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I fly-fished a local city pond last night around dusk. Caught 5 crappies, 4 bluegills, 2 little largemouth bass, and something else. Its that something else that has me excited...but I'm not sure exactly HOW excited I should get. I NEED SOME INPUT HERE!!!
Here's the thing. I've been wanting to catch a Redear Sunfish for the last several years...But in the last 3 years, I've only fished lakes that actually HAVE redear sunfish once or maybe twice. In the pond I was fishing last night, the City stocked bass, bluegills, crappies, and catfish. If anything else is in there, it is either by some freakish accident, or by random people tossing fish in they caught somewhere else, and then deciding they didn't want to clean them after they've gotten home. The biggest bluegills I've ever caught out of this pond were MAYBE 8". The fish I caught last night was 9.5" long, and certainly has some Redear heritage. What do you guys think? Is it a pure-strain Redear, or maybe just a Redear/Bluegill Hybrid? I'm thinking hybrid, but hoping for pure strain. Even if its a hybrid, I think I might just log it as a Redear. But I still want to hear the opinions of guys that have actually caught enough Redears to recognize whether this is or isn't. Let me know. Thanks!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...9-12-2010a.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...9-12-2010a.jpg
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The coloration and shape look pretty much like a shellcracker (red ear) to me. There is not enough orange, yellow or blue on the fish for me to think that dad may have been a bluegill. Shellcrackers seem to be a little more selective and slow biting than bluegill. We call them shellcrackers for a reason. Some of their food supplies, freshwater mussels and snail are not really fast moving prey. I have tied a couple of snail flies that I have not tried, I know one of them floats too well.
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This one hit a yellow boa yarn leech, which you can see in the picture.
The main thing that makes me suspect hybridization is the red edge of the gill flap is faded. In most of the pictures I've seen of Redears, that red edge is very well defined and bright. Here's some pictures that guys in our Central Iowa Anglers fishing club have taken (for comparison). THE PICS BELOW ARE NOT MY PICTURES.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...9/DSCN0053.jpg
http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/t...o/100_1698.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...4-DSC_8778.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Fishing006.jpg
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The bright red is probably more an effect of the water the fish comes from than parentage, IMHO. The coloration varies widely on redear in my experience. One lake had redear that were very dark even black on their bellies. The ear tab may be almost orange in color, I don't know if I have ever caught a redear with a tab as bright as those appear.
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That's interesting, Jesse. And your observation about the lack of color in the throat/belly region of my fish is an excellent point I hadn't considered. Anyway...I was pretty excited when I caught this.
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I got to try fly-fishing for white bass for a little while one day last week. Some fish were in reasonably clear (for Iowa) water less than 4' deep, so it was a perfect situation for me to test a few fly patterns on them (since I mostly use WFF line).
I tried the Jointed Minnow pattern, and got plenty of hits, but the white bass were having a tough time getting hooked on it. I did catch a few small Largemouth Bass on it, though.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-16-2010.jpg
A topwater Crease Fly pattern was working well, with plenty of hits. Hook-up percentages still weren't as good as I wanted, but I caught some White Bass on it:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-16-2010.jpg
The best fly pattern of the day turned out to be a fast-stripped Deceiver. It caught plenty of both White Bass and Largemouth Bass:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-16-2010.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-16-2010.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...9-16-2010b.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...9-16-2010b.jpg
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I've mentioned elsewhere in the forums that the bluegills have become finicky lately...hitting almost everything, but not really seeming to BITE anything to the point that they get hooked. So, I've been tying different patterns trying to find something that works consistently. Here's some of those items.
I tied some of John Scott's CFC October Caddis patterns without rubber legs, and with other very minor variations. These work fairly well:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...oberCaddis.jpg
This worked for a couple crappies:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._10-9-2010.jpg
And bluegills:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...9-10-2010b.jpg
That parachute pattern I had tied that was a bit ugly...fooled a bass! But then I couldn't get it to float anymore, so it went back in the box to dry out:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-10-2010.jpg
(continued...)
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The fly that worked the best last night was sort of a woolly bugger type pattern that had brown rabbit tail, and cat-hair dubbing (salvaged from our cat's hair brush), and black hackle:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...HairBugger.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-10-2010.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._9-10-2010.jpg
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2 Attachment(s)
Nice...Photobucket is giving me fits just now...
Anyway, I'll try to post some pics in a different way.
I was sitting at my tying desk, staring at some Chamois material, when it occurred to me to tie up some of these abominations:
Attachment 6139
They worked!
Attachment 6140
Oh...and if you click on the pics, you can see them bigger. If you look at the pic with the bluegill, you can see some of the horrendous algae bloom I've been dealing with for the past 3 weeks on pretty much every one of the public ponds I've been fishing. The edge of the thick junk is about 15' from shore, and there is underwater junk out beyond that for a bit further. I have to clean my hook off after nearly every cast!