Panfish No panfish threads yet...

[Will Schinkel]

No panfish threads yet...

As far as I can see there are no panfish threads on here yet. Just thought I'd see if there are any helpful pros out there. I got a kayak this winter and I'm about 1.5 hrs away from Erie (Port Dover). I've been down for one afternoon and had action non-stop on small creek minnows bounced off bottom, but had a really hard time hooking anything. I ended up with two VERY big jumbos. I'm originally from Northern Ontario and we do like perch up there, but they could never compare with walleye since they're so much smaller. So my first look at an Erie jumbo was a bit surreal. They're just so strangely huge!

Obviously Port Dover has a very sandy bottom for quite a distance out. Would the constant nipping possibly be gobies? Or more likely some other small panfish? I was in 10-15 FOW  at roughly 58° F for the majority of the time and just outside the beach marker buoys. The small creek minnows definitely seemed to attract enough interest, but I'd love to get some emerald shiners. And I'd love to find some white bass, since I've heard they're at least somewhat worthwhile eating and sound like a lot of fun to catch. Any recommendations? I'm planning to go again ASAP, but with very good quality fly fishing for brownies available so close by (Fergus/Elora) I really need an open weekend to be able to convince the wife to head down to the big lake :)

Edited June 15, 2017 by Will Schinkel

[jckjr8]

Perch has its own thread. Most of the panfish are limited to the harbor, river and slack water areas that's my guess why there isn't much

[zadvorney]

I bet the emerald shiner out fishes any other shiner 10-1. I hear some guys are really lucky with micro soft plastics. The incessant nipping is the gobies. I have an under water camera and see literally millions of them down there. The bass,perch and walleye eat them like candy.  Good luck