Sunfish
Perciformes
Recommended Sunfish Fishing Lures:
Fox Creek Lures
Bait Rigs
Luretech Lures
Habitat: Sunfish, common name for a variety of unrelated freshwater and marine fishes. In the United States the name is given to a group of freshwater food fishes of the family that also includes the bass. Sunfishes are brightly colored, deep-bodied, and laterally compressed, rarely exceeding 25 cm (10 in) in length. The long dorsal fin is spined at the front and soft-rayed at the rear. The best-known species are the bluegill, or coppernosed bream, and the common sunfish, also known as the pumpkinseed. The male fishes build shallow nests and guard and aerate the eggs until they hatch.
The ocean sunfishes belong to a different family. The largest of these appears to be composed of a huge head with large fins attached above and below. It has a deep body that attains a maximum length of 3.3 m (11 ft). These sunfish often lie inert on the ocean surface, apparently sunning themselves.
Biology: Sunfishes belong to the families Centrarchidae, of the order Perciformes, and Molidae, of the order Tetradontiformes. The bluegill, or coppernosed bream, is classified as Lepomis macrochirus, the common sunfish as Lepomis gibbosus, and the largest ocean sunfish as Mola mola
Angling: Plain garden worms are the favorite bait for sunfish or bluegills, but they can be caught on a number of different types of lures. The fly fisher can have fun with poppers, especially in spring and early summer, when nests are concentrated in shallow water. Most large bluegills are taken in deep water during the summer months by drifting with the wind using worms. Wintertime jigging in the weed beds with grubs or mousies on ice jigs also produce excellent results.
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