Always hoped it woud, but never actually thought this would happen: After 10 years of flyfishing locally, I found a pond in town that has a few Redear Sunfish in it. Pretty awesome!
i am envious
And some big ones to boot! Nice!
Very nice! Great pics too. Thy are a cool looking fish. Love the color variations of Slabs.
They’re beautiful. Enjoy the fun.
Congratulations! Very nice fish. Red Ears (aka shellcrackers, stump knockers etc.) are loads of fun to catch because they tend to get so much larger than their cousins in the sunfish family. They may not be quite as colorful as their cousins, but they fight just as hard and they do get nice and big.
Jim Smith
Yep, they do get big. Folks are pulling Shellcrackers over 5 lbs from Lake Havasu! It seems like the world record for that species is broken every year. All thanks to a year-long growing season, and invasive Zebra and Qagga mussels.
Nice, love the color.
Rick
Color will vary from time to time; once upon time long ago (about 10 years) there was a magical lake that turnout out shellcrackers that were largely black in great abundance (I caught 16 on 8 cast; each time I had a fish for 8 times consecutively they were doubles.) And the evil man from the county said the levee need reinforcing and they drained the lake, and no one lived happily every after.
Why do they call them Shellcrackers?..I’ll bet they are tasty too!
David, My understanding is that the name Shellcrackers comes from the fact that these fish like to eat snails as part of their diet. Quite often you find them in areas with submerged trees and stumps where there are also snails that they like to eat, hence the names shellcrackers and stumpknockers.
Jim Smith
Yes they are Delish!