Looking For Intuition

[drew03cmc]

Okay, I have something I am trying to accomplish in my lifetime that I need the expert's help with.

Here is a list of all of the sunfish species in North America to the best of my research. I am trying to catch them all with photographic evidence from NATIVE riverine habitats. I am looking for advice on where one can locate these fish. I know the Northern Smallmouth will be taken care of in a couple weeks. I have caught them, from non-native waters and years ago without a picture. Also, please add one if I missed one of course. I want this to be all encompassing. Some of them only grow to 2" long so this might be a major task, but I am willing to take it on.

Sunfish Species Life List- The ones with an X beside them are already caught with photographic evidence, and with a river beside them are places I know of to catch them.

Northern Smallmouth Bass-

Neosho Smallmouth Bass- X

Ouachita Bass-

Northern Largemouth Bass-

Florida Largemouth Bass-

Spotted Bass-

Redeye Bass-

Shoal Bass- Flint River, GA

Suwannee Bass-

Guadalupe Bass- Cibolo Creek, TX

Northern Rock Bass-

Shadow Bass- X

Ozark Bass-

Roanoke Bass-

Bluegill- X

Handpaint Bluegill-

Florida Bluegill (coppernose)-

Northern Longear Sunfish-

Central Longear Sunfish- X

Ox-bow Longear Sunfish-

Green Sunfish- any slow moving water in the midwest

Warmouth-

Pumpkinseed-

White Crappie-

Black Crappie-

Sacramento Perch-

Flier-

Banded Sunfish-

Blackbanded Sunfish-

Bluespotted Sunfish-

Redbreast Sunfish-

Dollar Sunfish-

Orangespotted Sunfish-

Spotted Sunfish-

Redspotted Sunfish-

Redear Sunfish-

Bantam Sunfish-

Mud Sunfish-

[Wheatenheimer]

You are a very ambitious young man! Good luck! I'll be looking forward to the updates and pictures!

[RSBreth]

You've never caught a Largemouth Bass, or never got a picture of one?

[jdmidwest]

Pfleiger's Fishes of Missouri lists the ranges and locations of all of MO species. It looks like you may have to go out of state for the rest. The internet should be of help there, start with the F&G websites of each state. You may find the pics pretty quick.

I assume "natural riverine state" does not mean on a stringer or suspended from a thumb of an innocent bystander?

[ness]

They got largemouths right there in Douglas County, Andy!

Just no picture, right?

Can't help you on your list, but that's a cool goal you've got set for yourself. I'm kinda doing the same thing with trout. It's a much shorter list, and I'm not making much progress the last couple years.

[gotmuddy]

crooked creek and buffalo river both have northern smallmouth. white river has spotted bass

[flytyer57]

A lot of those fish can be caught in the Mississippi River anywhere from it's headwaters in Minnesota to it's drainage in Louisiana.

Get out the canoe and plan for one hell of a long float trip.

[Outside Bend]

Northern Rock Bass- Meramec Basin, MO

Shadow Bass- X

Ozark Bass- I think these are in the White River system...

Northern Longear Sunfish- OH, MI

Green Sunfish- any slow moving water in the midwest

Warmouth- Four Rivers CA, Missouri

Pumpkinseed- Northern US (Northern IA, MN, IL, MI, WI)

Flier- Southern/western Illinois

Bluespotted Sunfish- Current River, MO

Redbreast Sunfish- I believe there's some in the southern MO ozarks, probably AR too.

Dollar Sunfish- Southeast Missouri (rare)

Orangespotted Sunfish- Missouri River Floodplain, MO

Redear Sunfish- TN, KY, GA

Mud Sunfish- Central/Western New York, PA

The pygmy sunfishes are a different family than the true sunfishes, didn't know if you wanted them in or not. Good luck!

[eric1978]

Geez, I've never heard of half of those and would probably misidentify them if I caught one. Pretty cool project, though.

[Al Agnew]

Very cool project...

There's a pretty good possibility that if you spent a few days fishing the St. Francis River in SE MO, you'd be able to cross a bunch of them off the list. It has native largemouth, spotted bass, shadow bass, central longear, bluegill, green sunfish, warmouth, white and black crappie, redear, and some of the other sunfish that are native to Missouri, although those other sunfish would be hit or miss. Actually, most Ozark streams have all those species, but on most streams the habitat for some of them, like crappie, is limited so the populations aren't very high and catching them "on demand" is difficult. But the St. Francis has such varied habitat that the chances of catching each species is much better.

The genetics on smallmouth in the Ozarks is questionable enough that you might not be sure you were catching pure northern smallmouth on most streams. The Meramec Basin probably has the closest thing to pure strain northern smallies in the Ozarks.