What is the best bait for redear sunfish?
Rister said meal worms and crickets are the preferred live baits for redear sunfish, while red worms and crickets are tops for bluegills. The recommended strategy for both species is suspending the bait under a float.
How do you catch red ear sunfish?
Angling Tips: Redears prefer deeper water, so fish small baited hooks near or on the bottom of the waterbody or can jig the bait up and down off the bottom. During the nesting season, male redear sunfish on the nest provide tremendous action on light tackle.
How do you target redear sunfish?
Unlike bluegill, they don’t bother with open-water plankton and generally don’t pluck terrestrial insects from the surface. To target them, rigs should place livebaits on or just above bottom. Tightline fishing works well in close quarters, but floats allow you to spread baits and cover more water.
What do red ear sunfish eat?
insects
Redear sunfish, sometimes called shellcracker, feed on aquatic insects, snails, small fish and other small aquatic animals. Snails are intermediate hosts of yellow and black grubs. The larvae of these grubs are often found in the fins and in the muscles of largemouth bass and other fish species.
Does redear spawn before bluegill?
Redear will typically spawn a month earlier than bluegill. In most of the southeast this will occur during March and April. Unlike bluegills, that spawn every month from May through September, redear typically have only one major spawn which occurs during the early spring.
Can you eat red ear sunfish?
However, they also are known by Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, rouge ear sunfish, and sun perch. Often mistaken for bluegill, redears are distinguished by a red ear patch on the gill plate.
How do you catch big shell crackers?
Because shellcrackers aren’t particularly susceptible to lures, most anglers use live bait. Worms, grass shrimp and crickets are probably the top three in popularity, but waxworms, meal worms, leeches, catalpa worms and bits of crayfish tail or mussel meat also get their attention.
How do you get red ear perch?
It is more difficult to catch Redear than most other sunfish; they don’t take artificial lures but easy take natural baits like earthworms, crickets grass shrimp and especially snails and mollusks. Most fish are taken on fishing telescopic poles with small hooks, corks, and split shot for weight.
Are redear good for ponds?
Adding redear sunfish to any pond is a great way to reduce parasites in bass, bluegill, catfish, and other non-game fish such as golden shiners. They are usually stocked in small ponds and lakes because they are specialized feeders and do not compete much with other fish.
Can you eat redear sunfish?
What is the world record redear sunfish?
6.30 pounds
Recently weighed in at Bass Tackle Master of Lake Havasu, Arizona, the new pending world record redear sunfish weighed 6.30 pounds, measured 17 inches long and carried a 20-inch girth. Caught by Thomas Farchione of Waterford, Wisconsin.
What’s the best way to catch a redear sunfish?
how to catch Redear Sunfish. It is less likely to be caught on artificials, such as spinners or poppers, than the other sunfishes. It prefers small live baits such as worms, grubs, and insects. Rarely, the redear will take a small fly or other small lure. It is strictly an angler’s fish and has no commercial value.
How big does a red ear sunfish get?
Success in catching redear sunfish is usually a combination of knowledge of the fish’s habits, and habitat, having the proper fishing equipment, and hooking techniques. Heading to the house with a stringer full of shellcracker is not uncommon. The red ear fish is a 7 to 10-inch long fish that weighs approximately 1 to 2-pounds.
What kind of bait do you use to catch sunfish?
This is probably the most popular approach, especially for kids. Some of the best baits are red worms, meal worms, crickets, chunks of nightcrawlers and small grasshoppers. Commercial dough-type baits also work. A bobber is most often used to keep the bait off the bottom and to signal a bite. From shore you can use a bobber rig.
Where are redear sunfish found in the United States?
Redear sunfish are native to waters in the southern United States, Rio Grande and Mississippi River. But they were observed in the lower Colorado River, in Southern California, in 1940. They’ve since been stocked in Northern California lakes and reservoirs because they outperform the old standby bluegill.