Fall Kayak Fishing for SLAB Crappies in Shallow Weeds!

Friend of the program and established YouTube anglers Minndak Outdoors has been on a tear lately shooting geese, jigging perch, and catching butterball crappies in their home state of South Dakota. In this blog, I’m going to give you a brief rundown on one extremely productive day of fall crappie fishing brought to you by Minndak Outdoors. Starting Things Off …

Fall Fishing For Bluegill: 10 Tips You Need To Know

During the summer you can find an abundance of small bluegill in hot shallow water, but big bluegill seek cooler temperatures in deep water. When the weather turns cooler in the fall and water temperatures start dropping the big bluegill move briefly to the shallows again to feed. As the days grow shorter and water temperatures start plummeting bigger bluegill return …

Fall Fishing For Crappie: 10 Tips You Need To Know

Leaves turning colors and air temperatures dropping signal the start of the crappie fall feeding festival.  When autumn arrives, crappie snap out of their summer doldrums and gorge on baitfish in preparation for a long, cold winter. The fish migrate from their deep summer haunts to the dining areas of the shallow flats.  Here are 10 tips you need to know …

How To Avoid Summer Fish Kills When The Lake Feels Like Bathwater

When the heat is on during summertime, many game fish are vulnerable to the bathwater temperatures of our fisheries throughout the country.Most game fish can tolerate and remain in shallow hot water for short periods of time but fish are cold-blooded and are unable to regulate their body temperature so they are influenced by the temperature of the water. The …

State Record Bluegill

The Record Bluegill Sunfish For Every State In America

Bluegill are the one of the most accessible, popular, and best tasting freshwater fish in North America. And pound for pound, they might be one of the hardest fighting. Part of the Sunfish family, bluegill prefer warm water lakes, rivers, creeks, and ponds. Bluegill are opportunists when it comes to feeding and will commonly eat things like plankton, insects, worms, …

Fishing The White Bass Spawn: How To Catch And Cook One Of America’s Most Underrated Fish

Youtube angler, Lake Fork Guy, targets white bass as they begin the spring spawn in Texas. White bass are native to lakes, reservoirs, and rivers throughout the Midwest but have also been introduced to lakes throughout the country. White bass spawning activity occurs when the water temperatures reach between 55-65 and degrees, which can be anytime from March through May, …

Bluegill vs. Bream: Different Name, Same Fish

Throughout my travels across the country, I have heard anglers give a common sunfish different names. In the South, some anglers call the sunfish a bream and others dub it a perch, while in the North and Midwest it is called a bluegill. What Should We Call This Popular Panfish? Well here is Wikipedia’s definition of this panfish: “The bluegill …

White Crappie vs Black Crappie: How To Tell The Difference

In Florida, they call the fish a “speck.” Louisiana anglers call the same fish a sac-a-lait. Some Southern anglers pronounce crappie as “crappy” and Northern and Midwestern fishermen pronounce the same fish as “croppie.” No matter how you pronounce crappie, its genus name is Pomoxis and the two recognized species of this genus are the white crappie and the black …

Should You Be Targeting Spawning Panfish?

Panfish (primarily sunfish, crappie, and perch) are some of America’s favorite fish to catch because they are eager and willing to bite and plentiful in most fisheries across the country. Perhaps the most fun time of the year to target panfish is in the spring. At this time, the fish are in the shallows and looking to feed before and …