Its only early February, but we’ve had a 5 day warming trend with highs almost touching 80 at the end of it. So with the warmest weather of the year the sunfish in the urban creeks are finally getting active. Earlier in the year when the temps were only getting up to 70, I would maybe spook a couple fish when approaching a creek, but after this warm spell I saw many more fish swimming around. They aren’t everywhere yet like they will be in another month, but they are no longer tucked away with lockjaw. Until the next cold front at least.

On my most recent outing, on that near-80 degree day, I finally got my first Warmouth of the year, as well as a couple nice Green Sunfish, a bunch of Bluegill, and a few Redspotted Sunfish. With that Warmouth, I have 8 total sunfish species for the year, and all at BREC (the local parks department in Baton Rouge) parks. I believe that is 8 out of the 9 total Lepomids that can be found in the Baton Rouge area, with the 9th being the Bantam Sunfish, which are exceedingly rare. Thanks to the BREC Rainbeaux Trout stocking program, I was even able to land a Rainbow Trout at a BREC park, and as of this writing my total species count is 12. I said in my last post I was hoping to get to 20. I’ll probably need some gar and carp, as well as shiners and minnows to get to that number, so we’ll see how I do at that.

The warm weather is a welcome reminder that spring is around the corner, and many more fishing opportunities will soon open up! Below is a list of the sunfish I’ve caught this year and some pictures from outings since my last post on public park fishing.

Tight Lines!

Update:

Fellow blogger Chris commented on the Warmouth, noting it looks to be a hybrid, and I agree. It is probably a Warmouth-Bluegill hybrid based on mouth size and the dark opercular flap.

BREC Park Sunfish Species:

Bluegill, Redear Sunfish, Warmouth, Redspotted Sunfish, Orangespotted Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, Dollar Sunfish, Green Sunfish