One from the Llano River in central Texas from several years ago:



And one from our eastern Oklahoma streams:


The longears from central and southwest Texas look like completely different species than some from other areas of the country. Like black bass, there’s probably a lot more diversity of species in sunfish than was originally classified.

The stripes on that little dude are very pronounced, and the eyes were bigger than the stomach

Never seen them with stripes.I rarely catch them this far northexcept 1 small isolated quarry.200 miles south they are common in the deep lakes.Crazy how the trees are different as well as the fish species .We catch a lot red eyed bass down there too.Spotted or Kentucky bass?The long ears are beautiful down there.Everyone down there calls them pumpkin seeds which they are not

Thanks, bulldog. Definitely was a redbreast after closer inspection…I need to brush up on my sunfish id. We don’t have redbreast in Oklahoma and I definitely miss those guys.

I’m going to follow the PhD research as they are also doing lots of studies of different types of smallmouth here in Oklahoma:

https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/south ... es/7715632

thanks, that was a fun read..
one of my retirement projects is to travel around to catch the varieties of smallmouth.. a man can dream..

I began flyfishing chasing trophy Blue gills and sunfish.When they went on a top water bite nothing worked.They were on the surface over 20 30 feet of very clear water.They rarely would eat a live cricket as they slowly sank.Thru the years i have taken note and the larger fish are finicky and wary.Bluegills seem to school by year class so if you are catching smaller ones try a different area or the meat hunters wiped out the large males during the spawn.I do see larger sunfish holding below the smaller more aggresive schoolies.So surface flies are not a good choice as the larger fish like to really look a fly over and the dinks never give them a chance.But if you can get a cast with a nynmph flymph streamer etc on the outside deeper edge of the weeds the bigger fish will take on the drop.Deeper water near shore such as strip pits quarries etc a cast under over hanging trees and bushes is also more productive and a small popper or spider will work.Most BOW in my area are full of stunted sunfish as people think there is no limit to big bluegills.Many studies back up the observations of many anglers.You remove the big males and the smaller males become dominant and have no need to grow larger to protect the nest.There are ponds near my home where you can literally catch 100 bluegills on a summer evening but none will be over 8".We were getting some big green sunfish but a couple rough winters and i do not see near as many.Crappies and yellow bass are filling the void in some bigger lakes but i catch very few bluegills over 10 inches anymore.Used to catch many and i have not kept a bluegill in many years.I will bring a 2 or 3wt when i take my grandkids to the bluegill ponds but chase other species now days with my flyrods.I will be heading south in April and the crappie lake has a lot of longears .Not many of any size but good numbers and they are quite beautiful.