Sunfish Questions

[OTIS]

This is the first year we seriously started fishing for sunfish, and I have a few questions.  How do you stop them from swallowing the hook?  We use a size 4 red octopus hook and a worm about two feet below a slip bober, and they swallow the hook often.  If they do swallow the hook and you cut the line and return them quickly, what is the survival rate of the fish with hooks still in them?

[bigdave1018]

if the fish is not bleeding and the body parts are still inside the fish, they have a good chance to live. their body acids dissolve the hook in a few days. ive seen people throw them back with their guts and gills hanging out and say geez i wonder if that fish will live? let someone pull your guts and lungs out and see if you live. i think the chances are very slim. tight lines otis big dave out.

[AD]

Maybe try upsizing your hook and see if that helps a bit?      How big of a bobber are you using?     try using as small of one as possible that still stays afloat with the weight of the bait you are using.      Just my thoughts, good luck .   

[OTIS]

I think I'm going to try down sizing the bobber and see what happens.  Thanks!

[Pasquatch]

set the hook at the first sign of action, you'll miss some fish, but will prevent as much throat hooking.

[bigredfishing]

also, using long shank aberdeen hooks helps a ton.

[OTIS]

set the hook at the first sign of action, you'll miss some fish, but will prevent as much throat hooking.

I thought it was just my kids being slow to react to the bobber, but even I am having a few fish swallow the hook.

I'll have to look for some red long shank aberdeen hooks.

Does anyone know a good scale to use for determining the weight of smaller fish.  The scale I currently have goes to 50 lbs and isn't very accurate for sunfish.

[Bobman]

Once again bidred is right on top of things  !  I try to use the gold aberdeens for gills in a size 8.  The gold seems to me to work as an attractant to the fish, have even caught them on a bare hook when they are in the mood.  The long shank helps keep them from swallowing the bait as easily and the small hook size lets the kids still catch the smaller fish instead of getting frustrated by losing bait.

[OTIS]

We haven't tried gold hooks, I'll have to pick up some of those also.  We did some experiments with red and bronze (normal hook color?), and found that the red way out fished the bronze.  The place where we are fishing probably averages 5 inch bluegill, with a  fish in the 10 inch range once in a while.  There are pumpkinseed in there also, the largest we've caught so far has been 8.5 inches.  If we're catching several 8 inch fish on every trip, how big do you think the larger fish are in this pond?  This is the first year we've fished it, and I'm very supprised at the fish we're catching.  I would guess the pond is around 10 - 12 acres, but I still haven't explored the entire pond yet.  I'm not sure how deep it gets.  It's long and narrow and winds through a wooded park.  The far end is more swamp like.  We've seen largemouth and sunfish, but so far we've only caught bluegills and pumpkinseeds.  Am I naive in thinking there would be bluegills in the 12 plus range in this pond?

[AD]

We haven't tried gold hooks, I'll have to pick up some of those also.  We did some experiments with red and bronze (normal hook color?), and found that the red way out fished the bronze.  The place where we are fishing probably averages 5 inch bluegill, with a  fish in the 10 inch range once in a while.  There are pumpkinseed in there also, the largest we've caught so far has been 8.5 inches.  If we're catching several 8 inch fish on every trip, how big do you think the larger fish are in this pond?  This is the first year we've fished it, and I'm very supprised at the fish we're catching.  I would guess the pond is around 10 - 12 acres, but I still haven't explored the entire pond yet.  I'm not sure how deep it gets.  It's long and narrow and winds through a wooded park.  The far end is more swamp like.  We've seen largemouth and sunfish, but so far we've only caught bluegills and pumpkinseeds.  Am I naive in thinking there would be bluegills in the 12 plus range in this pond?

There could be the occasional 'gil that gets that big.    That pond that you are fishing sounds an awful lot like one I was fishing a lot in earlier this spring.     Have you tried using little lures like small beatle spinners or anything of that sort yet?   Like they all said longshank hooks work pretty well if you can't find the aberdeen hooks true turns work pretty well for panfish too.     

[OTIS]

I've tried small crank bates and jigs with very little luck, nothing seems to works as good as a hook and worm.  I'm dying to try crawfish for the large mouths, and I've been thinking of trying small buckeye's for anything that'll hit them.

Anyone ever try flies or poppers for sunfish?  Anything that hits the water gets devoured quickly.  I have my fathers old fly rod, I might have to give that a try.

[Pasquatch]

Flyfishing will catch alot of sunfish...alot.

[bigdave1018]

a weight forward bobber and a popper or dry fly is just as good or better then a size 6 gold aberdeen with a worm piece or spikes. ice fishing lures in the small size are great producers too. a 10-12 inch gill or sunnie is usually close to a pound fish and if its a female i always try and release these trophy fish but thats just my opinion. a 12 inch sunfish is almost as rare as the 7 lb smallie, the 20 lb n pike, any size musky especially up in the northern usa states because of the shorter growing season. when im fishing for meat, ill keep the fish up to 9 inches[ perch up to 11 inches] because i feel that they taste better. tight lines, practice c and r, keep some for the table and insure that the future of our sport will be there for our siblings. big dave out.

[Chucker]

You might get a lot of little fish, but spikes hold up extremely well over multiple fish, and are beyond dirt cheap compared to the price of worms or crawlers (unless you pick your own).

[trout sen-sei]

I also agree with Bigred about the long shank aberdeen hooks. Also use very thin wire ones and hone off the barbs if you want healthy releases.