One more target species ???

[David Lee]

Surfing around this morning and found this -

http://www.fishsniffer.com/cgi-bin/forumsyabb/YaBB.pl?num=1242443058

I had no idea we had Warmouth here , and need to do some research to see where else they might live !!

That brings the California Sunfish species list to ...

Bluegill
Redears
Black Crappie
White Crappie
Green Sunfish
Pumpkinseed
Sacramento Perch
Warmouth

I've taken 7 of the 8 species (6 of 8 on the fly) ..... time to go hunt down the rest !!

David

[SHigSpeed]

I used to catch those all the time in the creek that flows through Rusch Park. Also caught big shiners and bullheads in the pond that used to be in the park.

_SHig

[Hairstacker]

Interesting, the fella's cousin caught it in the Delta no less. I've never caught one there . . . yes, more research is needed. :D

The other one that needs more "research" is the yellow perch -- although not technically in the sunfish family, it would nevertheless be cool to add it to the life-list. I think Lafayette Reservoir has 'em but I don't know where else semi-locally.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Interesting......don't know if I have ever seen one? Looks kind of like a crappie and a bass?

[SHigSpeed]

You know, after looking at Google images of Warmouth, I'm starting to think that what I thought were warmouth back in the day (25 years ago!?) were more likely green sunnies.

Hmm...

All I know is they were small sunfish with really disproportionally large mouths and the banding on the face. Looked more like this (though the photographer of this one claims it's a warmouth):

http://www.storyhouse.org/fish/8144warmouth.jpg

_SHig

[Scott V]

Hey David, don't forget to add my cracker fish to the list, or is it in another category?

[jerry from sac]

SHig
That is a Green Sunfish. Caught many of them. Here's some more info.
Impact of Introduction: Green sunfish appear to be at least partially responsible for local extinctions of California roach Hesperoleucus symmetricus in California (Moyle and Nichols 1974; Moyle 1976a, 1976b; Smith 1982). In California, aggressive green sunfish outcompete native Sacramento perch Archoplites interruptus (Moyle 1976a). They may chase Sacramento perch away from spawning areas and out of favored places, such as shallow weedy areas, and into open water (Moyle 1976a). Once in open water, the perch are more vulnerable to predation and have less available food. Introduced green sunfish also compete with and prey on other native fishes (Moyle 1976a; Lemly 1985). Lemly (1985) found that green sunfish reduced populations of native species, and altered population structure, relative dominance, and distribution patterns in North Carolina Piedmont streams. In that study, he found that green sunfish preyed heavily on minnows, and in fact, may have been responsible for the elimination of two cyprinid species in the study area. Green sunfish may compete with and adversely affect young Colorado pikeminnow Ptychocheilus lucius, an endangered species (Karp and Tyus 1990). Green sunfish readily hybridize with other Lepomis species (Moyle 1976a; Sigler and Sigler 1987). In cold lakes the often overpopulate and reduce trout populations (McKechnie and Tharratt 1966). Their large mouth allows them to compete with larger fish for prey items, and to prey on eggs and young of other fishes (McKechnie and Tharratt 1966). Green sunfish and other introduced predatory centrarchids are likely responsible for the decline of native ranid frogs in California, California tiger salamander Ambystoma californiense populations (Hayes and Jennings 1986; Dill and Cordone 1997), and the Chiricahua leopard frog Rana chiricahuensis in southeastern Arizona (Rosen et al. 1995).

[Jay Murakoshi]

Let's see... Many years ago, we were catching those species -warmouths. I will see if I have any photo's in my archives. I know it's the same species because at the time, I thought it was a "bastarded child fish"... looked like a large mouth bred with a crappie.

Oh yeah, the place....Little Panoche Reservoir

Jay

[Garrett S]

I used to catch those all the time in the creek that flows through Rusch Park. Also caught big shiners and bullheads in the pond that used to be in the park.

_SHig

There are fish there?? I played a couple of games on the baseball field and haven't even thought about fish being in that creek

[SHigSpeed]

There are fish there?? I played a couple of games on the baseball field and haven't even thought about fish being in that creek

Like I mentioned before, it was like 25 years ago! That said, sunnies are hardy fish but the water there is a lot skinnier than it used to be.

_SHig

[Terry Thomas]

Years ago, when the Yuba Gold Fields were open to membership, we used to catch them there all the time.
T.