The Shellcrackers

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Comment by Randy Wagoner on January 29, 2020 at 12:54pm

Finally, payoff for my little 0.15ac shellcracker pond.  Grandson caught 17 of these in an afternoon (fished with red worms).  Largest was 10.25" though there may be larger RES in there.  Looks to be 50+ 6"+ shellcracker bream, 1 channel cat, 1  18-19" large mouth bass.

Comment by John Burns on April 2, 2018 at 7:44pm

That is wild. I also built a dedicated one acre redear pond last year and just stocked it last year. I put small mouth bass in last December to control the recruitment of the redear. Hopefully find out how they are doing later this year. This is in addition to my 1/20th acre forage pond which also has been dedicated to redear.

My 1/20th acre forage pond with readear sunfish

My one acre pond dedicated to raising readear sunfish

Comment by Randy Wagoner on April 2, 2018 at 7:29pm

Hey John, I gotta catch up with what's going on in your pond.  My shellcracker pond is 2 & 1/2 yr old, dug in Aug 2015.  The aquarium RES were so tame that when I'd guide 'em into deeper water, they'd just swim back to my hand.

Comment by John Burns on March 31, 2018 at 5:52pm

Thanks.

Comment by dick tabbert on March 31, 2018 at 10:43am

Nice redear John.

Comment by John Burns on March 31, 2018 at 10:07am

Decent size redear from my tiny 1/20th acre forage pond where I raise fedear fingerlings to put into my other ponds. This one went back in to the pond create more fry. Caught on March 22, 2018 on a 1/32 oz jig baited with a kidney bean size section cut out of an artificial clear plastic shrimp.

Comment by John Burns on November 22, 2017 at 9:07pm

Here is a redear I caught with a cast net out of my forage pond. I had been catching 3" fingerlings to transfer to another pond and this big boy showed up in the net.

Comment by John Burns on November 1, 2017 at 2:31pm

Ok, thanks for that information. Water temp in my pond that I caught this fish was 56 degrees so that explains it.

Comment by Troy Dorman on November 1, 2017 at 8:40am

They get that washed out look in the colder months, I'm not sure why. The big ones I catch here on Lake Barkley in the spring time, usually have a strong color. The males will be absolutely gorgeous with an almost black appearance, with a strong cherry red ear tab. The big females get mustard colored on the belly, and full of eggs. I've been wanting to catch some in the fall here, but it's a tough fall bite around here.

Comment by John Burns on October 31, 2017 at 9:43pm

One I caught at dusk tonight. Really washed out color and had to do a double take to notice it was a RES.

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