Warmwater fish ID

[Baron]

I've trout fished off and on for years. I was the guy in dirty work clothes who made sloppy casts of worms with cheap spinning gear and was happy to catch a trout or two on opening day. You may have seen me. It was trout that caused me to sharpen up. Watch nature and figure it all out. Learning about Hatches, Cover, Structure and Flow was all necessary and instructive for trout and it helped me in pursuit of other PA warm water fishing treasures. For instance I never used insects or streamers for bluegill and bass. It was always worms.

One of the things I never watched for was panfish and bass ID. This year it starts. So many of the critters look the same but aren't so I'm starting with the Sunfish realm to pay attention and ID them when I catch them. I can now easily tell the difference between Bluegill and Pumpknseed but would I even know when a Redbreasted Sunfish hopped onto my line. As a kid I thought I was catching sunnies but they were probably Green Sunfish as they had larger bass-like mouths. In the Jordan Creek I thought I was catching Warmouth but it turns out they were colorful nesting male Rock Bass.

Trout indirectly made me look for details.

It will be a fun next few years as I continue to pay attention when fishing.

 

[JerryC]

Took me awhile to learn the difference. Here's a redbreast from my local creek

 

[Swattie87]

I love catching Sunnies on fly gear. Haven't done much of it recently due to all the high water the last couple Summers, but hope that changes for this year. My FFing learning curve was actually backwards from most anglers. I started on Sunfish and Smallies, before moving to Trout.

In the Susky and Delaware watersheds there are 4 common Sunfish species you may run into...Redbreast, Bluegill, Green, and Pumpkinseed.

In streams, creeks, and rivers, Redbreasts are by far the most common, and they are tolerant of the most current. In mid-Summer you can catch them out in the main current channel with the Smallies. Bluegills and Greens are fairly common and can be locally abundant, but are nearly always found in complete slack water along the bank or in eddies. Pumpkinseeds are pretty rare (more common in impoundments) but I have caught them in moving water too. Once you learn to ID them it's pretty easy to tell them apart, except for the fact they can all hybridize with one another, with the fry being mutts of both parents. Some of the hybrids can get pretty neat looking and it makes for some good guessing as to what species the parents were.

In Western PA you lose the Redbreasts, but the other three are still there, along with some other species from the Ohio watershed. I'm not as familiar with those.

I'll see if I can dig up some pics to help with IDing them.

 

[Baron]

Swattie that was timely. It may be that I have the Redbreast and the green mixed up. One or both have larger mouths.

 

[Swattie87]

Baron wrote:
Swattie that was timely. It may be that I have the Redbreast and the green mixed up. One or both have larger mouths.

Both have larger mouths than Bluegills and Pumpkinseeds. Greens have the largest mouths of the four.

 

[RLeep2]

I live in panfish nirvana in southern Erie county. They are just now wrapping up the annual lovefest and the fishing has been pretty good. We have fewer greens but have pumpkinseeds and of course, regular gills out the willy wonger Some of the pumpkinseeds are of a size that is close to frightening. I don't do online pics, but got an exceptional p-seed this morning that I measured against the rod handle and checked when I got home. 10 1/2". I think this is the best one yet for me and I've been fishing them with a fly rod for, well, for a gawdawful long time.. Since shortly after the last year you could buy a new DeSoto at the dealer.

 

[Baron]

De Soto..... is that an Italian Coke?
I’d love to fish that area. I miss stopping in on Northeast AGWAY.

 

[Baron]

It seems then that my childhood creek had Green because I seem to remember they were easy to put 10 yr old finger in there and grab the hook.
It will be fun going forward to ID these.

As a kid I only ever caught Largemouth bass. Once I started catching Smallmouth it was tough for a while. Not for big ones but for the smaller fish.