Robert McMahan, I am a bit surprised you haven’t asked this question yet. Or maybe I missed it in the past ?
Where are they called by their “real” names … Bluegill, Longear, Redear, Pumpkinseed, et al, and especially Green Sunfish ?
And, where are they called Perch, and where are they called Brim/Bream ?
And just how many names ARE there, especially for the Green Sunfish ?
Cary
Very seldom do you hear anything but “perch” in south La. Occasionally “brim”. I only started using more specific terms when I started writing for readers beyond my local area.
To further complicate matters, crappie here are “sac-au-lait” or French for “sack of milk” for the delectable flesh; redears are “chinquapin”, and rock bass/warmouth type fish are “goggle-eye.” Then there’s “choupique” which are the bowfin, and “gaspergou” which are freshwater drum. Also you have to deal with “goojahn” which is the yellow catfish.
Don’t even get me started on crawfish, crayfish, mudbugs, crawdads… 
R
[url=http://www.native-waters.com:ce671]http://www.native-waters.com[/url:ce671]
I call them by their real names where ever I am. Most people around here call them perch, though. At least that’s been my experience.
I sure hope Roger doesn’t use their “real name”.The highlight of my Monday ritual opening of FAOL is readiing his column. Being from Wisconsin I like the fact that he uses regional language and is catching some exotic species I can only guess at. Praying for Spring in Wisconsin.
Cary,
Good question and good to hear from you. I agree with Okiebass. Here in Oklahoma, any sunfish, according to the majority of the bass and cat fisherman around here are “perch”. It’s the generic name they all use. The only time I’ve ever heard the term “brim” is in the South.
What say you? As traveled as you are I’ll bet you can answer the question. What’s biting now in your part of the world? I know you’re catching something.
Interesting post! I use all the “real” names, but up here in the northwest most things get called sunfish. Crappie are sometimes called right, and perch do usually get called perch.
Adam
Having grown up in central Oklahoma, I learned to call Blue Gill, Sunfish. Crappie was the White Crappie variety. Perch was a white or yellow perch. In California they were refered to by their “real” names of Blue Gill, Red ear and crappie, both black and white. In Missouri Crappie was both the black and white although I heard the black crappie refered to as the spotted crappie on occasion. Here in Missisippi. Bream (not brim) is a generic term that is applied to all of the sunfish family except Large mouth (black) bass. the bream family has the Blue Gill, Red Ear (shell cracker), Green Sunfish and Hybrid Blue Gill. Here the White Crappie is refered to as White Perch and the Black Crappie as simply crappie.
Michael (Wooly) Woolum
State Certified Hunter Education Instructor
Hickory, MS
Here in Ohio they are crappie, bluegill, redear, & of course, perch (for yellow perch). The terms bream, shellcracker, callico bass, etc seem to be southern “terms of endearment”. I have a friend from New England who refers to all non-bass members of the sunfish family as “sunnies”.
Mike
Here in Jersey bluegill are bluegill, every kind of sunfish is a sunnie, and I recently found out that I have been catching crappie all of my life except we used to call them calico bass.
“If it was easy anybody could do it”
Timothy S. Furey Sr.
Hey Robert - You just THINK I get to fish a bunch. HAH !!! I mostly get to talk about it.
But Fri. $ Sat. I did get to catch a few good sized Reds, one humongous (for me) Flounder and 10 or 12 Specks up to 5 pounds. It qualified as waaaaay cool fishing. Was fishing with a guide buddy in a howling norther - wind up to 30, rain, cold - but thank goodness the fishies didn’t seem to mind. Had to use a 9 weight, and I was wishing fondly for one of the 15 foot two-hander samples in the Suburban back at the boat ramp.
Personally, I call them by their real names, I guess because I worked so hard as a kid to know the difference between a Longear and a Red (or Yellow) Breast. I get a lot of those funny looks here in Texas when I call a Goggle Eye a Green Sunfish, or call a Mud Perch a Warmouth.
Cary
Here in New York bluegills are called bluegills, punkinseeds are usually called sunnies. Yellow perch are called perch.
Growing up in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, crappies were Strawberry Bass. You figure.
David
Cary,
You sound like my son, Matt. He studies his fish and game and knows all their proper names. I’ll bet you were like him when you were young. He is a real nature freak. I tell him that at 13, he’s a better outdoorsman than I am in many ways. He really observes nature closely. Me, I’m too busy trying to catch my next fish to be a really careful observer like him.
If we start going Latin I’m quiting.
I have sympathy for you guys re fish names but if fish aren’t called by their proper names you are going to see more guys, like the trout eliteists, starting to call them all “Coarse Fish”.
I was talking to an older gent(82) yesterday, he called 'em “jonny roaches”. Hadn’t heard that since my grandfather pasted in the '70s.