Light Tackle For Panfish!

Proper Gear Adds New Excitement

Have you ever wanted to really hit the big ones and stay on them, as you cast and hookup over and over again for hours? I'll share a question from a relative who showed me a "micro" bait casting reel and also the same size, in a spinning reel. These were reels set up for 2 # test line and a short rod with a lot of whip in it. Tailor made for Bluegills, Crappie, Sunfish and even small Bass to the point of worrying about catching one that will completely massacre your outfit entirely.

One has more concern about catching a fish that is way too large for your tackle, than having more than enough for what you need. I am reminded of using a freshwater rig for fishing in California waters. I was using a medium sized Garcia Mitchell reel, strung with 20 lb test line on a stiff 6.5 foot spinning rod.

As luck would have it the Bonito/Bonita were feeding in waves. We'd sit there swapping lies for an hour and suddenly a school would move through the reef we were fishing off of and everyone was hooked up at the same time, waltzing around, ducking under arms and holding your gear up overhead to keep the lines separated. They would hit the huge jigs we were floating about 15 ft. behind a rubber ball - used as a flotation device and offering the lure at about 4 - 6 feet of water. They were some of the most explosive hookups I've ever experienced in fishing for medium size fish. Fight? These guys would fight so hard your wrists ached from landing one, but right back into the water with another cast and another hookup.

Finally, one day I hooked a Halibut that appeared to be a submerged flying saucer when I finally got him up close enough to view. He just nosed back down and kept pulling. It was like tying your line to a bulldozer and then trying to reel it in. I fought this fish for 15 to 20 minutes and suddenly my rod whipped sharply to the "fish off" position with line flying through the air. Just as I thought, he'd snapped my line - I looked down and saw the spool had sheared off, the gears were destroyed and it popped right out of the reel's housing. It was hanging in the air about a foot under my rod hand. Then he took off again and being unable to wind him in, I tried to get the reel back together when it snapped out of my hand and tore off every guide that was tied onto my rod and finally the spool and whatever else was gone into the deep blue sea. I just stood there, red-faced and embarrassed at my lack of understanding how much more powerful ocean fish were, when compared to freshwater species of the same size.

Now I mention this because an old man at a farm pond showed me a tip at a Bluegill pond in my youth. He told me to get the tiniest rod and reel that our family owned and put some 2 lb. test line on the reel. I came back with a new ultra-light spinning outfit of my Dad's. I told him we didn't have 2 lb test line but this was 4 lb. test. He said to get some, but this would do for our lesson. The rod was about 5' long and had a very small Shakespeare spinning reel on it. Ok, he told me, "this will catch you more Bluegills and other Panfish than any other way I've tried and that includes live bait."

He tied a tiny spinning lure - it looked like a fly fishing fly but it had a miniscule spinner blade right ahead of the furry little body. Then he measured out about 7 - 10 feet of line and attached a tiny red & white bobber there. Getting the connection yet? "Ok boy," he said and I let go - a perfect cast to the center of the pond. At his instructions I retrieved it a slow measured pace, with the bobber keeping the presentation high in the pond, suspended at about 1 ft underwater. Every few rotations of the handle, he told me to pause and give it a "twitch" and begin reeling again, which I thought I performed quite well. The first cast was not retried before a lunker Bluegill smashed it so hard that the bobber sprung taught in the air and the rod bent nicely. It felt as if I had a Bonito/Bonita on the end of that tiny rod, I could feel the headshakes and the runs very clearly through the rod. What a blast! I caught about another dozen and we decided to call it a day.

Since that day about 40 years ago, I've employed this method when fishing for shallow feeding fish and have never been disappointed. Give it a try and turn a tiny ultralight rig into a Panfish annihilator and never sacrifice the thrill of landing a really large fish. It's just about the line test strength, the presentation (I've described) and a very soft rod. You'll feel like Hemmingway, fishing for Marlin off the coast of Cuba. Don't take my word for it - just try it and you will believe!