San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Hey guys ,
What now is considered a trophy panfish.
We have seen trophy’s from lake havasu , our lakes are doing well too.
Lake records have been surpassed in recent years.

Tight lines !!!

Look at those Havasu red ears and all the fish I caught look tiny. Red ears give pretty good fight compare to bluegill. I haven’t caught many, though might have to look deeper?

Pan fishing is my favorite. Havasu is the home of big Redear but our SD lakes have some brutes also. I have caught a few over 2lbs and 2 over 3lbs. For bluegill anything over 11" is a great fish. My personal feeling is a 12" fish is a trophy. My personal best is a touch over 13". That's a lot of fun on a 1wt fly rod. SD lakes have a lot of hybrids .They tend to be thicker but usually about the same length as Coppernose. Any lake that has Zebra Mussels is going to produce bigger Redear, that's why Havasu is turning out the monsters.

American Fisheries Society classifies nearly all sportfish into length indices that designate Stock, Quality, Preferred, Memorable and Trophy categories.
Lengths are used because they are generally less variable than weights (fish may lose weight but not length)
The lengths (in mm) for various Panfish species around SoCal are:

Species Stock Quality Preferred Memorable Trophy

Bluegill 80 150 200 250 300
Redear 100 180 230 280 330
Crappie 130 200 250 300 380
Green Sunfish 80 150 200 250 300
Pumpkinseed 80 150 200 250 300

Bluegill 300 = 11.8”
Redear 330 = 13”
Crappie 380 = 15”
Green Sunfish 300
Pumpkinseed 300

Don’t know pumpkinseed get that big, my friend always catch tiny one around ditches.

Can you identify this fish .

Thank you

Looks like a redear without the red to me.

kirkboat wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 8:17 am Pan fishing is my favorite. Havasu is the home of big Redear but our SD lakes have some brutes also. I have caught a few over 2lbs and 2 over 3lbs. For bluegill anything over 11" is a great fish. My personal feeling is a 12" fish is a trophy. My personal best is a touch over 13". That's a lot of fun on a 1wt fly rod. SD lakes have a lot of hybrids .They tend to be thicker but usually about the same length as Coppernose. Any lake that has Zebra Mussels is going to produce bigger Redear, that's why Havasu is turning out the monsters.

Nice! Thats about as big as a Bullgill can get.

Too bad we don’t get to see our own coppernose from Lake Perris anymore.

kirkboat wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 8:17 am Pan fishing is my favorite. Havasu is the home of big Redear but our SD lakes have some brutes also. I have caught a few over 2lbs and 2 over 3lbs. For bluegill anything over 11" is a great fish. My personal feeling is a 12" fish is a trophy. My personal best is a touch over 13". That's a lot of fun on a 1wt fly rod. SD lakes have a lot of hybrids .They tend to be thicker but usually about the same length as Coppernose. Any lake that has Zebra Mussels is going to produce bigger Redear, that's why Havasu is turning out the monsters.

FYI, Havasu has quagga mussels, not zebra. We have quaggas in SD County.
All SD lakes should have redear sunfish stocked in them, just to help control the quaggas, whether present or potentially introduced in the future.

https://www.kdminer.com/lake-havasus-gi ... c10dc.html

Fishing for smallmouth in the Northeast has improved since zebra mussels and gobies were introduced. You will never convince a fishery biologist to introduce gobies to control mussels but it is a great thing for smallmouth fishing (probably largemouth too).

https://www.bassmaster.com/news/zebras- ... mallmouth/

Stringbean wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 4:53 pm Can you identify this fish .

Thank you

Redear Sunfish

Gotfish? wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2024 6:44 pm

kirkboat wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 8:17 am Pan fishing is my favorite. Havasu is the home of big Redear but our SD lakes have some brutes also. I have caught a few over 2lbs and 2 over 3lbs. For bluegill anything over 11" is a great fish. My personal feeling is a 12" fish is a trophy. My personal best is a touch over 13". That's a lot of fun on a 1wt fly rod. SD lakes have a lot of hybrids .They tend to be thicker but usually about the same length as Coppernose. Any lake that has Zebra Mussels is going to produce bigger Redear, that's why Havasu is turning out the monsters.

FYI, Havasu has quagga mussels, not zebra. We have quaggas in SD County.
All SD lakes should have redear sunfish stocked in them, just to help control the quaggas, whether present or potentially introduced in the future.

https://www.kdminer.com/lake-havasus-gi ... c10dc.html

Fishing for smallmouth in the Northeast has improved since zebra mussels and gobies were introduced. You will never convince a fishery biologist to introduce gobies to control mussels but it is a great thing for smallmouth fishing (probably largemouth too).

https://www.bassmaster.com/news/zebras- ... mallmouth/

Any lake connected to the State Water Project (Sacramento Delta) likely has Shimofuri or Chameleon Gobies (another invasive species) that will eat Quagga Mussels. I've seen them in Skinner, San V and Lower Otay.

Thank you,, queue.

Got this nice hybrid Monday.. My best hybrid yet. 2.24 lbs. Caught on a Wooleybugger and released. Put the test to my 1wt

Kirkboat,
That's a beauty. Thanks for sharing.