After being sick for nearly a week and still going to work to finish out the school year I finally got on the water. It was a great day to put the tube out. Very few boats on the water so it felt like I had the whole lake to myself. And the fish were biting liked starving zombies! Got into good fish everywhere I tried. On the small end they were like this chubby fellow:



And I got into a bunch like this:



I caught quite a few shellcrackers but they seemed to run about 4-5 inches and I also caught a small snapping turtle about 6 inches across the shell. He thought my work looked tasty. I also lost a good fish under a boat house that I'm pretty sure was a channel cat but it took me around a piling and that was all she wrote.

I ended up keeping 10 fish for a good fish fry. They all run from 7-9 inches. I got several that were 10-11 inches but I let them swim free. All in all I'm guessing I took between 30 and 40 fish today. Life is good in East TX and I have the summer off!



Cheers Y'all.

Solid Post and some solid fish! Good job Flags! How deep were you getting them and is the spawn going on in East Texas?

Good times...
I did not know Redbreast were in that lake. How often do you catch them?

Very nice...beauties...

Great post, thanks for sharing

Getting them in about 6 ft of water right off the bottom. I don't think they are spawning since none of these had eggs.

I get them everytime I fish there. I would say I catch more of them than bluegills or shellcrackers

Flags, I am talking about the bottom right fish. I have followed all of your reports from Athens and I do not remember ever seeing a Redbreast until now.

The Redbreast name is a bit confusing because a lot of our Bluegill have an "orangish" chest, especially during Daylight Savings. Redbreast have a long gill flap (opercular), much longer than the Bluegills pictured.

Thanks Flags.

Good eats right there. Nice post.

Interesting. I admit I'm really not all up on the various species of panfish. Where I grew up in CO we just called them all bluegill and their colors were a lot different than the ones down here. A lot more neon blue and green on them up there. Perhaps because the water is cooler? Anyway I figured the ones with the bright red breasts were redbrest sunfish. Seemed logical. However if they need a longer gill flap to be redbreast, I still get quite a few. Both of these came out of Athens:





Guess you learn something every day. I cut my teeth fishing for trout in CO and never spent much time warm water fishing until I came to TX. While I was in the USN I fished mostly saltwater. I need to start taking the time to learn what is what I guess.

Great post and fish Flags. Those fish are some beauties. Texas Parks&Wildlife has a freshwater spices section on their web site. It has the identifications of all six sunfish.

I have never targeted sunfish. I always called them "Perch" or "Brim". Reading the post over the years in the Bluegill section has giving me a good education on not only fish identification but fishing patterns as well! Great post and great section.(Bluegill/Sunfish section).


Side Note: Nice Redbreast Slabs Flags. Love your post!

Thanks for the reply Flags. Healthy Redbreasts in your last post. Athens is impressive.

Flags/All,

I know we have lake records on Athens for redbreasts. So often, these danged panfish look somewhat "morphed" between the distinctive characteristics of different fish. I can usually get close to making an ID, like green sunfish and their larger mouths, the little blue/green stripe, and so on.

I caught this one last year and I was looking to see how it best fit. Note, it has the longer gill flap, but is it long enough? Was mommy a redbreast and daddy a bluegill? Ha!

Pic from one caught just across from the boat launch. Flags and others knows the location well.

Brad