UTER
Photo: Timothy Knepp - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Lepomis microlophus · also shellcracker
How to catch Redear sunfish
Redear sunfish feed in 50–90°F water and bite best at 68–80°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 18 waters.
5 pts · trophy at 11"Feeds 50–90°FBest 68–80°FIn season nowLakePond / pitReservoirCanalSpringFish attractor / brush pile
About
The bluegill's bigger, red-eared cousin that eats snails off the bottom and grows to two pounds in the lakes of Central Florida. Beds in March and April on the sand.
How to fish it
A worm on the bottom on the sandy beds in spring; a slip cork set deep. The full moons of March and April.
What it eats
red wigglersgrass shrimpcrickets on the bottom
Live bait for it
NightcrawlersWhole on a #6 to #2 hook under a bobber or on a bottom rig; threaded on a spinner harness drifted for walleye. The bait that catches everything in fresh water.
Grass shrimpTwo or three on a #6 hook under a small cork — the bream, crappie, sheepshead and mangrove snapper bait nobody sells.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader10–20 lb fluorocarbon
Hook#2–3/0
Jig head1/8–1/2 oz
Braid10–30 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereWithin the fifty-panfish aggregate — confirm at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
Fresh water by state