Anyone every catch one of these?

Orange Spotted Sunfish. If Iowa kept records for this species it may have been close to the record. I think it went about 6 inches. Iowa DNR says most in Iowa reach about 4.

Cool-lookin fish!

Yeah, I’m going to try and catch a few more next year. They don’t get big but they make up for it in looks!

They are fairly rare around here. In fact I’ve only found them in one stream in the area. Both the ones I caught were females, not so bright and pretty as the male you’ve got there. Yours would also be about 2 inches bigger than the ones I caught. Nice fish!

Lots of them around here. Dry flies on a small stream in the summer is a blast.

Edit: Can’t seem to get the pictures bigger. You can click on them though.

zhoyt, your first picture is (I think) a Longear Sunfish…those are even MORE rare around here! That’s a beautiful, colorful fish as well!
Your second picture is a Green Sunfish.

Good catch Dave. I skipped over the “Orange Spooted Sunfish” in the original post. These are a dime a dozen down here. About every stream that holds water year round has them. This was a small creek we fished last summer. Foam beetles and crickets did well. About the time the fly hit the water, one of these brutes would hit it.

I used to seine minnows in a creek near our farm just to see what I’d catch. I caught a few orange spotted sunfish but none nearly as colorful or as large as the one you have pictured.

they are in every lake in east texas that i have fished pretty easy to catch and pretty cool to look at

Robin

i forgot to ask Fishon! what is the name of the fly you are using it looks very good

robin

Beautiful fish.

Is it the same type as the one I’m holding? If so, they are also fairly common in this area. Not very large, but fun to catch and pretty to look at. Sometimes I’ll just hit the local creeks fishing just for them.

(Edit: oops, after looking again, not the same type of fish. I’m not sure if we have the ones you caught down here or not. sure is a pretty fish though.)

Jeff

Its called the briminator, my friend tied a few for me and I have had good success with them (gills, crappies, cats). http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fly-fishing/64328-briminator.html

Jeffnles1, FishnDave is more of a panfish expert than I am but I would say your fish is either a longear sunfish that he mentioned earlier or maybe a pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Look at the length of the spot on the gill plate of your fish compared to mine. Love all this awesome color I’m seeing on these fish, thanks for posting them everyone.

Well Ben, the Holidays are upon us. A replica of your TROPHY might be worthwhile…and relatively inexpensive if they charge by the inch! ;o)
I hope you catch some more like that!

:mrgreen:, cheapest replica ever ha ha. I like your idea of trying to target them specifically. Wow, gar, carp, and these orange critters. The list of fishing trips keeps getting bigger, I like it. Near the top of my list for spring is carp for sure.

I think I know the place we could try for the carp…its a place that won’t be EASY, but should be fairly reliable regardless of season/weather conditions.

Sweet, I’m game!

I caught one in a private lake near Salina once. Thats the only one I’ve seen live nad in person.

I was on the campus of Oklahoma State University several years ago and a wildlife biologist graduate student was stocking them in a campus pond (Theta Pond) as a part of his research for his masters thesis. He gave me about two dozen fingerlings that I stocked in my Dad’s farm pond and I caught them for a number of years, but I haven’t caught one in several years. My guess is they eventually were run out by the native green sunfish and bluegills. He called them sunspots. I think they are pretty rare in North Central Oklahoma.

BTW Jeff, I don’t think the fish you have in the photo is a sun spot. It’s a beautiful fish and has the same exact colors but it lacks the bright orange spots on the upper part of the body. It may be a pumpkinseed or a longear sunfish.

Poke flyfisher - “sunspot” sunfish is a new name to me. I wonder if it might be a hybrid? Maybe a longear x orange-spotted cross? It would make sense to do some studies using hybrids, since the populations can be more easily controlled if they escape the study area.

If they were a sterile or semi-sterile hybrid (or certain hybrids can be as much as 90-95% males, for example), it might explain why you eventually stopped catching them at your Dad’s pond. This is all pure conjecture on my part, of course.

Very interesting, and very colorful fish! I’d love to toss a couple into my 125-gallon aquarium!