Live Sunfish For Largemouth

[zander]

I thought there was a length limit for using sunfish for bait, at least on trot lines. 5 or 6 inches if I remember correctly.

[mhall02]

Green sunfish make a great bait as well. I've used both, greenies are a little more durable. Neither are gamefish, therefore, you can use them for bait. Hook them throught the lips using a #4 hook, about 3-4 feet under a large bobber, watch that boober take a dive and set the hook.

[ozark trout fisher]

Green sunfish make a great bait as well. I've used both, greenies are a little more durable. Neither are gamefish, therefore, you can use them for bait. Hook them throught the lips using a #4 hook, about 3-4 feet under a large bobber, watch that boober take a dive and set the hook.

Wow, you almost use the exact same technique I do. I have recently taken to lip hooking them with a size 2 or 4 crappie hook, and it seems to do a very good job of hooking the fish. I usually don't use a bobber however, mostly because the lake I usually fish has extrordinarily clear water.

Also, I often use green sunfish instead of bluegill, because they tend to at least as common as bluegill in this particular lake.

[ozark trout fisher]

I thought there was a length limit for using sunfish for bait, at least on trot lines. 5 or 6 inches if I remember correctly.

Your are correct... 5" is the maximum length limit for sunnies as bait. I usually use fish 3" or shorter, so it's not a real problem.

As an unrelated side-note, I don't think you can use goggle-eye or warmouth perch of any size as bait... But I could be wrong.

[smallmouth61]

I was at a farm pond the other day and I had a little fly rod with a popper just having fun catching some bluegill and I had a channel bite on a 5 inch sunnie as i was reeling it in! Didnt set the hook in time or I could have caught two fish on 1 fly. Man that cat wanted the little sunnie bad!

[et84]

I've never heard of bass fishing with sunnies or gills, but now I've got something new to try on my next outing!! Thanks for the idea!!

[Geoff]

i thought the length was 3" and you could have 150 of them. its been a while since i checked though. i generally dont prefer to use live bait of any kind. the mortality rate of caught and released fish is higher since they often take the live bait deeper into the mouth and hooking can occur in the gills or throat, i dont like doing that

[et84]

i thought the length was 3" and you could have 150 of them.

How do you get the 3 inchers? Seine net I assume?

[ozark trout fisher]

i thought the length was 3" and you could have 150 of them. its been a while since i checked though. i generally dont prefer to use live bait of any kind. the mortality rate of caught and released fish is higher since they often take the live bait deeper into the mouth and hooking can occur in the gills or throat, i dont like doing that

I appreciate your conservation ethic. With that said, as I stated earlier in the thread, I have caught hundreds of bass this way, and I can count on one hand the number I have deeply hooked. I deep hook bass far more often on soft plastics than with live sunnies. That is something you can choose whether or not to believe. I know its true.

[ozark trout fisher]

How do you get the 3 inchers? Seine net I assume?

Nope... I catch them on a tiny piece of worm on a size 10 hook. It's difficult to catch bluegill that size, but not at all difficult to catch green sunfish, because they have larger mouths.

The maximum length limit for live bait is five inches, and anything smaller than that will do just fine, especially if your looking for bigger fish.