Exploring the Ozarks Outdoors: freshare.net

Bream Are Plentiful and in Many Forms in Arkansas

By Arkansas Game and Fish

First posted on 04-13-2012

The term “bream” is familiar to any Arkansan who has fished and also to others who have partaken of the small, tasty fish at the dinner table.

But the term bream is a label, a catch-all word. There isn’t a fish living in Arkansas that carries the official name of bream. Still, the species covers several varieties that collectively comprise the largest number of gamefish in the state.

Bluegill, red-ear, green sunfish, flier, long-ear, pumpkinseed – these are all bream. Many fishermen include “goggle-eye” in the bream family, although goggle-eye is another vague name that includes warmouth, Ozark bass and shadow bass.

Bream of all the Arkansas species are members of the sunfish category which also includes crappie and black bass (largemouth, smallmouth, spotted).

“Perch” is an old and often used term for bream, but it is inaccurate, as the perch family is separate from sunfish. Walleye and sauger are perch.

What is the most numerous of the bream species in Arkansas? It is debatable. Bluegill are seemingly everywhere, found in all 75 counties. Colorful, the males especially, and hard fighting, they may be rivaled in numbers by the green sunfish, a variety that is not as striking in appearance but which is also found in most of the state and in some unlikely places.

Green sunfish many times are called ricefield slicks or just slicks. Yes, they are sometimes found in flooded rice fields and often live in the ditches and other waterways surrounding or adjoining the rice growing lands.

The red-ear sunfish is extremely popular with Arkansas anglers who go after bream, and the red-ear may hold the record for different nicknames – shellcracker, chinquapin, stumpknocker, yellow bream, government improved bream, G.I. bream, strawberry bream, Texas improved bream, Georgia bream, cherry gill, sunny, sun perch, rouge ear and tupelo bream.

Pumpkinseed, long-ear and flier are all smaller on the average than bluegill, red-ear and green versions of sunfish. Bug they have the same fighting ability when hooked and tastiness when prepared for the table.

Pumpkinseeds are among the most colorful bream and are somewhat similar in appearance to bluegill and are often found in the same habitats. One difference is their opercular flaps. The flap is black in both species, but the pumpkinseed has a crimson spot in the shape of a halfmoon on the back portion of its opercular flap.

Arkansas records for the various bream species:

Bluegill, 3 pounds, 4 ounces.

Red-ear, 2 pounds, 14 ounces.

Green sunfish, 1 pound, 11 ounces.

Long-ear, 1 pound, 2 ounce.

Flier, 14 ounces.

No pumpkinseed has been submitted and certified for a state record.

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Comments:

Kayak bass fishing. What boat do I need?I,m thiinnkg about buying a used kayak for bass fishing on the river.I,ve recently started doing this and I have to say ,it,s addicting.I have a 16 canoe that I,m using now and I will paddle it about 2 to 3 miles upstream and fish my way back.My success has been terrific catching a minimum of twenty bass both spotted and largemouth.I don,t mind the paddling because it is great exercise but it really cuts into my fishing time and I can only go so far to make it back in time.Is a kayak going to be much faster?I,m looking a a 15 ocean kayak but I,m not sure if this is what I really need.I,m concerned with the size.Is it to big or should I look into something smaller.I need enough room to keep some fish alive in a cooler and have storage for tackle and extra clothes drink cooler etc.I would like to throw it in the back of my truck and carry it that way without buying a trailer.Any advice would be appreciated.

By Slow on May 14, 2012 - 3:46 am