What is Panfishing?

Panfishing is the practice of targetting panfish while fishing. What are panfish? The term panfish is a loose categorization of freshwater fish that you could cook whole in a frying pan. Traditional panfish include sunfishes, yellow perch, white perch, crappie, rock bass, white bass, and yellow bass. But a wider view of panfishing can include smaller specimens of a given gamefish or less widely known roughfish.

Panfishing can be done with a huge variety of fishing tackle. Just about any kind of bait or lure can be scaled down to work for targetting panfish. There are dedicated tackle products with panfish in the name, but typically products marketed for crappie or trout will work as well.

Unlike most popular gamefish, seeking out trophy-sized panfish is typically the road less taken. Panfishing is more associated with having a relaxing day of catch and release or harvesting some fish for a fish fry.