San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I bought this livetarget sunfish imitation lure. I bought it in the color pumpkinseed and wondered if there are any pumpkinseed or other panfish/sunfish here in the San Diego waters? I bought the pumpkinseed color because it had the most color and thought that it would attract the bass better (I dont know how much of what i said might be true as i dont even know if there are pumpkinseed here) I have heard about redear, coppernose and regular bluegill and green sunfish being here in socal, however rare RARE mentions of pumpkinseed and other species. I have heard that pumpkinseed are mainly found up north and midwest, but I have seen a few reports of pumpkinseed here. San Diego Zoo has them in their aquariums, although I don't know where they sourced it and they didn't mention where they are exactly found.


Maybe any of you advanced fisherman have seen some different species over your time and i wanted to ask you guys specifically

Thank you - Max

Color won’t matter for the most part. It’s the profile that counts.

camobass wrote: Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:17 pm Color won’t matter for the most part. It’s the profile that counts.

Thanks camo bass, but in your case what panfish have you found in the area? And do you think that the color that I chose will have anything to do with the strikes or is it just unnoticeable?

Like I said, the color of your bait won’t matter.bass aren’t going to react and turn away because the color is pumpkin seed and there may not be any pumpkin seed in that lake. There’s a lot of different panfish through out the county.

DO NOT DO THIS…but for example, if you threw a net full of goldfish in a lake, the bass will inhale them even though there are no gold fish in the lake naturally.

camobass wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2023 1:40 pm Like I said, the color of your bait won’t matter.bass aren’t going to react and turn away because the color is pumpkin seed and there may not be any pumpkin seed in that lake. There’s a lot of different panfish through out the county.

DO NOT DO THIS…but for example, if you threw a net full of goldfish in a lake, the bass will inhale them even though there are no gold fish in the lake naturally.

Yeah, I understand. As a fish keeper and an angler I can see how much goldfish can do to an ecosystem (I have goldfish myself). Thanks tho, I often overthink things.

Yeah, don’t give the fish that much credit and overthink it.

"...but for example, if you threw a net full of goldfish in a lake, the bass will inhale them even though there are no gold fish in the lake naturally."

The bass on a local creek somehow missed this goldfish. But now the point is moot....

Just like bass miss Shad, bluegill, frogs etc. point is, bass will still inhale fish that are not “naturally” part of a particular water body …moot

Bluegill, green sunfish, copper nosed gills, redear sunfish, black and white crappie. Redbreast sunfish to name a few. Hope it helps

WTF? A Roy Justice sighting? My Man! A legend here folks!

Roy Justice wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:03 pm Bluegill, green sunfish, copper nosed gills, redear sunfish, black and white crappie. Redbreast sunfish to name a few. Hope it helps

Wow, thanks man!

Roy M, my man. I'm still kicking and I see you are still terrorizing the crappie. Keep on keeping on.

camobass wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 3:35 pm Just like bass miss Shad, bluegill, frogs etc. point is, bass will still inhale fish that are not “naturally” part of a particular water body …moot

Wasn't disagreeing. That goldfish is just too big to be eaten by a dink creek bass. I wonder if he grew from someone's bait bucket leftovers or someone freewillied a fish from their pond?

FYI, some people dye their minnows to make them more visible to bass and other game.
https://www.instructables.com/Dye-Live-Bait-Fish/

So much for matching the hatch.

Carpkiller wrote: Tue Aug 08, 2023 11:28 pm

camobass wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 3:35 pm Just like bass miss Shad, bluegill, frogs etc. point is, bass will still inhale fish that are not “naturally” part of a particular water body …moot

Wasn't disagreeing. That goldfish is just too big to be eaten by a dink creek bass. I wonder if he grew from someone's bait bucket leftovers or someone freewillied a fish from their pond?

There’s about a 2lb goldfish in a local pond nearby. Hard to say. I’ve seen scoops of goldfish in yuma get inhaled like foamers of bluefin offshore. I just know back to the original topic, a pumpkinseed pattern on a bluegill swimbait won’t matter if there are no pumpkinseed in a particular body. If the conditions and presentation are right, bass gonna be eatn’

There are Pumpkinseed in Lake Hemet and Big Bear Lake. They do well in higher elevations

CDFW is also trying to establish a unique Sacramento Perch population in Lindo Lake following the complete draining of the East Basin and soon to be drained and rehabilitated West Basin. It is critical that ALL other sunfish species are not introduced into Lindo Lake for the Sacramento Perch fishery to succeed. This includes Largemouth Bass. It is unfortunate that individuals have already illegally introduced Largemouth Bass into the East Basin, which will make it more difficult for the Sacramento Perch to establish themselves. Fingers are crossed hoping no more illegal introductions occur which would prevent this unique fishery from becoming a reality in So Cal.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/sout ... 93104.html

Queue wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2023 9:38 am
CDFW is also trying to establish a unique Sacramento Perch population in Lindo Lake following the complete draining of the East Basin and soon to be drained and rehabilitated West Basin. It is critical that ALL other sunfish species are not introduced into Lindo Lake for the Sacramento Perch fishery to succeed. This includes Largemouth Bass. It is unfortunate that individuals have already illegally introduced Largemouth Bass into the East Basin, which will make it more difficult for the Sacramento Perch to establish themselves. Fingers are crossed hoping no more illegal introductions occur which would prevent this unique fishery from becoming a reality in So Cal.

Having a perch fishery would be kind of fun, and different. Tasty fish too, at least the fish out of high elevation lakes like Crowley.

I get kind of irked by the bucket brigade folks. Causing lots of problems for mostly selfish reasons. Pike in Lake Davis and that costly mess for example. And I like to fish for pike, but that was messed up.