Straight tail grubs and light jig heads are the way

[Spoonminnow]

I used to think that panfish were near impossible to catch in summer until I started downsizing lures and jig weight. Other misconceptions were that fish were deeper rather than in a range of depths in same water and that curl tail grubs were the lures of choice. I have been fishing three different waters with depths ranging from 14-23' at the deepest end and though fish can be found deeper, the most catches are in the 2-6' range with weeds or shade key areas.

For the heck of it I decided to go really small and light to see the sizes of fish that would strike and stay with straight tails : flat or spike. The combination of straight tails and light jigs was the super slow retrieve speed with pauses that kept fish interested in order to irritate them with slightly fluttering or twitchy tails that provoked them to strike.

The catches weren't near as good as two weeks ago with numbers over 55 per outing, but the strikes were hard and many times multiple on the same retrieve. Here are some examples from a few days ago which include different species striking the same lures:
flat tail:


spike tail:


BTW, green sunfish (bottom left) were as super aggressive as rock bass which were also caught shallow and on steep rocky drops. Three bass were also caught similar in size to this one:


I started out fishing in 3' near an inflow stream and banged out 3 sunfish and a 8" bass. From there, fish were found in 4-6' near weed edges and in pockets. In the last afternoon (3pm) fish were found shallow near shady drop offs into 8'. 1/64 oz jigs were used for shallow water; 1/32 oz for deeper water.

Only 22 fish total but not a disappointment in that the goal was to prove to myself the range of depth fish could be caught in. No luck in deeper water where suspended fish were seen on the fishfinder. Could be that only live bait may have been the only way to get them to strike.