Understanding Sunfish as Bass Forage

Sunfish, specifically what’s called true sunfish, are made up of 13 species with the most common being bluegill. 

Why is Understanding Sunfish Important?

It is important to understand sunfish to:

  • Find Bass: Locating sunfish will help find bass.
  • Select a Lure: Selecting the best lure based on mimicking the look of the specific sunfish species. 
Understand Sunfish as Bass Forage
  • Spawn: First, many sunfish species, for example bluegill, eat bass eggs and fry during the bass spawn. Then, second, the sunfish spawn, and the bass will feed on spawning sunfish.  
  • Color: Many species of sunfish the color can vary dramatically from location, maturity, male vs female and other factors.
  • Shallow: Some suggest that most sunfish species spend most of their life shallow typically near grass or wood cover.
Additional Considerations

According to ChatGPT, these are the 13  common sunfish (Lepomis) species presented from most common to least common:

1  Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus): with the two subspecies Northern Bluegill and Florida Bluegill, also called bream, blue bream, sun perch, blue sunfish, copperhead, copperbelly, roach commonly considered the most widespread and commonly encountered sunfish species in North America. 

  • Color: Deep blue and purple on the face and gill cover, dark olive-colored bands down the side, and a fiery orange to yellow belly. The bluegill is noted for the black spot (the “ear”) that it has on each side of the posterior edge of the gills and base of the dorsal fin.
  • Locations: East of the rocky mountains from Virginia to Florida.
  • Bluegill Beds: Bluegill spawn beds look the same as a bass spawn beds that look like circles and located often in the same locations as bass spawn beds.
  • Habitat: Common shallow spring, fall and winter and can be deep in summer. Typically found around cover such as grass, stumps, and laydowns.
Bluegill courtesy of Wikipedia

2. Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus): Also called pond perch, common sunfish, punkie, sunfish, sunny, and kivver,

  • Color: They are orange, green, yellow or blue in color, with speckles over their sides and back and a yellow-orange breast and belly. The sides are covered with vertical bars that are a faint green or blue with an orange spots may cover the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins and the cheeks have blue lines across them. Plus the pumpkinseed has a orange-red spot on the margin of its black gill cover. 
  • Locations: From New Brunswick down the east coast to South Carolina and inland to the middle of North America albeit they have been introduced to lakes across USA.
  • Habitat: Prefer clear warmer shallow water in the grass. They school which can include other species of sunfish.
Pumpkinseed courtesy of Wikipedia

3. Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus): 

  • Color: The green sunfish is blue-green in color on its back and sides with yellow-flecked bony-ridged scales, plus yellow coloration on the ventral sides. The gill covers and sides of head have broken bright blue stripes. Similar to Bluegill, they have a dark spot located near the back end of the dorsal fin. 
  • Locations: Either natively, or introduced, green sunfish can be found across North America.
  • Habitat: They can be found in muddy water and can tolerate poor water conditions and as such can be found in sluggish backwaters and prefer hard bottom. They also seek grass, rock, wood cover.
Green Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

4. Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus):  Also known as the shellcracker, Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, rouge ear sunfish and sun perch.

  • Color: It is dark-colored dorsally and yellow-green ventrally and faint vertical bars traveling downwards from its dorsal.  The male has a cherry-red edge around the gills and females have orange coloration in this area.
  • Locations: Common in the southeastern USA but it has been introduced across the USA.
  • Habitat: Prefer warm, calm water near cover such as grass and wood. 
Redear Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

5. Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis): 

  • Color: Olive to rusty-brown back, bright orange belly and blue-green bars on the sides of its head with a elongated gill flap, giving an appearance of a long ear. The male is blue on top without the stripes.
  • Locations: Eastern North America stretching from the Great Lakes down to northeastern Mexico.
  • Habitat: Prefer thick grass.
Longear Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

6. Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis auritus): 

  • Color: They have a long black gill flap with blue iridescent head and the male have darker colors.
  • Locations: More common in rivers in North America but also reside in lakes.
  • Habitat: Prefer cooler water and grass and rock cover.
Redbreast Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

7. Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus): Also known as molly, redeye, goggle-eye, red-eyed bream, and strawberry perch.

  • Color: Two tone brown more golden on the belly with the mail have a bright orange spot although in some location they can be much darker color. They have reddish streaks from their eyes. 
  • Locations: Eastern USA and up to great lakes and southern parts of Canada. 
  • Habitat: Can survive in low oxygen environments and prefer slow moving grass and wood cover.
Warmouth courtesy of Wikipedia

8. Orangespotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis): 

  • Color: Greenish with orange bellow with orange spots.
  • Locations: Middle and eastern United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the east, from the Great Lakes south into the Gulf Coast. Also introduced to other waters. 
  • Habitat: Prefer low oxygen water, shallow with grass cover.
Orangespotted Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

9. Dollar Sunfish (Lepomis marginatus): 

  • Color: Dark spot near the gill flap with blue dotted lines. Color can change throughout the year getting darker.
  • Locations: Common in southeastern USA and has been introduced to lakes across USA.
  • Habitat: Prefer slow moving water near grass cover.
Dollar Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

10. Banded Sunfish (Lepomis symmetricus): 

  • Color: Light brown, dark brown stripes.
  • Locations: Common throughout Louisiana, in lower southeastern Texas, southern Arkansas, and in a few locations in western Kentucky and western Tennessee. Less common in other USA locations.
  • Habitat: Can be located in soft and hard bottom with grass cover.
Bantam Sunfish courtesy of Wikipedia

11. Redspotted Sunfish (Lepomis miniatus): Also known as a stumpknocker.

  • Color: Narrow bands of white or cream color at the tips of its dorsal, anal and caudal fins.
  • Locations: Southern USA.
  • Habitat: Known to be salt water tolerant, liking slow water,  shallow with heavy grass.
Redspotted Sunfish courtesy of Illinois Natural History Survey

12. Northern Sunfish (Lepomis peltastes): 

  • Color: Bluish with greenish strips that can look more orange.
  • Locations: Norther USA, Saint Lawrence River, and portions of Ontario, Canada.
  • Habitat: Hard and soft bottom and grass cover.
Northern Sunfish courtesy of Government of Canada

13. Spotted Sunfish (Lepomis punctatus): 

  • Color: Brown with reddish spots but can also look blue.
  • Locations: Southern USA including all of Florida.
  • Habitat: Heavy grass lake bottoms.
Spotted Sunfish courtesy of Florida Museum
It's About the Allure

 

  • Bluegill mimicking lures
  • Lures that say color “bluegill” 
  • Hard Swimbaits: 
  • Soft Swimbait: 
  • Megabass Dark Sleeper.
MLF Videos and Articles
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