Southern MN – Panfish and Kids

When taking a 5-year old fishing, I’ve learned you need to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and beyond-all, follow a reasonable set of expectations. Thankfully, with this mindset, having fun is almost guaranteed, making it more enjoyable for the youngster as well. And so it was this afternoon, on a small panfish pothole that gets a fair amount of pressure, the bluegills, bass, and crappie were willing to show themselves if only for awhile.

Running and gunning just isn’t in the cards with a little guy along, but you still need to find some fish before you can camp on them. Isaac had fun sitting in the Otter which was his "fort," and playing pretend snowmobile, while I drilled some holes with the Solo and tried to scare up some fish. My typical regiment in such situations is to use the flasher to check depth and for fish in each hole. However, in this lake, with mostly shallow water and decent clarity, a camera was a more valuable tool. Folks talk about the camera as an extra accessory or frill, but it was downright crucial today. Fish were in small, tight schools, ranging in very small areas. Drilling a hole directly over the top of them was slim odds at best. Better instead to find them laterally with a spin of the camera compass. From there I could drill over top of them, or drill the area out, then setup the Otter for Isaac.

Per usual, it was something minuscule that made all the difference. Fish were found roaming a weedline that broke from 7 FOW to 12 FOW. The fish seemed to congregate in an area no bigger than a kitchen-table, and when I finally got the camera down there and close-enough, I saw what they were relating to. It was what I’m guessing was an old bluegill-bed from earlier this summer, surrounded by heavy vegetation, and completely void of it in this bowl-shaped depression. No doubt about it, the fish moved in and around this feature more than any other portion of the weedline. It was up on the shallower end of things, right on the top of the break, so a good amount of bass were coming through as well.

All fish were caught on a size 10 Pink Diamond Jig from Custom Jigs & Spins. This is their largest offering in that lure, and fishes good and heavy which helped us this afternoon. I started with a smaller Gill Pill, which the fish hit readily, but we ran into schools of smaller fish with some regularity. I had a harder time playing “keep-away” with this lure, and opted for the extra control and faster fall rate of the larger Diamond Jig. It also helped to discourage the smaller fish from being able to hit the lure as well. Not to mention, a heavier jig is easier for a kid to deal with on the end of a rod. To keep the smaller fish from stealing bait, and entice the larger fish to hit the hook rather than the lure head, red spikes were used and worked well.

In the end, we caught about 30 fish, most of them small with the exception of a couple decent fish and a lone bull gill that went a hair under 10”es. We never saw another fish like him, and the way he cruised in out of nowhere, all alone…..well, it made me wish I could run around punching holes to look for more of his buddies…if only for awhile. I was more than satisfied to watch the show on the camera and enjoy spending some time with Isaac. I was proud of him for being patient on the front-end when we were trying to locate the fish. It’s rare to be able to have the talk about “not catching fish all the time”, and later to still keep him occupied with fish, both in the same day on the ice.

Good luck out there!

Joel