Iowa Redears

Fishing Panfish & Warm Water
1

Every so often, I get the urge to catch some species I haven’t caught for awhile. Redears floated to the top of my target list. After a lot of research and homework, I settled on a lake in Iowa I hadn’t even heard of before. The research paid off. Iowa Master Angler Redears must be 11" long or better. I caught 2 over 11", which made me pretty happy. Biggest was 11.75", weighed 1.45 lbs on a handheld digital scale before release. REALLY nice fish, and a new Personal Best Redear for me. I can’t even imagine a 14.5-incher like the one our very own James Smith recently caught in Georgia!
The biggest one was caught on a #8 purple leech pattern with a pink glass beadhead. Many of the others were caught on a #8 Briminator.

This is the 2nd biggest one…@ 11 1/8".

And a few of the smaller ones…mostly 9"-10" fish:

Also caught a couple Redear x Bluegill (?) Hybrids:

2

Good going, Dave! They’re great fish. We call them shellcracker. I catch most of them on nymphs under and indicator. Years ago, I was competing in a fly tournament on Lake Okeechobee. I was told shellcracker would hit a popper. Guess what I caught on a popper?

Here’s my largest ever. Caught it on a prop Wooly Bugger in The Everglades:

3

Nice! So…yes on the popper? Or nada?
I’ve heard they will hit poppers too. I tried them but didn’t have any success, so I switched flies. I should have tried the popper on the shallower fish I saw later. I’ve seen YouTube videos showing a guy flyfishing for Redears with something that looked like a small floating Caddis imitation. But he said those fish were trained to hit bread, and the fly looked like bread… ;o)

4

Yes, I caught one a popper right after I was told they wouldn’t hit them. I do agree that you probably won’t catch them routinely on poppers.

5

Beautiful fish and congratulations, any Redear over 10 inches in your neck of the woods is a VERY nice fish. The longer growing season down here in the South lets them grow bigger and fast than their Northern cousins. I grew up in New England and I don’t believe I ever caught one over 8 inches and even that was considered a decent fish. Pound for pound, I think they (all of the bream) are one of the strongest fighting warmwater fish in America.

Jim Smith

6

Y’all catch some beauties!

Bob

7

Nice fish. They look like what we call bluegills here in Pa, but ours don’t get that big.

8

I looked at the Pennsylvania website…looks like you guys don’t have Redears/Shellcrackers, lastchance? I couldn’t find them listed… But you do have Redbreast Sunfish, which we lack in Iowa.
Here’s a quick male Bluegill vs male Redear photo comparison: