Thanks for the warm welcome Randy! I'm happily still learning JDM but my main advantage is that I got going early and met some real experts along the way. Happy to answer any questions if I can. I've been fortunate to do a wide variety of fishing in a lot of different places (US, UK, Ireland, Brazil, Zimbabwe and South Africa) in salt and fresh, bait, fly and lure. This has exposed me to lots of other fishermen, species, techniques and gear which is a fantastic way to learn.
I didn't catch many crappie during my time in ID & CA but enjoyed eating the ones I did! Also got shellcracker, green sunfish, pumpkinseed, Sacramento perch and yellow perch in the short time I had. Based on my time in the US, (a long time ago - 95/96) I was amazed at the quality of the fishing and game management I was exposed to. I wonder if you guys know, despite lots of other issues maybe, how blessed you are in this regard? Fishing elsewhere, by comparison, is really tough. I enjoyed catching European perch (see bottom 2 pics) in the UK, quite prolific and decent sizes - 12-16".
We have bluegill in SA, not really prolific anywhere but some good sizes if you know where to look. Our main 'panfish' are cichlids, smart, strong and not that easy to catch. They run to good sizes, my favourite (redbreast tilapia, pictured) averaging 1-1.5lbs and catchable on most standard panfish techniques. The most popular species is bigger (blue kurper, 3rd pic down), averaging 1-3lbs but gets to 7lbs. The further north you travel in Africa, the bigger the variety of 'panfish' available (also the bigger the 'pan' you will require to cook them!).
However, very difficult logistics, subsistence netting and dangerous wilfdlife (crocs almost everywhere, hippo in many places) make fishing challenging.