TRI-LAKES AREA — Panfish are exactly what their name implies: fish small enough to f it into a pan. Among those found in Arkansas are the bluegill, redear sunfish, longear sunfish, green sunfish, black crappie, white crappie, white bass, rock bass, warmouth and bullhead catfish. None of these fish gets very big - a few pounds tops, usually only a few ounces. But as a group, they’re the most popu la r, most common ly caught fishes in the Natural State.
Many anglers mastered the basics of fishing while catching panf ish - f ishing for bluegills and other sunfish with a cane pole on a farm pond bank; casting spinners and minnows for small-lake crappie; dunking night crawlers for “goggle-eyes” and bullheads. Panfish have much to offer novice anglers. They will gobble up an astounding variety of baits and lures: worms, crickets, chicken liver,minnows, jigs, flies, poppers, spoons, plastic worms, even catfish stinkbait. Most panfish aren’t especially wary, and some will even forgive the most slipshod angling techniques. They fight like blue blazes for their size. They’re tops on the dinner table. And there are umpteen-jillion of them in nearly every lake, river, creek and pond in Arkansas.
When you’re a kid, and nothing matters but catching lots of fish and having lots of fun, panfish fit the bill. Unfortunately, many anglers, as they grow older, lose touch with their panfishing heritage.They get hung up on casting for trophy largemouths or trying to outwit trout with hand-tied f lies. They worry about catching limits of stripers, catfish, walleyes or other “meaningful” fishes - the bigger the better. Panfish, because they’re small, join the ranks of the unworthy.
There comes a time, though, when most anglers realize fishing can be an end unto itself. It clears the mind and soothes the soul. Catching big fish, lots of fish, may still be part of the objective, but it’s no longer the ultimate object of our trips afield. We’re out to have fun, to relax, to take in the outdoors. And once again, the simpler pleasures are enough to satisfy. It’s at this point that many of us rediscover the fun and romance of fishing for panfish.
Remember when you thought catching panfish was the greatest thing going? Maybe it’s time to recapture that feeling. Lots of folks are under the mistaken impression that panfish quit biting when the weather is hot. But when it’s sizzling outside, crappie, bream and other panfish keep right on biting and may, in fact, provide some of the best fishing action available.
There are many places in Arkansas where you can catch half a dozen or more species of panfish during a one-day summer fishing trip. Almost all the Game and Fish Commission lakes, including lakes Conway, Hinkle, Atkins and Overcup, serve up excellent hot-weather panfishing.
Oxbow lakes are superb, too, including the 12 or so in the Henry Gray/Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area near Bald Knob and the 200-plus in southeast Arkansas’ White River National Wildlife Refuge.
Big reservoirs managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are hotspots for summer panfishing as well, including one I visited last month - 7,000-acre Lake Greeson near Kirby, west of Hot Springs.
My friends Jim “Cleve” Cleveland of Little Rock and Lewis Peeler of Vanndale accompanied me, and at Self Creek Marina on Lake Greeson, we met up with our two guides, Jerry Blake and Carlos Duggan with Action Fishing Trips (www.actionfishtrips. com) in Kirby. Jerry’s friend Jim Erickson of Hot Springs Village came along, too, and Jerry’s 12-year-old son, Owen, a hard-core panfishing enthusiast and up-and-comingguide.
We left the dock at 7 a.m. so we could enjoy fishing during the coolest part of a day that would soar into the mid-90s. We went in two boats. Lewis and Jim Erickson were guided by Carlos, while Jerry and Owen assisted Cleve and me.
We all started out fishing for Greeson’s big crappie, using live minnows for bait. Jerry explained to Cleve and me why summer actually is one of the best times for catching these tasty panfish.
“As spring ends and the surface temperature reaches the mid-70s, crappie quit spawning and try to regain some of the weight they’ve lost wh i le spaw n i ng ,” he said. “They gorge on shad and other forage, and don’tgo very far from where they spaw ned if t hey ca n f ind food and cover nearby. They often congregate on points and drop-offs around brush piles, bamboo crappie condosand the like. Once you find a good spot, you can catch crappie there day after day right up to mid or late July. They’ll stay relatively shallow during this time - 8 to 12 feet deep in clear reservoirs like Lake Greeson - but they’ll usually have deeper water close by. Finding and maintaining the right depth while fishing is very important this season.
“Crappie and other panfish tend to school by year class, especially during postspawn,” Blake continued. “So if you’re only catching smallerfish, you can often move to a different piece of cover to find bigger fish. When you catch a good one, you can bet there will be a few more like it nearby. Light-wire bream hooks rigged under 1/2-inch, pencil-style slip-f loats are very productive for catching crappie now because the bite can be very light.”
Despite the sultry weather, the crappie we caught that morning were huge. Cleve hooked one 17-inch-long, 2-pound-plus slab, and by the time Jerry netted it, Cleve was fighting another crappie of equal size. When we passed by Carlos, Lew and Jim a little later, they held up more whopper crappie for the camera, including two more 17-inchers.
At our next stop, one minnow bait proved irresistible to a nice white bass that gave Cleve all the fight he wanted on the long, limber crappiepole he was using. We added it to the live well with the rest of the panfish we kept.
While the rest of us fished for crappie, young Owen was at the back of the boat casting crickets for other panfish. He caught several hefty bluegills along the shallow shoreline. And every now and then he’d catch a different kind of sunfish - a redear, a longear, a warmouth and, on occasion, a green sunfish. Most anglers don’t pay these little fishes much notice. But all these panfish are pretty as can be with bright markings of orange, turquoise, emerald, gold and/or purple. They’re doughty fighters, too, especially on light tackle. We rarely keep them because they’re so small, but neither do we complain when we catch one. When you’re panfishing, every fish you catch is a special treat.
Around lunchtime, a storm popped up and lightning drove us off the water. But by then, the live wells of the two boats held panfish of every sort. We cleaned more than 80 fish and took home eight quart bags packed with fillets.
We didn’t cast a bass plug all day. And I’ll tell you right now; I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Deep-fried Panfish, Arkansas Style
Here’s an excellent recipe you can use to cook any type of panfish.
Ingredients:
2 pounds panfish fillets or
pan-dressed fish
1 small bottle Louisiana hot sauce
4 cups milk
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Peanut oil
Directions:
Marinate fish one hour in a large bowl in which the hot sauce and milk have been mixed. Remove fish and drain in a colander. Combine the dry ingredients by shaking them together in a large plastic bag. Add the fish and shake to coat. Add peanut oil to a cooker or skillet and heat to 365 degrees. Add fish pieces in a single layer, and fry until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serves four to six.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 129 on 07/11/2010