Pan Fish Southeast Idaho

[cpierce]

I went fishing for tasty treats yesterday. Most bass and trout I catch and release, but pan fish ….. end up in the pan. I love bluegill and crappy for eating fare. I don’t think there is much that beats them on the table.

I got to the lake and on the water at about 10:30. The water was almost 63 degrees and there was very little wind. What a miracle of a day. Any day in Southeast Idaho without wind is a miracle!

I used the same red and charteuse wooly bugger all day. It seemed to be well liked, and I was too busy unhooking fish to change it. About the time I thought about using a dry fly, I decided I already had all that I wanted to fillet, and I should go home and get it done! First fish up were trout. Little feisty fresh planter trout that were a blast to catch as they went airborne the minute they were hooked. They were just babies though.



Next were bass. Small 10 inch aggressive teenager bass. They had lots of attitude, but not much size.




Finally …. Bluegill! They came in several sizes. Many small ones, but some good hand sized ones also. Of course I only took pictures of the largest. Oddly enough they came in a wide variety of colors.
Regular



Pink



And Gold. The color on this one was really amazing!


A few small crappy also came out to play. I only caught 4 or 5 of them, and none of them had any size to them.



I didn’t catch any perch this trip, and that covers just about everything there is to catch in this lake.

It was a fun trip. To protect the innocent fishies from nasty lurkers, I have left the name off. Send me a PM and I will be happy to share it.
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[gstott]

You are lucky with the lack of wind. I went out Tuesday and Wednesday and got blown all over the lake. That golden gill is really cool, I've never seen one quite like that before. I'm tempted to go on one more bluegill run this spring, they're just so dang tasty. I wish that place had a little better ambiance, I find myself drawn to more quiet waters lately.
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[DeeCee]

cpierce, how are you doing? That first bluegill is a male in spawning colors. The 2nd gill is a female and the 3rd bluegill is well just cool! I see you were harassing the crappie again. Sounds like you were having fun!

DeeCee
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[drowning_flys]

Great pics and report [cool]
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[cpierce]

Hey, DeeCee, great to hear from you! I had a blast.

Thanks for the info on the gills about which are which, and it's so easy to remember that the boys wear blue and the girls wear pink. [laugh][laugh]

The gold bluegill was really interesting. It was brighter than any gold fish I've ever seen. I am amazed that it survived with that coloration. Seems like it would have been a sitting duck for every passing bass or pelican.
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[idahopanfish]

Boy I wish I was closer!![cool] That is a great day of panfish[cool]
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[jeremypeace]

sounds like a great day!! i went yesterday to onida and caught a couple of smallmouth. and then decided since i was in the area i would go to one of the many local ponds for some blue gill. and we fished tell 10pm and couldnt keep them off with just a small chunk of worm.. my youngest boy caught his first one and with a stick pole seems how I broke my pole on who knows what fish from same place.. broke my pole at the third eyelet..needless to say it angered me much.. but after 10 min of kicking and screaming i got over it and made a little pole from a stick and some string from my reel from the broken pole.. it was a blast.. i tell ya a stick pole sounds fun but it is a real pain.. here is a picture of on of the blue gill on a stick. blue gill sure are fun for the kids
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[cpierce]

Sorry your pole broke. Sometimes those things just happen.

Blue gill are great fun on anything from a hand-line on up.


Cute picture of your boy and his fish. The is worth it all!
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[DeeCee]

It is fascinating to me to see the beautiful colors that fish and other animals wear in the animal kingdom. Seems male birds and male fish wear the makeup in their world. I'll leave the makeup to the woman of the human world. I always enjoy your fishing posts, keep them coming.

DeeCee
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[TAIL-CHASER]

Went out early to a Preston parodies lake and had a great day with the kid. We caught 15 or so planter trout 4 perch 1 croppie 5 or so bass and we kept 13 blue gill and caught almost three times that. It was the first time we had taken our little boat out and went fishing since the ice cleared. Not a bad day. My kid is alreading asking when we are going to go again.

Thanks cpierce I hadn't been there in a few years and had a great day.

Good luck fishing
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