Re: NANFA-- Collecting trip saturday!

R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:36:11 -0600

All the pumpkinseeds ( and other sunfish for that manner) always return to
there nest immediatly after being " harassed" in my experience. I am
guessing they not only cue on visual things, but also scent. Green sunfish
are some of the best at this. I pestered one, catching it four times on a
nearly bare hook. It always returned to its nest, even on the last time I
purposely put it back some twenty feet down the bank. Racing back to the
nest it nearly beat me. Cruel, maybe, but I wanted to see what this fish
would do. It is the same thing that happens from dusk until dawn when all
manner of large predators try their best for easy meals, eggs or gaurding
fish.

This has been my experience with sunfish in the wild, in aquariums, and my
artificial ponds. Nesting male sunfish species have one thing on their mind,
protecting that nest. Even after total destruction of that nest, they will
fan a new one and start over, often in the exact same spot. Nesting sites
are picked for a reason, and that area is used regardless, barring drought
drying that area out, or flooding putting it too deep for proper sun. Green
sunfish for one will remain with a nest after receding water has left only a
depression of water and fry, flipping over the rim and back to the main
water.

Ray W.
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