Larger panfish flies.

On social media, I do see a lot of folks posting images of small flies such as nymphs, dries and even custom patterns. I used to utilize a lot of smaller patterns such as trout and Tom Nixon flies.  I mostly fish streams but when I am on stillwater, smaller flies will be used as droppers. Or, even just for specifically targeting them.  

I do see a need for folks to improve upon their fly boxes – the kind of think outside the fly box. When I share my larger patterns for panfish, a lot of folks are surprised. Now I know that there are anglers that understand different panfish species in their capabilities but I do also notice that folks are limiting their fly boxes mainly based upon the availability of certain species or that perhaps they are in a comfort zone.

The fly pictured above is a Smallmouth Gotcha. It’s obviously for Smallies but panfish will take that pattern.  I’ve caught Longears on Tiemco 8089 size 10 which is essentially a bass or larger streamer hook. Crappie, green sunfish, rock bass have large mouths and will surprisingly take some pretty big patterns. That’s so will the small fish. 

One day, I was specifically targeting Longears with a Rio Getter.  Smallmouth Bass and longears were taking the pattern but when things slowed down, I switched to a larger pattern. It’s called a roadkill – now I know there are several patterns out there with that name and I very well may post a picture sometime. Once I tied on that pattern, I started catching a lot of rock bass. Probably 20 in a short amount of time and some Smallies too.

Some of this information will be obvious to certain folks and I know there are anglers out there that could possibly be surprised that someone targeting panfish is not utilizing a box full of nymphs or foam flies.

Here are a few large flies I use for panfish.

Smallmouth Gotcha 

Shucker (a few posts on this pattern exist).

Kraft’s Hellgrammite 

Hada’s Creek Crawler

Stalcups Crazydad

Mohawk Sculpin

A lot of the panfish I catch are Rock Bass and have large mouths.  But I also have caught a number of panfish species with smaller mouths on bass hooks such as Kraft’s Hellgrammite which I mainly use an Allen Bass Hook #10 or even a larger Gamakatsu.  Even with foam flies, I’ll use a bass hook and those panfish will become hooked.

Some of my largest Smallmouth have been caught on small flies.  Some of my biggest panfish have been caught on large flies.  Panfish can be aggressive and hit almost anything but sometimes, you’ve got to tune in on them.  When folks think crappie, most of the times they will go to a streamer.  Well, if you’ve got a crappie selection, maybe switch those over to another species.  Who knows, you could load up a stringer full of Green Sunfish.  I mean anything is possible right?  One day on a dingy pond, I caught a bunch of crappie on a Boogle Bug one day.  Hasn’t happened since.  
Hopefully, this post will help you land a few more panfish or maybe get you to think about changing up your fly box.