I like seeing these little guys

[WTM]

probably the prettier fish in the water and are great bioindicators of good water quality, especially in the bays that i keep fish to eat. we are seeing more and more of them. my son came in from east tenn. for the holiday and took him bluegilling. caught several dozen fish in the 7-9 inch range and a few almost 10". caught a few shellcracker mixed in with the bluegills. he missed TARP gills and shellcracker by 1/4 inch. i always release the fish over 9" and keep the
7-8" fish to eat. gotta have the bulls back in the water to maintain the pecking order. last week i saw a lot of channel cats pushing the bluegill out of the traditional spawning areas. this week it seems better. kind of a strange year.

we used 1/16th oz jigs with modified beetle spin cricket bodies (i used a needle and run some spinner bait skirt through them to make some legs) and tipped with gulp alive chartreuse wax worm. they seemed to prefer orange jig heads as my son was outcatching me 10 to 1 when i was using black. we were casting and slow rolling without floats in bays with adjacent deep water.

nothing like hanging a gill big enough to double a light action fast tip spinning rod. my son said, this fishing is fun and relaxing, better than bass fishing. i guess i introduced him to fishing the wrong way, bass fishing when he was younger and bluegill fishing when he is 29 lol.

anyways, thats my south KY lake report. you cant catch them from the couch, so get out there.

 

[Dbllunger]

Yes they are beautiful little fish. Great report and congrats on the big gills. My favorite eating. I personally would rather catch just about anything other than a large mouth bass. The only time I like catching largemouth is when i'm drifting live shad below Wheeler dam in Alabama. You get into some really nice ones there from time to time.

 

[bluball]

Yep beautiful fish forsure

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[Cottontop]

We grew up calling them "Pretty Fish". I was 40 years old before I figured out it wasn't their real name.

 

[cbhunter]

Always called them sunfish..... am I right or wrong? Lol


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[RUGER]

Yep the most beautiful fish there is around here.

 

[RUGER]

Always called them sunfish..... am I right or wrong? Lol


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Unless I am wrong also they are "longear sunfish".
So we are either both right or both wrong. :D

 

[cbhunter]

Always called them sunfish..... am I right or wrong? Lol


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Unless I am wrong also they are "longear sunfish".
So we are either both right or both wrong. :D

:bash: :rotf:

 

[poorhunter]

Pumpkinseed is what I thought.

 

[duckriver]

Pumpkinseed is what I thought.

This is what I've always called them

 

[WTM]

Always called them sunfish..... am I right or wrong? Lol


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Unless I am wrong also they are "longear sunfish".
So we are either both right or both wrong. :D

both correct. longear sunfish. all are in the sunfish family as well as LMB,SMB, rock bass and both crappies.

pumpkinseeds have a shorter gill cover ear and is tipped red like a shellcracker(redear). there is a polulation of them in east tennessee but the state record of 5oz came from dogwood in lexington. no idea how it got there. up north they grow to a pound or two.

 

[double browtine]

I always called them a pumpkinseed. Prettiest fish in the lake!

If you catch a couple dozen of those little guys and put them on a limb line about 8" under the water this time of year, they work real well for catching flatheads!

 

[duckriver]

I always called them a pumpkinseed. Prettiest fish in the lake!

If you catch a couple dozen of those little guys and put them on a limb line about 8" under the water this time of year, they work real well for catching flatheads!

Yes sir they will!

 

[Forvols]

When I was a kid, the bluegills would run up the North Fork of the Holston river and end up at the base of the Lunsford dam in Hiltons VA. we would sein minnows in the river and catch the biggest bluegills at the base of the dam. Wading out into the river. Im not sure if they were pumpkin seeds, redears, blue gills etc..but big ol orange bellied beautiful fish. Barely (and most times not) able to grip them by the top to bottom in one hand. Lunsford dam now is kind of a hump in the North Fork of the Holston..back then it was 5ft tall. FIsh just stacked up, including small mouth, redeyes, catfish...Never knew what you would get.

 

[catman529]

If it's true they tell good water quality that is pretty interesting to me. Everyone hates on the harpeth river because it's polluted, etc etc. but it's loaded with longear sunfish.


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[catman529]

Pumpkinseed is what I thought.

This is what I've always called them

a lot of people call them pumpkinseed, but they are technically longear sunfish, and pumpkinseed is another species of sunfish that isn't quite as colorful.


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[WTM]

If it's true they tell good water quality that is pretty interesting to me. Everyone hates on the harpeth river because it's polluted, etc etc. but it's loaded with longear sunfish.


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looking at the Harpeth problem, only about half is "polluted" per TDEC standards. its not impossible for certain parts of a watershed to be polluted and other parts not polluted. in the case of the Harpeth, i believe they were concerned with higher rates of phosphorous from treated sewer discharge. phosphorous is needed for marine life and the only way to get it usually is from water runoff. N and C in water can be created from the air. its only when the water receives very large amounts of P is when it will cause toxic algae growth and oxygen depletion in the water. i also remember reading where Franklin has a large natural phosphorous rock formation.

longears are moderately intolerant to intolerant to changes in water conditions, especially turbidity.

its kind of strange about how Franklin is allowed to dump all that treated water in the Harpeth. Camden was denied from TDEC and the TWRA from dumping into the Cypress system and had to pump it 10 miles into the country and release it via a sprinkler system onto some donated land. i asked one of the water dept workers and he said the tests from the treated water were better than their drinking supply.

 

[catman529]

If it's true they tell good water quality that is pretty interesting to me. Everyone hates on the harpeth river because it's polluted, etc etc. but it's loaded with longear sunfish.


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looking at the Harpeth problem, only about half is "polluted" per TDEC standards. its not impossible for certain parts of a watershed to be polluted and other parts not polluted. in the case of the Harpeth, i believe they were concerned with higher rates of phosphorous from treated sewer discharge. phosphorous is needed for marine life and the only way to get it usually is from water runoff. N and C in water can be created from the air. its only when the water receives very large amounts of P is when it will cause toxic algae growth and oxygen depletion in the water. i also remember reading where Franklin has a large natural phosphorous rock formation.

longears are moderately intolerant to intolerant to changes in water conditions, especially turbidity.

its kind of strange about how Franklin is allowed to dump all that treated water in the Harpeth. Camden was denied from TDEC and the TWRA from dumping into the Cypress system and had to pump it 10 miles into the country and release it via a sprinkler system onto some donated land. i asked one of the water dept workers and he said the tests from the treated water were better than their drinking supply.

I hope it is treated that well because they're building another sewer plant on the harpeth upstream of Franklin by the interstate.


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