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 :)

Thanks guys - will do! I was thinking it would be happening pretty early, but with -21°C with the wind chill today, I think it may be closer to the end of March that I try it out.

I've seen a few topics where guys asked about shallow spring browns on Erie. No one seems to respond aside from "go to Ontario....it's better...".
I know some of the smaller Erie tribs (north shore) can be surprisingly productive, though. And since very few people talk about them with much detail, it should stay that way. And I'm OK with that;) So I'm definitely not ruling out shallow spring browns just yet.

I just got myself a fishing kayak and I'm getting it geared up now (fish finder, jet divers, etc.). I don't expect the same kind of numbers or size from Erie, but I have to imagine getting into some spring browns on Erie is at least possible. Just wondering if generally the same techniques would be worthwhile trying on Erie as on Ontario? I did see that someone mentioned that steelhead in Erie tend to hit smaller baits than in Ontario (aim for 2.5-3.5" instead of 3.5-4.5" spoons or something like that). I would have to imagine slightly smaller stick baits would do the trick too. If anyone has any input they're willing to share, could you please PM me? Thanks in advance, and tight lines guys!