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In this part of the world pretty much yes for sure .
we have about one red ear here and there in all of our area lakes .
but we about never see one this size EVER ….
and for sure I got long hands ,just saying :Rofl
bracelet to finger tip is over 8 inches .
man what a dandy red ear sunfish for our neck of the woods I tell ya :highfive
Wow, that is a nice one. Release that one to make more?
That’ll make your drag squeal like a little girl! Nice one!
He's a dandy.
That was one to remember! I bet your drag was a’squealing!
Bob
Of course it is a trophy....congrats! I figured Texas would be eat up with shellcracker.
Regards
Definitely a trophy in Arkansas. You don’t see too many that big around here. Normally a knife is put to their sides before they get that big around here.
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Congrats, is this a personal best? So it is around 11 inches?
That is a nice catch anywhere way to go
Nice redear!!!
Nice redear. Trophy for those in VA is 11" or more. I just submitted one I caught in February.
that fish was in the 12 inch range and so ridiculous thick it wasn't funny . pretty sure it was in the 1.5 lb area.
i guessed 1.2 on a crappie a week or so ago and the digital said 1.21 so i am pretty sure i am guessing close on that fish .
i released it and for sure have never held one that big .i often wonder why north texas don't seem to have but a half dozen total .
i have noticed an up tick in them the last 2 years in my area when they seemed non existent at all before that :dono
thats a bute !!
Not braggin, just the luck of location. I've caught quite a few 11 & 12 inch redears in the last 10 years. The really put up a fight too! Worms on/near the bottom seem to be the best way to catch them.
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Ketchn, that’s a good fish anywhere, and I’d be proud to hold it in a pic. Very nice. 5 or 6 of those about 10” makes a meal fit for royalty, like you or me. Love the fight, I can tell it’s a cracker or a gill before I see em usually.
Fishfish, also nice. I’ll take em all, love their fight.
I ketch so very few of them I never do realize what is on the line until they are close to me , kind of fight like a big black crappie early on with more of a deliberate pull like a black bass and then seem to go into corkscrew mode when they get close to me .
one thing for certain they would be cool to see more often around here but for unknown reasons they just don't do well in these parts ?
I often wonder why they are not more common in the local waters and am always very surprised to see one .
I used to know a spot about 2 hours south of me that held numbers of them but no big ones and for some reason all the sudden they went about gone there as well ?
I also read a fisheries summary on a local lake they manage real close for big black bass and the population there of them all but disappeared as well over a few years ?
yeah they are a bottom sunny from what I know and we drop shotted a cooler full back when on a grass flat one day . they have now left that lake for the most part and I don't understand why they do so poorly around these parts ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishfishwish
I never keep them anymore . I did one time about 5 years ago on a place that had numbers of them and now that spot has about none ?Quote:
Originally Posted by StantheMan2567
That’s definitely a trophy in my area!
I don’t understand why they don’t get bigger around here.
Especially in your part of the world, on getting bigger.
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Do you happen to know the water hardness or alkalinity of the lakes you fish? Are the lakes in limestone drainages? Are there an abundance of snails and small mussels? If not in limestone drainages and has low water hardness/alkalinity, and not many small mollusks, that may be the answer why there aren’t very many redear in your lakes. In Arkansas, we tend to see more redear in lakes with more dissolved calcium carbonate in the water, which leads to better snail and mussel production (food for redear). One of the smaller lakes I manage had really low alkalinity/hardness and the redear had just about disappeared. We ended up applying tons and tons of crushed limestone and after a few years, we started seeing more snail and mussel shells and then the redear make a big comeback. Now it has some good redear in there and not many anglers fish for them. The lake is really out of the way and down a long dirt road. This tends to keep people away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn
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we have very high amounts of alkalinity and tons of mussels like you cant imagine in most lakes in these parts .
I didn't know that helped them ,but I imagine it would give them lots more edibles . the fisheries folks say the high alkalinity helps the crappie in some lakes as well .
might be the populous and amount of angling pressure maybe ? don't know for sure what the lack of them is caused by ?
maybe red ears are slower to reproduce or don't have high numbers of offspring ?
Very interesting D10, tons of limestone in my home lake.
Never even thought about water ph.
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Redge , do yawl have about a zillion mussels and clams like we do up there in Oklahoma as well ?
That is a good one for sure . Anything over 12 inches is a beast . Length to me is not as impressive as overall weight . That one has both !
who does nice red ear replicas btw ? I don't know if I will get one but I thought about it some
Look up Harper Pure Country Taxidermy. He is in Damascus, Arkansas and is one of the best, if not the best, in the south East. I have know Rodney for years. He makes some of the best skin mounts and replica mounts that I have seen. Reel good guy too!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn
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