chumming with panfish

This is my favorite time of year for fishing inland lakes up in NE Ohio. They drain a couple feet of water out of them and it exposes weed lines that are excellent for panfish when fishing the edges. These ridges normally are 5' to 7' deep and are loaded with panfish.

I Typically use a simple drop shot with #6 snelled hooks and a #3 or #4 sized split shot and nightcrawlers. I go thru a dozen crawlers in a day & it's a heck of a days fishing. Clamp the split shot on the shelled hook 4" above the hook and send it down to the bottom and then raise it up 6" to 12".

I'm fishing in a kayak and anchor off a weed edge/rige line using a 4' 8" Phlueger president rod/reel combo with the reel being a #20 and a 5' 6" diawa arid rod/regal 1000 reel. Both ul setups have 8# braid.

Crappie, perch & bluegill hang out on these ridges & it's pretty much none stop with a lot of dinks mixed in with the keepers. A typical days keepers.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/02rDVYc.jpg[/IMG]

Went out 2 days ago and the perch were really hitting hard ended up with 12 keepers and 16 bluegill, no crappie and only 1 catfish. Had 2 huge catfish on and they broke the lines, bummer. Of all the things to forget like the "stringers"" (LOL) I used a piece of rope and brought this bundle of joy home yesterday.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/fgtmHo1.jpg[/IMG]

What happens with kayak fishing compared to fishing in a boat is the use of stringers vs a cooler. The end result is some of the caught fish bleed from being hooked. Fish have a heck of a since of smell and catfish are the bloodhounds of the fish world. It doesn't take long for them to find the source and the rod on the stringer side of the kayak will start producing catfish.

I keep the smaller catfish, down right tasty.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/JR5I3Hw.jpg[/IMG]

That little 4' 8" phlueger got a workout a couple days ago.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/9WzvGDl.jpg[/IMG]

Put the stringer on the diawa side yesterday.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/rBC91jM.jpg[/IMG]

It's a blast catching panfish that are down right tasty. Using them as chum is simply a side bonus to load up on catfish at the same time.

At the end of the day fishing with ul equipment is where it's at. Small fish fell like big fish and big fish is what keeps me coming back.

Nice. Is that little bat in the last picture used to kill the fish?

try some crushed cheetos , fish lose them fish minds over them :Rofl
looks like you been having fun to me
congrats :cheers2

Cool, thanks!

What varieties in this nice catch! I've never caught a perch b4...much envy lol.

As a kid growing up on lake erie I was raised on smelt and perch. Any inland fishing involved bluegill and large mouth bass/catfish.

The bat is for the fish, a tap takes care of business.

Every time I go to misquito lake & fish with drop shots I end up with a nice mix of panfish & catfish resulting in 3# to 4# of filets.