First Tuesday Tips

The basses and panfish (with a very few exceptions) prefer warmer to much warmer water than trout can tolerate. And don't think that warmwater fishes are just misshapen trout—you can be a fine trout fisher yet fail to catch many, or any, bass and panfish.

LARGEMOUTH BASS

Found in every state but Alaska, also in Mexico and Canada. Loves warm water but does fine up north thanks to summer water temperatures. Leaps and fights hard (though briefly). Tolerates only very slow currents—a true lake fish. Has a smudgy black horizontal stripe along each flank.

Largemouth Bass
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)

SMALLMOUTH BASS

Looks something like a largemouth, but has vertical stripes (if it has stripes at all) in place of the largemouth’s horizontal band. Likes quick, rocky streams but does just as well in slow, weedy ones, and in lakes. Needs warm water at least a fair chunk of the year but can’t handle largemouth’s upper limit. Fights hard and long, and sometimes leaps. All over the US and well up into Canada.

Smallmouth Bass
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)

PANFISH

Bluegill

The most common and beloved panfish in North America. Fights hard for its small size (a 10-incher’s a dandy), rarely jumps. Prefers lakes but does fine in lazy currents. Needs warm water. Often schools. Does have powder-blue gill covers.

Bluegill
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)

Crappie

Crappies, both black and white, really bunch up (especially black crappies) for mating in spring, run large for sunfishes (sometimes a pound and a half, even two pounds). Crappies are rounded and flat-sided like other panfish, but silvery with dark markings.

Crappie
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)

Other panfish

The list is long: redear, pumpkinseed, warmouth, green sunfish . . . They’re all well worth knowing and seeking. Use the bluegill as your model, or at least your starting point, for exploring most of the panfish. A few (yellow perch, rock bass. . .) don't follow the bluegill model.

Yellow Perch
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)