Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name: What’s The Catch?Episode Title:  Panned Out

You are listening to What’s The Catch? the podcast with your host Andrew Rowan.

In this episode of What’s The Catch?  We’re gonna discuss: Panfish, what they are, where to find them, how to catch them, and why you should wanna catch them.

Segment 1: Species Background

Panfish are small freshwater fish that are native to North America. They get their name from being small enough to fit into a frying pan. There are many types of fish considered panfish.There are 38 species in the panfish family, so to make this quicker and not drag on, I’ll be talking mainly about Bluegill and the Green Sunfish since those are both the most common found in Hopewell and other areas close. What I can say from personal experience is that they do taste really good.

Fun facts:

• Average Bluegill length: 7.5 inches
• Average bluegill weight: 2.6lbs
• Average Green Sunfish length: 3 to 6 inches
• Average Green Sunfish weight: 1.2 lbs
• Biggest bluegill ever caught: 4 lbs, 12 oz, 15 inches
• Biggest Green sunfish ever caught: 2 lbs, 2 oz, 14.75 inches

Segment 2:  Where can I catch them?

Places in/near hopewell

• Rosedale park: Pennington
• Delaware river 
• Washington crossing state park: Titusville
• Delaware and Raritan canal state park: Princeton
• Tyler state park: Newtown PA

My favorite spot:Rosedale park, spillway 

P.S, you can catch these guys pretty much all year around. 

I would say summertime is the best time, but with being able

To ice fish for these guys, that’s also a fun option

Segment 3: What can I use to catch them?

Best type of fishing rod

• Spinning rod because panfish are easy to catch

My favorite setup

• Small hooks from eagle claw
• One split shot for weight
• Bobber

Best real bait

• Bread
• Corn
• Worms
• Bugs 

Best plastic bait 

• Plastic curly tail grub on a jig hook 

Ice fishing setup

• You can use the same setup as regular fishing. Using a jig or live bait is fine. If you use live bait, just don’t use the bobber. Also you will need an ice fishing rod, it's the same thing, just smaller. 

Segment 4:  Why should I want to catch them?

Panfish are easy to catch so they are good for little kids or beginners at fishing. It’s also just fun to sit near a pond and catch them all day. It's not big, but it’s still entertaining. The best reason is that you can use pinfish as live bait to catch bigger fish. If you're trying to catch big catfish, I would recommend first going out and getting some bluegill. You can take the bluegill, cut them in half, then put them in the hook as bait for the catfish. 

Outro:

Well that’s gonna do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening, I’ll see you soon in the next episode of What’s The Catch. Until then, I'm your host Andrew Rowan. Have a great day. 

Music Credits:   

• Caravan By Oliver Tray on Soundcloud

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• @theHVSPN