remember it being this low! What’s the best areas to look for panfish during these extremely low water levels? Channel edges, deeper holes in backwater? Are they hugging right to bottom or suspended? I haven’t been targeting panfish on the river enough yet to know what to look for.

The river top to bottom is at a level of flow satisfactory to panfish which do not like much current..
To say in less words..
They’re spread out!

I think you’ll have your best luck fishing a back water and dropping a bobber next to any and all wood you can find as long as there’s a bit of depth to it.

I’ve been told they can be found in the main channel as well.

Thanks Brian and FBRM. I kinda figured they would be all over with the water levels we have right now.
I might take my 2 year old son out tomorrow for a little bit. Might try around alma n see if I can find some fish. I’ll post a report on how we do if we get out.

Oxygen levels in a lot of backwater areas are extremely low. This can work to your advantage in that if you can work a deeper hole with some timber or even the slightest bit of flow, it should hold fish. Otherwise I’d be out in the river.

For bluegills I’d sit on wingdams. There are some good reports from local guys of big bull gills on wingdams with crawlers. Try to find the first dam in a series with this low flow.

For perch, they really seem to roam in the summer (or at least schools with jumbos). I’d bet I’ve caught more on cranks and leadcore than any other way from July-August. If you find them off the main breaks on Lake Pepin, the schools can be hundreds of fish.

Crappies are far from my specialty. We will catch a stray one here and there, but most have been caught in backwater areas with considerable depth and some timber. Their feeding windows seem to be extremely short this time of the year… mainly because there’s forage everywhere and they can afford to be picky.

For gills you want to be on the outside deep edge of the wingdams right now. Crappie will be anywhere along the channel or deep water backwater area where there is deep logs or brush near deep water. keep moving until you find fish. Wingdams are not easy to spot but a few now have weeds growing on top. I live on pool 5 and fish it alot. Good luck.