The Baddest Sunfish on the Planet

I will say this...I have caught just about every kind of sunfish out there to include coppernose bluegills, red ear sunfish, pure strain bluegills and pumpkinseed sunfish. But the undisputed, pound-for-pound toughest fighter among them all is the Hybrid Sunfish...specifically the green sunfish X bluegill cross, a lab produced fish that grows fast and fights like a demon. The colorations are astounding and the power of these fish on 2-pound gear are unbelievable.

Most hybrid sunfish waters are private ponds.

Hybrid sunfish aren't found just anywhere...they are stocked by some pond owners here and there to get some big panfish, and fast, into their lakes for fun and food. Almost 95% of the first generation, lab produced hybs are males. Hence reproduction of any subsequent efforts from the stocked fish leaves very few offspring. No overcrowding means fewer, and usually bigger, fish to go around. But females do exist. They grow fast, live about 8 to 10 years and are extremely aggressive, attaining 10 inch status quickly.

First cast of the day produced this powerhouse hybrid for Linda!

My wife Linda shows an outstanding 10.5 inch hybrid she recently caught and released at a local pond on one of my grass shrimp hair jig patterns.Notice the yellow/white pectoral fins and the 'hump-head' of this unblemished male...cool!

The pectoral fins on this male are only slightly edged in yellow. Very few hybrids look exactly the same. Some bear the body dynamics of a spawning male bluegill and others are more elongated with the shorter opercular eartab of a female bluegill. Most have the larger mouth of the parental green sunfish.

Say 'Ahhhh!'

This guy here took a jig tipped with a piece of nightcrawler and stayed still just long enough to let me take his picture. Check out the sun sparkles!

Almost like something out of the Amazon!

Fin edging and an orange/yellow crescent on the eartab is also a trait. Each spiney dorsal spine is etched as well. This one went 11.25 inches...another reason I dig hybrids!

Check out this big female that hit a grey grass shrimp jig! Wow!

And this 11.25 inch male that brutalized a Rattle Flash spoon, 10 feet down, in nearly 100-degree heat!

Anyway you look at it, even if they are created in a laboratory situation by mankind, they are still the baddest sunfish I have ever caught, or fought with! They very seldom occur naturally in the wild, but God gave man the ability to create something as beautiful as this fish, just like he gave you and I the ability to create something beautiful, whether it would be music, a story, a house, garden, or perhaps a relationship with a friend or family member. God did not mess up when he gave us the skills and gifts to create beautiful things.

Romans 1:20 says this...'For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities...His eternal power and divine nature...has been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.'

Ultimately, our handiwork is God's handiwork as well. Let us not be so haughty as to think we can do it on our own.

FISHING IN THE LAND OF CORN

Okay, I'll admit it, I do a lot of fishing in small private venues that are sometimes way off the beaten path and don't get a lot of pressure. Sometimes the fishing is great, and sometimes it is very poor. Not every pond or lake in the Land of Corn has giants. Some do, some don't. You have to work at it, just like anything else in life, in order for it to pay off. Ups and downs and highs and lows. In the Land of Corn there are very big deerflies and ticks and chiggers. They bite and hurt, There are snakes and wasps, cattle gone astray and high weeds and poison ivy and poison oak. It can be very hot and the sun can burn. But I can put up with all that because...

...for one thing, the Land of Corn has ponds that have big bass. We have taken them over 8 pounds. This one is 22 inches and took a plastic worm in a heavily algaed pond. I dig big fish!

In another local pond, the bass get long but they just might not have the forage to pack on the pounds. This lean 19-incher could have gone 5 pounds, but likely only nudged four.

When fishing in Corn Country, parking lot situations can become diverse and challenging. Overhead scouting is essential to home in on good water.

All purpose vehicles and friendly locals may be needed to get your gear to the backwoods. But the results can be rewarding with a variety of species coming to the bank. In another pond, in another place, things could be different...

The water could be dark and tannic...

Or loaded with algae and weeds, or...

nice and open and clear.

One of the great things about Corn Country Fishin' is that some of the panfish have weigh problems, and that can be a good thing...

Check out this 12 inch red ear sunfish I got in the mid-day heat. A beauty!

And here's a great 10.25 inch spawning male bluegill...great fish!
I love Corn Country Fishin'...small ponds, big bluegills, fields that smell funny and tons of dragonflys that the bass feed on. Through in some deer, chickens, peacocks and dogs and cats. I thank God often that I was allowed to grow up in Corn Country, rural farmland, and discovered what real fun was before I got too old to enjoy it. Today, it is a huge part of my life. God always knows what we need, rather than what we think we need.

10.5 inch Fatso Bluegill! What a fish!

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek,
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life.

Psalm 27: 3

THE DWELLING PLACE

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty,
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and flesh cry out for the Living God.
Psalm 84: 1-2

Here are some of the dwelling places of some of the most beautiful of God's creatures...

Bass, bluegills and bullfrogs...God's creatures.

The swampy backwater...snakes and salamanders...God's creatures.

The tributary stream...sunfish, smallmouths and rockbass...Gods's creatures.

Not big, but beautiful, 10 to 14 inch smallmouth bass make wading in local streams a hoot when the temperatures soar. The Rebel Crayfish catches them all...

The horney-head chub in spawning colors.

The redbreast sunfish guarding a nest.

This is a stunning hybrid, perhaps pumpkinseed X redbreast cross...God knows!

A longeared sunfish with maybe something else...a real beaut!

And how about this fiesty green sunfish...another small stream stunner! Does it have to be big to be a worthy catch?

What a variety of fish, and of beauty, that can be found in a small stream that is but a few miles from my house. The water was clear and the current at ease on the 90 plus degree day that I hopped in. Fish every where, nothing big, but it didn't matter. I was in God's house, on His turf...the Dwelling Place, if you will, of creatures great and small. Without Him, nothing was created. He allowed me to enjoy it, and it didn't have to be anything special other than it was just what He had for me at that particular time...His time.

HOW LOVELY IS YOUR DWELLING PLACE...O LORD ALMIGHTY!