What is your favorite panfish species? You can put several. If you dont mind, please share some tips on how to catch them. ive never caught a yellow perch but really want to. My favorites are:  
1.White and Yellow Bass- they are a load of fun!
2.Bluegill
3.Freshwater Drum-I consider ot a panfish although it isnt. I typically catch them while fishing for panfish. They are so underappreciated!!

Crappie spring to fall is mine. My favorite hole they are in high volume and I have caught them on about every lure imaginable, live & artificial. I will deadstick one with a minnow or nightcrawler and throw a second line with panfish sized Rapala original, YUM Wooly Beavertail or Wooly Bug, or beetle spin with grub.

My faves would have to be bluegill, crappie and yellow perch. memphisfish, if you want to catch a bunch of perch, try fishing parallel to a shoreline with lots of cover using either a crankbait or an inline spinner, these are my favorite lures for perch. If this doesn't produce, try putting some Powerbait trout dough on the treble hook, if they don't bite then, you don't need a new lure, you need a new spot!

Thanks Skewl. Ill be sure to try that. Im not so sure that the perch live where I fish. Do you know if they are in Pickwick Lake(its on the tri state border of MS, AL, and TN)? Hows the stri[er fishing in your area?

Sorry! Thanks armstrong.j

The one time I ever caught Perch was by accident. I was in a paddle boat with my friend and we just threw out crankbaits and started peddling and we were catching a lot of bass. Once in a while we caught some perch too.

O yea and it wasnt even like we were by the shore or anything we were just cutting right through the middle of a lake. It was fun.

My favorites are perch, bluegill, and crappie. All 3 of these fish are delicious but the bluegill is the tastiest in my book. They can all be caught on wigglers, red or leaf worms and bee moths. For the crappie and perch its hard to beat live minnows, but also small jigs and spinners produce good results at times. Early on they can be found near the shoreline or around channels where the ice melts first. Around here the crappie are the first to spawn, late march through april depending on the weather. The Perch spawn is usually right on the heels of the crappie spawn and the bluegills usually are spawning around early to mid june.

we use crappie rigs to catch perch up here. start with 2 hooks and if legal add a 3rd hook to the bottom (sinker) clip or the top clip depending if they're hitting more on the upper or lower hook. a mess of yellow perch makes a great fish fry

I love catching crappie on a fly rod! They put a nice bend in my 4wt when I use a pink wooly bugger.

I enjoy fishing for any sunfish with a fly rod, then about dusk baiting my flathead rig with the sunnies I caught during the day.

My memory tells me that crappie are the second-most sought after fish in the US after black bass. Crappie have a unique combination of reasonable size, tasty flesh an a reasonable fight. That said, yellow perch also make a mighty fine meal. Perch also have the advantage of usually being near enough to shore to catch them from shore or a pier which is not always possible with crappie. Tom

Down where I am, Crappie and Bluegil are the locally available panfish.l

My favorites are Black Bullhead, Black Crappie, and Bluegill. 

They're all abundant in the places where I typically fish and are really fun to catch.

When 'm not Bass fishing I'm chasing Black Crappie or Hybred Bluegill. Crappie and Bluegill are excellent eating. I love fishing for Crappie in early spring with fly rod and homemade rabbit hair streamers then I switch to black spiders for bluegill for the best fight for their size.

Just Mike
Lifer since 2006

I love catching bedding bluegill. At this one reservoir I could easily catch a limit.

my favorite panfish has always been crappie. went fishing for crappie with my dad when i was younger, and i still fish for crappie today. even though i've fished for other species in the past, crappie is now about all i fish for.

THANKS for all the tips!!

I'm not sure either.

Shellcracker and Crappie for me. We catch shellcracker off 15-20' sloping ledges using redworms. On ultralight tackle, they put up a great fight.