HuntGridCrappies, sunfish and perch
The crappie and panfish fishing app
Panfish are often the first fish we catch, and a school of crappie or bluegill can keep a whole family busy. HuntGrid Fishing helps you tell a black crappie from a white one and a bluegill from a pumpkinseed, keeps your brush piles and docks private, and logs every fish in three taps.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, © OpenMapTiles; terrain: Copernicus WorldDEM-30 (credits)
Know your panfish
Small fish, big schools and habits worth learning.
Crappies school up
Black and white crappies gather in loose schools around brush piles, standing timber, docks and weed edges, often off the bottom. Find one and there are usually more.
Sunfish nest side by side
In late spring bluegill and pumpkinseed fan out round nests in the shallows, often in colonies, and the males guard them. Many anglers let the nesting fish be.
Perch feed by day
Yellow perch travel in schools over weed flats and soft bottom, feed in daylight and bite all winter: a favourite through the ice.
Two families
Crappies, bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish and rock bass are all sunfishes, kin of the black basses. Yellow perch belong to the perch family, with the walleye.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, © OpenMapTiles; terrain: Copernicus WorldDEM-30 (credits)
Species guide
Black or white crappie? The guide shows you
The species guide in HuntGrid Fishing works with no signal. Each species has its own page (open this species in the app):
- The marks that tell them apart: a black crappie has irregular dark speckles and seven or eight dorsal spines; a white crappie has faint vertical bars and six.
- Look-alike sunfish side by side: the bluegill, the pumpkinseed and the green sunfish, and the rock bass beside the smallmouth bass.
- Their habitat, the techniques that catch each one, and the water temperatures the yellow perch prefers with their source.
- A question key: answer a few questions about the fish in your hand and it narrows down the candidates.
- Waters near you where agency surveys or stocking records show the species, with the year.
Panfish seasons and limits vary by state, province and water. HuntGrid never guesses them: the official regulations always have the final word.
How panfish anglers use HuntGrid Fishing
Brush piles and docks
Mark brush piles, docks, weed edges and spawning flats with fishing icons, with the depth, the cover and the months each one fishes best. Filter your spots by species.
Log a crappie in three taps
Tap +, Catch, Black crappie: the place and time are saved, even with no signal. Add the length and weight whenever you like.
Floats and split shot, step by step
The how-to library shows the slip float, fixed float and split shot rigs, the knots to tie them, and how to fish ponds, lakes and reservoirs, saved offline.
Depth maps
Depth shading and contours from agency lake surveys show the weed flats, drop-offs and basins where panfish school.
Bite forecast
Today scores the bite on your favourite waters and shows the best windows, with the reasons behind each score.
Panfish through the ice
Ice Mode numbers your holes with the depth under each, so you can follow a school from hole to hole.
Take the kids
A search for easy fishing near you finds waters with recent stocking or surveyed panfish, and a public pier or shore access with parking.
Can I keep it?
Fish Check gives the rules for a crappie or a perch of that length at that water today, with the official source.
Personal bests
Your biggest crappie, bluegill and perch, and the first of each species you logged.
Offline lakes and rivers
Download a lake or a stretch of river in one tap: its map and your spots work with zero bars.
Questions
Still have a question? Read the HuntGrid Fishing help pages or email support@huntgrid.net.
What is the best app for crappie and panfish?
The one that fits how you fish. HuntGrid Fishing keeps your brush piles and docks private, logs a catch in three taps and carries a species guide and a how-to library that work offline. It’s free: try it on your own lake before you decide.
How do I tell a bluegill from a pumpkinseed?
Look at the flap at the back of the gill cover. A bluegill’s is all dark, with no coloured edge, and there’s often a dark blotch at the back of its soft dorsal fin. A pumpkinseed has a bright red or orange spot at the tip of the flap and wavy blue lines on its cheek.
Where do crappies go in summer?
Many schools leave the shallows for deeper brush, timber and channel edges, and often hold off the bottom. Your own spots and catch log are the best record of where they were.
Does HuntGrid Fishing show panfish limits?
Fish Check gives the rules for crappie, sunfish and perch at a water on a date, with the official source. Rules a person hasn’t checked yet are labelled as not verified. The official regulations always have the final word.
Your next fishing trip starts on the map
Create a free account and open HuntGrid Fishing in your browser. The same account works for HuntGrid Hunt.
Already have an account? Sign in