Panfish bite is going strong in west Metro

I have been targeting crappies and big gills on the weed edges and the bite has been impressive. Have to do some sorting of course but a limit of 12″ plus crappies and a dozen or so bluegills over 8″ has been the norm. Funny thing is all the big crappies to date looked to be males. I have not found the jumbo females. Exude micro shads and Culprit paddletails on 1/32 jigheads have been the ticket. Depths of 6 to 10ft. All C&R so you can go catch some. It’s been so fun I haven’t even wet a line looking for walleyes.

Well the water hasn’t been warm enough consistantly enough for an all out spawn. I was expecting the males to start scoping out territory in spawning areas. I’ll be fishing about an hour North of the cities and I fully expect the male panfish to be in shallow and gearing up for spawning, but I don’t expect them to actually be spawning yet. The females should still be in the area though, but of course the males will be more agressive if you are casting into the spawn beds. It also doesn’t take long to go from this stage to the actual spawn. There is also the possibility they have spawned in the cities here too and the females have moved away from the spawning areas. I guess I shouldn’t speak for the metro panfish spawn, since I am just going on what I have seen on the lake up north.

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Well the water hasn’t been warm enough consistantly enough for an all out spawn. I was expecting the males to start scoping out territory in spawning areas. I’ll be fishing about an hour North of the cities and I fully expect the male panfish to be in shallow and gearing up for spawning, but I don’t expect them to actually be spawning yet. The females should still be in the area though, but of course the males will be more agressive if you are casting into the spawn beds. It also doesn’t take long to go from this stage to the actual spawn. There is also the possibility they have spawned in the cities here too and the females have moved away from the spawning areas. I guess I shouldn’t speak for the metro panfish spawn, since I am just going on what I have seen on the lake up north.

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