Ah, the panfish. The fish type that is named after the fact that they never will quite outgrow a pan you plan to cook them in. A fast growing, short living, and arguably a bit of a pest in the warm waters of our lakes, I (along with many other fishermen) love the opportunity to target some bluegill, copper nose, bream, sunfish, or whatever name your family and fishing buddies have slapped onto them. While I do prefer to be at least knee deep in a freestone trying to catch an easily spooked trout, there is just something about fishing for panfish that you can’t quite beat.

The first thing I want to talk about is the nostalgia aspect of it. Anytime that I head up to Perkins to top water some bluegill, I transcend to the simpler days of childhood. Perkins is where I caught my first fish, a bluegill, while jigging off the dock as my father deep casted rooster tails out to the middle to attempt to lure in trout while usually pulling up another panfish, the perch, instead. I can still hear him telling me to “put that bream in the bucket”, and I can remember the weight of that bucket when it was full for the next morning’s panfish fry breakfast. While jigging a worm in the high vegetation waters off a typical dock in this neck of the woods is a surefire way to fill a bucket, as I became a fly fisherman I grew to love, and ultimately prefer, the dry fly top water action. While the average panfish lacks the beautiful and delicate slurp of a rainbow trout rising out of the river or the voracity of the largemouth bass slamming a popper, it is still extremely satisfying to see a bluegill surface and take your fly. However, the choice of gear that you bring with, while not being a complete end all be all to your day, will enhance your panfishing experience.

For me, I bring two rigged up fly rods with me every time that I end up at the lake. I have a 3 weight, 6’6” fiberglass rod from the southern Idaho company Moonlit Fly Fishing that even a little bluegill will bend to the cork to provide an exciting fight, and I will also bring along my 9 for 6 old Orvis graphite tip flex for when I get tired of the distant bass slapping around in the lilypads and I eventually decide to start targeting it instead. But if you are out for a day of fly fishing for panfish, you just cannot beat having a lightweight fiberglass rod. Honestly, it may be one of the funnest experiences you can have with a fly rod in your hands.

Along with the gear, you need the flies. For the panfish, especially during the hotter days and warmer water, I tend to go with a small Griffith’s Gnat, a size 14 (or smaller) hopper variant, or, of course, an Adam’s. In north Idaho, you honestly can never go wrong with any type of Adam’s fly. There are some fun, small and easy to tie foam poppers that work wonders for the bluegill as well, and it is common to give the foam a triangular shape to stop the small fish from inhaling the whole fly which they tend to do often.

Now that you are ready, it is not too hard to fish for the things. Cast out towards the shore or towards some vegetation such as lily pads. Let the fly sit there for 7-10 seconds. You either got a fish on your line at this point, or you recast. And that recast could be in the same vicinity, or even right where you had cast the fly the first time. The bluegill is not a wise fish nor does it spook easily. Like the largemouth bass, they are a smart-but-dumb fish. They will sit there looking at the fly, thinking “you know, something about that looks a little funny” and then they will decide to eat it anyway. And when the fish eats it, give it a little time before you set. Just like with bass or trout off the top water, let them have a second or two to get the fly into their mouths after they take it before setting the hook. 

Now you have a bucket stocked up with a few moderately sized (read: never as big as you want them to be) panfish and the next step is cleaning and cooking them. And it could not be an easier feat. While I was learning how to clean fish one day when I was younger, my father told me to de-bone and make fine filets of the trout we had caught that day. On top of some laid out newspaper, I made my way through the three rainbows, and it was time for the bluegill.

As they were much smaller than the trout, I asked my dad how to prepare them. And the kind and loving and not sarcastic man that he was, he told me to do them up as I had the trout. Looking at the small fish and wondering how to dress them without making the filet the size of a half-dollar, I tried my hardest. And it was not pretty.

My dad was across the counter from me with the biggest smile on his face. With a chortle, he came around and grabbed the knife from me. He pulled out one of the bluegills and scaled it, gutted it, lopped the head off and tossed it over with the trout. “That’s about it,” he said.

We coated the bodies of the bluegill in beaten eggs, and tossed them with cornmeal. Then after a simple fry, we had ourselves a wonderful meal, even picking the meat from the tails and eating the skins of the fish. And to this day, I still hold the belief that the bluegill is one of the best eating fish in the world.

So as the lake water starts to warm up and the panfish start being really active again, let the rivers and creeks do their Spring thing and go catch a couple of panfish on the fly. It’s a fun experience for everyone (especially the young ones since a bluegill would eat even a bare hook I’d bet), and it leads to having yourself an easy to prepare meal with some of the best eating fish around.