What's The Deal With Large Sunfish?

[Fish Felon]

Why is there so much steam lately in regards to large sunfish? I swear I've heard, read, and seen more crap in the past year about large sunfish than I have previously during my entire life.

There isn't any big secret to finding them and they're in every lake. Ottertail County is home to the best lakes for large sunfish. If you drive East on hwy 10 out of Moorhead once you start getting out of the Red River Valley all those little lakes and sloughs are loaded with jumbo sunfish. Launch a boat off a gravel road "Dakota Style" and catch them until your dick falls off....

I'm sorry, but if you're over the age of nine fishing for sunfish is gay, unless you're taking a kid fishing. In East Central MN they don't grow as big or grow as fast but I've caught 10" sunfish off the dock....and have pictures with them over a ruler to prove it because people didn't believe me. They're not uncommon. Go to a strong weed line that drops off into about 18' to 20' of water with some slip bobbers rigged with medium to large leeches so the little effects won't be constantly messing with your bait and guess what?

You'll catch lots and lots of large sunfish. I've done it on pretty much any lake in MN, outside the shield lakes, I've fished when we were looking to have a meal of fish and needed some more.

Do people honestly make an effort....as in hook up and trailer a boat to launch in different lakes targeting sunfish?

I've literally never spoken with any angler who does that. I've spoken to two anglers in my lifetime who have done that....they don't do that on a routine basis....but they've done it a couple times in the past.

The focused concern over big sunfish---I don't get it.

[Fish Felon]

This hangs one of the bathrooms at the family cabin and I love it...great piece....brings me back to the joy of being a kid and catching bluegills off the dock.....in the same way a Norman Rockwell Christmas piece brings me back to remembering the excitement of Christmas when I still believed in Santa Claus.

Same time period of my life---catching sunfish, believing in Santa Claus/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny/etc., and not having any hair on my balls prior to when they'd dropped.....

[Nershi]

I like fishing for them in the winter...so I guess I am gay. I don't necessarily seek them out but if I hear of a bite or stumble upon one in the winter I enjoy catching and eating the medium sized ones. They have a firm and tasty fillet.

I do know some people who target them in the summer in the western part of the state on the lakes with special regulations on them. They get some serious dinner plate size gills.

You fish a lot of crappie. Please explain how they are so different.

Most of the focus is on protecting the large bulls from overharvest but I am sure you are aware of all that if you have been reading the articles. If you live in the metro you should have plenty of great examples of what overfishing does to them.

I am sure I have said it on here multiple times but we need reduced limits on panfish and protective slots on trophy lakes. Especially with the explosion of ice fishing. I have emailed the DNR on this subject a handful of times. Never a response which didn't surprise me.

[lanyard]

QSM.... everyone wants a Big Bull.

[Fish Felon]

You fish a lot of crappie. Please explain how they are so different.

Fair point, and I'll admit to reacting to the issue in knee-jerk fashion and only looking at it from the open water aspect. I forgot about ice fishing. I'm a summer guy and I tend to repress what's on the tails side of the coin when it's heads up, sunny, humid, and above eighty out....I've grown to absolutely love humidity....anyways, my gaffe for not thinking big picture and remembering how hideous our climate is for six months.

You're not anymore gay going for sunfish than I am going for crappie, which brings up an excellent question....

....why is there so much steam coming off sunfish and not for crappie size?

I'd say crappie size is much worse on most lakes throughout the state than sunfish size.

Why not have a push for better qualify size on "panfish," sunfish and crappies, than just on sunfish?

The whole focus specifically on sunfish just seems strange to me......by no means am I above thinking the reason for that is me just being strange.

[Fish Felon]

QSM.... everyone wants a Big Bull.

True---only 'cause the DNR can grow two trophy bucks to just one Bull Bluegill.

Can't believe the guy in the article said that.. what a dumb ass.

[deet]

I fish for them on purpose when game fish are closed or I have my kids with me. I don't think targeting them at other times is gay though. When I'm eating 9" sunnies I feel they're my favorite fish to eat fried, but then I think the same thing about perch and walleyes while I'm eating them.

Actually I can think of a couple times chasing big sunnies on purpose in June (when all other species were legal). It was fly fishing from shore with poppers on a little tiny panfish gem and it was some of the funnest fishing I've had.

I actually can mentally adjust to have a great time fishing just about anything. Another awesome day was catching as many small crappies as possible, racing a buddy, in order to definitely not fill an aerated cooler and definitely not stock them in another lake. Generally I get zero thrill out of catching small crappies, but when there's a goal and a competition in mind, each fish was satisfying.

[lanyard]

Funny. I didn't even read the article.

People are stupid and predictable. It's why God and 2 political parties direct the destiny for 99% of the population.

We're totally going to get run over by aliens when they run out of water on their home planet.

[deet]

Felon, what's your opinion on comparable crappie size to a 10" sunfish?

I used to feel like 10" sunnies were about like 14" crappies, but lately I've found places to catch literally dozen's of 10+ inch sunnies in a trip, whereas I've never caught multiple 14" crappies at a time (other than Red Lake 20 years ago).

Really a 10" sunny is now about as rare as a 12" crappie. So I get your gripe with peoples' obsession with big sunnies - they're actually very common. I can't seem to find big crappies like I can find big sunnies.

BUT I can think of many many lakes where I'm pretty sure I could NOT catch 10" sunfish even if I tried for a few days.

[Fish Felon]

As far as the reduced panfish limits and focus on increasing size---I'll use the same argument that I use to the QDM guys:

If large sunfish [panfish] are so important to their populations and instrumental in having a healthy and balanced population....similar to QDM guys pushing for more restrictions to have more and bigger bucks....then the solution is very, very simple.

Make it so sunfish over 8" are protected and must go back, and crappie over 10" are protected and must go back.

That's how you get bigger panfish.

Just like how if bigger bucks are so important the solution is very, very simple:

Any buck with four or more points on one side is protected and off limits. You do that and you quickly have a woods full of these all-important big bucks that are necessary for balancing out the herd.

Disagree? I'd love to hear any arguments as to how I'm wrong in my logic.


The problem that arises with the "big sunfish" crowd is the same one as what is inherently wrong with the QDM crowd and what they profess to want----they want others to stop shooting small and medium sized bucks so they can shoot big bucks. They care about shooting big bucks, they don't actually care about there being more big bucks for "the health of the herd." If they did---they would let big bucks pass instead of shoot them.

The big sunfish group wants others to stop catching and keeping big sunfish so it's easier for them to catch and keep big sunfish. That's all it boils down to.