Creek Fishin'

[bigpopper]

Hit a creek close to the house this evening. Waited till it cooled down a bit and got out there at 6:00, just before sunset. Lots of grass hoppers all over the place, and the top water bite was happening. After surveying the water, it was stained green with slow-moving pools and not much visibility, spotted some small bream by the bank and what looked like about a 10-12 in. spotted gar, I tied on a small chartruse popper and had at them. After 2 casts I hooked into 'em. These were some very different creek fish, different from what i've seen in my lifetime. They were not bream or bluegill, but looked more like a cross/hybrid of a pumpkin seed and a coosae(red eye bass). They were lots of fun, hooked 7 of them and one small largemouth. Lots of fun on the 5wt. As it was starting to get dark I had a HUGE HIT!:eek: It hit the popper and took off downstream, I believe it was the spotted gar I saw earlier and he turned and broke off my popper!:mad: By that time it was too dark to see to tie on another fly, and this creek bank has lots of tall grasses and snakey looking rocks, it was time to go. I need to do more last second outings, what fun!:smile:
Hope someone on here can tell me what species these fish are.
I apologize for the pic quality.

Tail fins-have great colors

http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s358/lawjm28/creek2.jpg
http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s358/lawjm28/creek3.jpg
http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s358/lawjm28/Creek1.jpg

The wanna be big boy
http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s358/lawjm28/creek4.jpg

[jeffnles1]

Those first 2 fish look like green sunfish. They're very aggressive and a ton of fun to catch on a fly rod. They think they're a lot bigger than they are and put up a very good fight.

Nice fish.

Jeff

[JayB]

Definitely green sunfish. I've caught hundreds of those in stock tanks back in Texas. They have a heck of a mouth on 'em, much more agressive than bluegill. They'll hit clouser's with reckless abandon as well.

[BlueRaiderFan]

I think those first two might be "long eared" sunfish...Good stuff, Mark:smile:

[TNBigBore]

Those are standard Green sunfish. I caught about a million on Wilson Lake in north Alabama when I was growing up. They hit like a ton of bricks then play dead in my experience. Those are nice looking examples though.

[bigpopper]

Thanks everybody for the i d on the fish. They were a ton of fun! I'm looking forward to catching lots more of those!;)