Another great day to be out doing some pan fishing in Minnesota. We started the day on lake Mille lacs in search of jumbo perch and crappies. We caught a few perch but the numbers weren’t there so we decided to switch lakes not spots. And the decision paid off.
Fishing with me today was Vexilar rep and Mille lacs guide Corey Studer. Neither of us have ever fished Knife lake before and welcomed the challenge of new water. We fired up the Lakemaster MCC chip in my Lowrance Globalmap 3600c and started to target shallow backwater and cuts. Having the Lakemaster MCC mapping card made it easy for us to hit every backwater and cut we could find. Giving each spot we fished about 10-15 minutes to get bit and then move on. We were looking for aggressive fish and if you dont get bit right away its time to move until you do. We covered the southend of the lake and just kept going up the west and northend of the lake until we hit the motherload finding our fish in 5 feet of water in coontail weeds. I’m surprised to see how high the weeds are for this time of year. Even with the lack of snow this winter and early spring, the weeds are getting thick and tall.
Flu-flu jigs in chartreuse tipped with maggots and pink/white mini-mite jigs with no meat under slip floats worked the best. The fish we found were extremely aggressive and pretty much bit all day. The key was finding weeds in calm water that held lots of minnows.
We caught over 45 dandy bluegills, 20 crappies and a few nice perch. The biggest bluegill almost hit the ruler at 10 inches and she came flying out of the water like a greyling after I set the hook. We laughed our butts off and it was a treat to see that big gal soar. We kept a few for the pan and put the rest of these pre-spawn fish back. Its important to remember these fish are pre-spawn so release the bigger females.
Tomorow its off to another lake for another day of spring time panfishing.
See you on the water.
Thanks Derek,
nice report and NICE panfish, 10 inches WOW.
keep up the good work.
Jack..
Keep up the good work, or keep sending you work?
Good report. I am sitting at work half asleep and your report gave me some much needed energy.
Great report Derek!
Those are some dandy gills!
Nice looking gills, I mean on the fish
!! Keep up the great work. I haven’t been out too much with teaching, coaching golf, and turkey hunting, but with this site, I sure “feel” like I have caught a lot!! 
Thanks for the report and pics Bud. Those Mini Mites are great little fish catchin lures.
Nothing better than nice weather on a lake and catchin fish. And panfish are a blast on light tackle. 
Thanks, Bill
Thanks guys. Went back again today and had the same results. Crappies bit much better today. Water temp rose 7 degres. Backwaters were dead calm and the fish were right up against the shore. I hope this awesome weather holds out.
Got bit by some bird size skeeters today.
1
3
Great report Derek, Nice job. Looks like a whole bunch of fun. Love2Fish.
Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?
Looks like you have ’em dialed in
Thanks for sharing
dave
Hello Derek, That was a nice report. Where are you going fishing next?
Thanks.. Not sure. I spent 16 hours on the water over the weekend. Completely blew off the house chores..
Might not get out next weekend.
Went out Saturday afternoon for a couple hours. Plenty of sunfish and crappie action. Crappies were caught on jigs, no minnow fishing 1 1/2feet down. Sunnies same or a little deeper. Report from sheriff. A few fights at the dam/channel/pier are about fishing spots and crossed lines lines. People being checked and cited for trolling/fish harassment. See you up there on opener.It’s looking good for the fish bite. One incedental walleye over 18″.
Ron
Knife was ok. Of course the weather cut down on our fishing time. Lot of boats Saturday but fewer on Sunday. I think people got tired of the rain… We got our fish Saturday.
Ron