Why, in most Midwest lake/ rivers, are red-ear sunfish a rarity? I mean, over time, wouldnt they become as common as a bluegill

[bigbassboy1]

Why, in most Midwest lake/ rivers, are red-ear sunfish a rarity? I mean, over time, wouldnt they become as common as a bluegill or pumpkinseed?

[JM]

Bodies of water in the midwest support the bluegills/pumpkinseeds diet better. Another name for the red-ear is shellcracker(or shellsmasher I can't remember for sure) because they rely on snails etc. for a good part of their diet. Some lakes just do not have enough food options for the red-ears to become high in number.

[pineywoods]

There may be more there than you think, you just may not catch as many of them because, as JM said, they feed on crustaceans that are generally found on the bottom and not in the areas where you normally fish for bluegill. I've stocked them in my pond, but unless I fished on the bottom, I never caught any.

[JM]

@pineywoods,
How did you go about fishing for them on the bottom? One problem with our pond(IMO, my little cousins love it) is that there are now a ton of bullheads that pretty much own the bottom.

[pineywoods]

JM---First of all, I didn't have any catfish or bullheads in the pond, so I just set the distance between the bait and the bobber so the bait would get to the bottom (worms or crickets) and if the bobber quivered, set the hook. I caught some stallion size shellcrackers that way.