Reply With QuoteUsually first/second week in april . just ahead of the bluegill .
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Crappie Wall Hanger II
Red ears?
When do you guys start fishing for them?
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Usually first/second week in april . just ahead of the bluegill .
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I start in March...depends on water temps. This year in TN we haven't had too much cold weather.
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Tn Johnboy LIKED above post
Minnow
March
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We caught a couple yesterday floating jigs under a float across a shallow flat on a local pond . Gillchaser
Crappie Wall Hanger II
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They tend to be more bottom-oriented. I catch lots of suspended bluegills but very few suspended redears.Originally Posted by no luck
I'd focus on or near the bottom.
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Water temp- 6070 degrees, on the bottom, close to bank.
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check out these videos for some tips :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-UtaG2wvg4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--_qtmMOZcA
Redear Sunfish, also known as "Shellcrackers" ... eat snails, small mussels, crawdads, aquatic insects, worms, small fish, and fish eggs. They spawn deeper & generally stay deeper than Bluegill, being more of a bottom feeding, bottom oriented fish.
I catch them using a 1/16oz jighead (black) with a piece of nightcrawler (the dark end) threaded on the hook, just big enough to cover the hook. I bounce it along the bottom of known Redear haunts, and the bite is usually just the fish swimming off with the bait ... and not the rat-a-tat-tat pecking bite of a Bluegill. I've also been known to fish for them with a regular hook/sinker rig under a float. Again, they seem to always just swim off with the bait, pulling the float along across the top of the water or just under the surface.
Now .... that's with minimal experience fishing specifically for Redear, so the bait and bite may differ for others. And that experience was on only one lake, and a few years ago. And it was not the lake in the videos ... just so you know.
... cp
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It's like everything else....if you now where the spawning banks are where they make their bed.You just start figuring out the trek they make from deeper water ,almost like a road...then you just fish along the road until you find them. They will be on the beds depending on water temp from Mid April to late May. On Kentucky Lake I have caught them intermingled with Bluegill or very close to them.Then there will be places it is predominantly them. The depth will vary some but they can get real shallow if the water is a little murky. During the best years a couple guys on the right days could catch a 100 or more redear and bluegill. Some of the redear would run 2lbs. My neighbor and I went about five years or so ago and hit it pretty good. In three days in late April we caught around 350. But another year my wife and I caught nearly that many in two days on Memorial weekend so it varies.They were intermingled pretty well those years with the bluegill. They sorta like a clay composition bottom with some gravel or sand in it. They hit the same jigs as the bluegill.Minnow imitation or roadrunner head with a tube body and a nibble on it. Just swim it slow right on or just off the bottom. Like everything else they bite better some days than others even if the spawn is on.
