Panfish

Many remember childhood fishing trips with friends or relatives, dunking worms in a pond or creek, and thrilling to the pulse of scrappy sunfish at the end of the line. Some recollect dogwoods blooming as big redears were pulled one after another from a brushpile hidey-hole.

Many of us cut our fishing teeth on sunfish and the truth is, they are still as much fun to catch now as they wer

Panfish are exactly what their name implies — fish small enough to fit in a pan — a frying pan, that is. Among these are such beloved species as bluegills, crappie, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish and white bass, and lesser-known yet locally popular fish like yellow bass, rock bass, warmouths, longears, spotted sunfish and green sunfish. None of these fish gets very big — a few pounds tops, usually only a few ounces. But as a group, they're among the most popular, most commonly caught fish in the U.S.

The hottest action will occur during their spawning time around the time of the full moons of April through June, depending on your latitude.

Panfish are abundant, pretty easy to catch, good to eat, and they are all mighty fun to catch for kids and adults alike.

When most people think about panfish, they usually think of crappie or bluegill. However, a multitude of different species of sunfish inhabit America's lakes and streams. Some you probably didn't even know existed.

Kin to the bluegill are the redear, longear, green, warmouth, and redbreast, as well as the black banded and the rock bass.

With spring fresh in the air, taking stock of my panfish box has become a yearly rite of passage. Early season pannies (crappie, perch and bluegill) are the first fish I cast a line to here in the north, shortly after the ice leaves the lakes. They are prolific, easy to catch, and give a formidable tussle on light line and tackle.

Catching bream fish such as bluegills and redear sunfish ("shellcrackers") isn't difficult. These scrappy panfish are not especially wary, and small ones will forgive even the most slipshod angling techniques.

Spring to autumn, panfish occupy a range of habitats from shallow weed flats to deep, rocky structures. Casting has merits, but there's plenty of trolling methods to pull panfish topside.