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

If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, and Christopher, for supporting this blog.

Species Profile: Rock Bass

As most of you hopefully already know, I am a life-list angler. I target, document, and count the number of species, hybrids, and subspecies I catch, specifically on fly tackle. Because of that I spend a lot of time learning about and fishing for many different species of fish. This means I'm more adept at identifying and fishing for an extremely broad range of species than the average fly angler. This series will attempt to outline species identification, some life history, and methods for targeting with fly tackle. Maybe I'll get to every fish on my life list, but considering it is ever growing... it would take a while. Mostly, I hope this will get a few of you interested in going out and learning about or catching something new. 

Rock bass, Abloplites rupestris, is an abundant sunfish species occupying a variety of water types. They are native to most pf the Midwest from the far east portions of the Dakota's east to the Lake Champlain watershed in Vermont and South to the very northernmost portions of Alabama and Georgia. They have been widely introduced outside of their range, including CT. In some areas where they were introduced they have wreaked havoc on native endemic species; including Roanoke bass, which are very similar, share the same niche, and can hybridize with rock bass; and an isolated population of trout-perch for which the extinction of was blamed on the introduction of rock bass.
Rock bass are generally less than 14 inches though individuals up to 16 and 17 inches have been recorded, rock bass as heavy as three pounds. An 8 inch fish is fairly typical. They may live as long as 10 years. These fish have a large mouth as sunfishes go, are deep bodied, generally golden to brown or olive in color with some dark spots and/or patches and a lighter colored belly. In the spring, when they spawn, their belly may darken, as in the large specimen below:



Six anal spines and frequently bright red eyes also help to distinguish rock bass. They can change their skin pigmentation in correlation with their surroundings so a broad range of colors and patterns exists within the species.





Rock bass are primarily carnivorous, eating other fish, insects, crustaceans, and small amphibians. They typically spawn from April through June around the time the water reaches 58 degrees. They spawn much in the same way other sunfish do, digging nests which they actively guard and frequently mate with multiple partners.

A prime location for rockbass in Vermont.

Rock bass are readily available to many anglers and are great sport on light fly tackle. They prefer clear-water lakes, rivers, and small streams, and are generally one of the most abundant species in the places they are found. Though they don't fight as hard as othe sunfish species, they do take topwater flies, streamers, and nymphs with aggression. The ideal setup is a 4wt rod with a weight forward floating line, and a 6 or 7ft leader tapering down to 3x. Small panfish poppers, Chernobyl ants, Woolly Buggers, small Clouser Minnows, and virtually any small streamer and any nymph pattern will dupe rock bass in different scenarios. I find sight casting to rock bass with nymphs in small rivers and streams and just twitching the fly in front of them to be very productive. In lakes and big rivers the effectiveness of a steady, slow figure 8 retrieve for any subsurface presentation is unparalleled.



Fish around rocky areas, as the common name of the species suggests. It is very possible to catch rock bass on the surface, especially in shallow water. But if you are interested in catching a really big rock bass it may be a good idea to swap out a floating line for a sink tip and fish larger Woolly Buggers or small Belly Scratcher Minnows on rocky structure in 10 to 20 feet of water. Targeting large rock bass can also be done during the spawn, when large fish move into the shallows to spawn.

Rock bass are a fun fish to target on occasion and they can also be very pretty. Go give them a shot when our lakes and rivers thaw out!

If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated!