The sunfish family is probably the single most species of fish responsible for getting new anglers started in fishing. Sunfish, bream or panfish is a common collective name to refer to the many species that make up the sunfish family. Sunfish refers to a whole group of small fish that are pretty, plentiful and pugnacious. They aren�t the biggest fish but as they say it�s not the size of the fish in the fight that counts; it�s the size of the fight in the fish. Fishing for these guys is a ball on a slow fly rod like a TFO 3wt Finesse or your favorite glass rod. Sunfish are deep-bodied, which gives them a lot of surface area to leverage against the water during a fight and with their flat, slender bodies and fins they can accelerate and change direction quickly. The best thing about fishing for sunfish is you only need the most basic equipment. A 2, 3 or 4 weight fly rod is ideal, a click pawl reel and a standard weight forward floating line. Fly rods can be 6-9 foot because rarely will you be casting pass a few rod lengths. A medium to slow rod will be the most sporting and will allow these feisty fish to put a good bend into the cork of the rod. A very basic eight foot leader in 4x tipped with the most popular fly in the world a wooly bugger. Olive, black or brown wooly buggers in size 10-14 will catch gills all day long. Very rarely are these fish picky on flies and when you find a few dozen of them on their classic honey comb beds; it�s a rear occasion to not get a hit after two or three strips. Sunfish are found everywhere, from small creeks, neighborhood ponds, lakes, rivers and don�t pass up some of the small landscaping ponds found around shopping malls, banks and other suburban areas. Spawning from late spring to early fall these fish will populate any body of water they live in rather quickly. The best time to find the biggest females is the days leading up to the full moon. This is when they move up to spawn and can be target quiet easily on a fly rod. Typically these bigger fish will only be up in the shallows at night and at grey light. You�ll catch fish all day long on the beds but if you are looking for Bullgills, it is best to come back during the night to target these fish. Bullgills are the biggest of the bluegills and will break 10� and weigh over a pond. The current Texas state record bluegill is just over 2lbs and was caught in the Lampasas River in 1999. There are many private bass ponds where these fish are fed high protein pellets several times a day and for the private water record in Texas the current record is over 3lbs. I�m sure many have been caught even bigger but the bluegill in these ponds are meant to grow big bass and probably don�t get much consideration for anything else.

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