Flowing Water Sunfish

As water levels drop and temperatures rise each year in CT, some of my time that would be dedicated to trout gets altered towards fishing for sunfish in the same kinds of water. I employ a lot of the same methods as well.... tightline nymphing, dry droppers, and micro-jigs.  I love fishing for sunfish in moving water. I love fishing for them anywhere, frankly, but it's a little more pleasant to wet wade a 5 degree rocky stream on a hot day than an 85 degree muddy, weedy pond. I'll go knee deep in slop for certain things, but bass and bluegills aren't one of those things. And yes, I'm lumping black bass in with the other sunfishes. Bass anglers need to get over themselves. You're fishing for sunfish. I'm fishing for sunfish. We're all fishing for sunfish. Because sunfish are awesome. But I digress.
When the water gets warm and the air gets warmer, it's time to put some shorts and a cheep pair of tennis shoes and get wet feet and fish slime covered hands.

One of my local honey holes has been loaded with two species this spring that have been more of a minority in the past, rock bass and largemouth bass. Normally rock bass are outnumbered by redbreast sunfish and yellow perch and largemouth are outnumbered by smallmouth. Not only are there a ton of both but there are some big ones. On my last trip I got at least 30 rock bass and missed one that was about 12 inches. I did land one 12 incher in late May at night, and it was an impressive thing to behold despite the rock basses very lacking fight. I've only really caught these sort of numbers in VT, and it definitely got me thinking... now that there are a ton in this spot, it might be time for me to fry some up. Warmouth are delicious, why wouldn't rock bass be?

Ambloplites rupestris

Something I just don't have the heart to kill intentionally is redbreast sunfish. Along with pumpkinseeds, they are every bit the colorful, tenacious, feisty indicators of a vibrant ecosystem in warm water around here that brook trout are in cold water. If there aren't a bunch of redbreast sunfish or pumpkinseeds don't outnumber other species in their niche or aren't present in the right habitat, something is up. And did I say tenacious? Moving water redbreast are some of the meanest fish around. If they grew teeth like a bluefish, human lives would be lost just from wading in shallow river. People would never let their dogs go for a swim. I've had redbreast sunfish ram my legs trying to chase me from their nests. Just as often as they shy away the'll seem to play a game of chicken with you. Put a four inch streamer in front of a six inch male redbreast and that bastard is going to take a swipe at it. They are pint sized condensations of pure rage. 

Lepomis auritus 

Largemouth, the most overly glorified of the sunfishes (sorry, bass goons) are very much the species that got me into fishing. And I never fell out of love with them, my respect for other species just grew up around them. I still get shaky when I see a giant bass cruising the edge of a gravel bar or sliding into a weed bed. I understand their appeal. And when I stuck this beauty, I felt as happy as I did catching a creek fish of this caliber when I was a complete bass head:

Micropterus salmoides

But nowadays I'm just a thrilled when I catch really good looking bluegill.

Lepomis macrochirus

Alas, my local water are also home to another beautiful and aggressive but also very invasive sunfish. I caught one in a part of the watershed they'd not been found in yet recently, and I killed it. Green sunfish have a habit of taking a watershed over. They've got big mouths for their size and are voracious predators. But if there is one thing they're better at than eating, it's making more of themselves. Green sunfish wreak havoc outside of their native range. I've found that in closed systems, especially small ponds, green sunfish will even often out compete bluegills. 

Lepomis cyanellus

Last but certainly not least, I spent the evening hours dead drifting streamers for smallmouth. I caught the numbers but not the size. But that doesn't especially matter... even an eight inch smallmouth bass fight until the last second. Actually, I did hook one good fish of about 18 inches. Frustratingly, it came off. There aren't many fish that size in the river I was fishing, so I know I'll have to go searching some more. It seems the prolonged higher than average flows did bring in bigger fish this spring. I should be able to find a few, in time. Catching them is a different story. 

Micropterus dolomieu

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