His Panfish Leech jig employs a thin strip of squirrel fur, producing beautiful underwater undulation and is mostly a shallow-water lure. Wenger, owner of Jeff's Jigs and Flies, produces two of my favorite panfish lures. It was about this same time last year when Jeff Wenger started sending me pictures of giant bluegills he was catching alongside Jesse Thalmann, a Central Minnesota guide. You may hear about friends running across some of these same situations often enough that you realize deep water is where big panfish often go in summer. On at least a dozen occasions over the years, I've found crappies on deep boulders, large 'gills on 25-foot gravel humps, and both species patrolling the perimeters of isolated sunken Christmas trees and brushpiles on otherwise blank flats. The pattern lasted about two weeks each August for five or six years before the pondweed vanished along with the bluegills. These were 8- to 10-inch 'gills more than happy to crush 4-inch crankbaits. One year while guiding a group of podiatrists for walleyes on Gull Lake, Minnesota, we hit a mega school of bigwater bluegills, all humpheads hovering along a patch of pondweed growing on a 22-foot rock spine. Every time I've crossed paths with crappies in basins or bluegills on deeper flats and humps, they always are hefty, healthy animals, tails spilling well over the palms of our outstretched hands. Deep water has undeniable appeal to the lake's largest specimens. It's always surprised me that as the spawn season wraps, a lion-share of anglers forget about crappies and bluegills-at least anywhere panfish vacate shallow water in favor of deeper, less-conspicuous haunts.
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