Recommendations for panfish lake in the area

[Glockwinger]

Hello all, my brother and I are going to be in the Ashby area next weekend and were wondering if any of you could provide a recommendation of a panfish lake to try during the day?  We are not familiar with the area but wanted to give it a try with a portable.   Have only been on Pelican before, never Battle, Ottertail, Eagle, or Clitherall, etc.  Any ideas of where to look for some pannies for some fellow HSO FMers from our of town? Would be greatly appreciated!

 -Glockwinger 

[slammer]

Pretty tight lipped group around here for that info.  I think your best bet would be to go on the DNR lake finder and look for some good pannie lake info and narrow it down to a couple in the area you want to fish.  Thats my method and works good most of the time.  Good luck.

[Chill62]

I thought Clitherall was pretty good but never fished panfish down there.  I fish mainly the Perham/DL area.

 

Panfish have been very skitish as of lately.  We have been using mainly 4mm and 5 mm jigs for crappies but the panfish are wanting 3 mm jigs.  Best luck has been with a horizontal shapped jig tipped with 2-3 wax worms (depending on hook and wax worm size) very lightly jigged.  Most of the action has been once they appear is to reel up above them 5-8 feet then slowly drop down stopping 1-2 feet above them and twitching the jig LIGHTLY.  Anything with a "GLOW" has been killer for paints.  The lakes I've been fishing have almost a foot of snow and the water was merky prior to freeze up so even though the sun is up I'm still hitting the jigs with the UV Light and the fish are instantly reacting.  I've been targetting deeper holes and finding them in that 20-30' mark but I've heard some reports that they have started coming back up into the shallows and hitting the green weeds again.  Crappies right away this year were liking the 5 mm jigs tipped with a wax worm and soft plastic suspended but they have started preferring smaller jigs also.  Hope this helps you some.

[busse3775]

I think your best bet would be the narrows on Pelican. That can be pretty good crappie and walleye area. I usually fish it a couple times earlier in the season. Otherwise closer to Battle Lake you could give South Turtle or East and West Lost a try.