(Bill Lindner photo)
Panfish were always a staple for my Midwestern family, and we caught them in only a small number of ways in a myriad of Minnesota summers. Necessity being the mother of invention, my grandpa found that the only way to keep several grandkids from continually tangling was to fish vertically below the boat with the same “jigglesticks” we used during ice season. Though at times we still tangled plenty, my brothers and cousins and I became pro-proficient at dropping a small ice fly tipped with a chunk of fresh-dug angleworm straight to the mouths of hungry ‘gills and crappies. We’d hand-over-hand our catch, and just about everything went into the bucket.
Of course, a few of us were old enough to cast proficientlyand catch fish away from the boat, eventually even straying from our grandfather’s advice and trying plastic twister tails, especially toward evening on lily pad and cabbage edges for crappies. Fishing quickly went from a hunkered-down, staring over the gunwale affair to actively taking the game to the fish, with baits that fooled fish more than convinced them to eat some of the real thing. Looking back, it opened the floodgates of fishing for me, causing me to think on and dream up new ways to target the same fish we’d always chased.
It also kick-started a love-affair with tackle, which most anglers, if honest with themselves, could also admit to having. Gander Mountain, Bass Pro Shops, and Cabela’s catalogs soon clogged our thankfully oversized mailbox back at the farm, and as much as I devoured In-Fisherman , Bassmaster , Field and Stream , Minnesota Sportsman , and Outdoor News , I spent an equal amount of time buried in those catalogs. Magazines outlined the techniques, and the marketing materials sold the gear to make it all happen.
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