Sunny Grand Slam

[dc410]

I am calling this thread the sunny grand slam but I'm sure some of you guys will be calling it "muskie bait". :-D However you look at it that's ok. These little guys don't get a whole lot of credit but they do serve as an important food source for some of the larger WW species. I really enjoy catching the various species of sunfish at times while I am primarily targeting these other species. They are always cooperative in taking almost anything presented to them. They are a great way to get some of those young upcoming anglers in your life interested in flyfishing. I have always enjoyed the variation in species and the different color patterns on some of these fish at different times of the year. I'm certain some of them that we catch are probably hybrids but here are a some pictures of four of our common PA sunfish. Hope you enjoy the pictures or maybe you can use them as color models for your some of your muskie flies.

 

[streamerguy]

Sweet! Love catching sunfish on light fly gear, very underrated and they're usually always willing to take a fly. I've never gotten any redbreasts, but I like to call green sunfish "warmwater brookies." Very aggressive towards flies and they're usually colorful. But yeah, they are musky bait ;-)

 

[boychick]

I love sunfish on dry flies, so much fun!

 

[Swattie87]

Nice dc! I've done the PA Sunnie Slam myself once or twice. Definitely pretty cool. The Pumpkinseed is always the toughest one for me in the WW streams I fish.

And yes, there's definitely lots of Sunfish mutts out there.

 

[Fishidiot]

Good stuff.
I definitely get more greens and RBs since I mostly fish streams. As I've said many times, I like the RBs for a host of reasons. This year, however, I'm seeing mostly greenies in my local creeks as well as a recent trip to the Potomac. Also seeing a lot of big ones too.
(Big by green sunfish standards - we're talking over 5" ).
Seems like a banner year around here for greenies.

The good news regarding RBs is that I witnessed large numbers of them spawning last month in the lower Juniata River where many folks feel that RBs are gone or greatly reduced.

 

[dc410]

It has kind of been reversed for me Dave. I have caught a whole lot more RBs this year than last year. Greenies have been harder to come by for some reason and the ones I have caught were all on the small side. The Pumkinseeds have been an unexpected treat this season. I always thought of their habitat primarily as lakes. However, I have gotten into a few on a stream with some scattered pockets of heavy weedbeds. If you look in the background of the pumkinseed picture you can see one if these weedy areas. They seem to like to hang around the edges of these areas if not right in the weeds.

 

[Swattie87]

Nearly all of my WW fishing is in the Swatara watershed…mostly the main stem, but a few smaller tributaries too. RB's are by far the most common and represent probably 70% of my Sunfish catch. Greens are next around 20%, and BG and various hybrids make up about 5% each. Pumpkinseeds are rare birds for me…I get one or two pure Pumpkinseeds per Summer. BG and PS are somewhat more common in the smaller tributaries where they are closer to upstream impoundments I've found. RB's are clearly the dominant Sunfish species in that watershed though.

FI - I agree…big is a relative term here. I caught a Green that approached 10" once from underneath a low head dam on the Swatara…one of those fish I really wish I got a picture of but didn't…camera was at home drying out after a dunking the day before. BG can get bigger, but anything in the 5-6" range or bigger is a big fish for the other three species.

 

[DanVerona]

Here's a few chunkier ones I caught Sunday at a local pond. Used a handful of small flies, but these two were on a Green Weenie that fell apart (almost looked like a San Juan worm...bad knot by me, gotta love the beginnings of a fly tying hobby)....

http://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p800/DanVerona/7-21Panfish2_zps9a96a3e0.jpg

http://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p800/DanVerona/7-21Panfish_zps8985c955.jpg

 

[dc410]

DanVerona,

Some real nice sunnies there! The one looks to me like it may actually be a bit of a cross between a bluegill and pumkinseed. The gill plate looks like a pumkinseed but I am not seeing the red edge on the dark portion of the gill plate like is on a purebred pumpkinseed. I could be wrong. As far as your flies go, some flies fish just as good or better as they start to wear after catching a number of fish. Keep tying and good luck!

 

[JackM]

In the south, they are all just "brim."

 

[turkey]

JackM wrote:
In the south, they are all just "brim."

I take comfort in that.