Do you love big bluegill?

fayette8

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Comment by dick tabbert on September 11, 2012 at 2:13pm: Thank you for such a wholesome offer. If ever the time should arise I would like to take you up on your offers and many other offers that have been presented to me. But as of now it will have to remain a dream. Thank you Federico and continued GOOD FISHIN.......

Comment by federico del toro on September 11, 2012 at 1:45pm: Thanks guys, Dick all you have to do is get a plane ticket and come visit good ol' texas I'll take care of the rest.

Jacob, you are right, this lake is got both quantity and quality, the yellow on the ear I think is just a camera trick

Comment by Vince Fusco on September 10, 2012 at 8:11pm: Good thick cracker, Federico. Congrats.

Comment by dick tabbert on September 10, 2012 at 7:29pm: Fererico I'm getting so jealous you got all them quality fish and it seems with lots of quantity to boot. Great fish and I'm still jealous.

Comment by Tony Livingston on September 10, 2012 at 5:45pm: That's a goodern' Federico!

Comment by Jacob Hill on September 10, 2012 at 5:25pm: Big fish Federico! More of a yellow ear than anything. As David was saying in the second paragraph they do spawn all summer with the gills as I've observed it (with ma own two eyes, haha). White jigs and worms seem to get them pretty consistently for me, but Federico should really tell you by simple math. big fish + more fish> less fish + smaller fish

Comment by Troy Dorman on September 10, 2012 at 4:44pm: STUD is all I can say...I'm jealous, Redear are by far my favorite fish in the entire world to catch and eat. That's a BIG Cracker too!

Comment by federico del toro on September 10, 2012 at 3:08pm: thanks guys, the biggest I got was 11.50 and 1.8# I have a separate picture with the methods used

Comment by Jim Gronaw on September 10, 2012 at 2:48pm: That fish is a stud! Did you get any stats? What are you getting these great fish on?

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on September 10, 2012 at 1:40pm: It's been said (not by me!) that the red ear sunfish is the most elusive of Centrarchidae group. Mostly this has to do with their bottom dwelling habits. Since most people angling for sunfish do so at the water's shallow edge, they miss the red ear.

The shellcracker is also less prolific than the other sunfish. The females don't carry a massive load of eggs and for along time it was thought they were single-spawners, breeding only once in the year. The latter belief has been shown to be not entirely correct, but the fact remains that they don't heavily populate their waters.

On the plus side, they grow faster and larger than all the others. When you find some, you stand to find some respectable specimens. They are also great for ponds, for these two reasons - they tend not to overpopulate and they grow to good size.

I think of them as something of a purists catch, myself. Their feeding habits lean towards snails, mollusks and other crustaceans found by rooting in the bottom substrate. For the most part, a worm floating 2' beneath a bobber is not the chosen tactic for those who catch them with any regularity. I've hung them that way, but most of the time the good ones are caught on a sliding sinker/hook rig cast to the bottom. Earthworms are the bait of choice.

How did you catch these?