The Fish That Children Catch

Fresh water, sun fish from North America.

       Have you gone fishing this year? If you have, perhaps you have caught little, round, spotted fish, long thin, silvery fish and plump green and yellow ones; but do you know even their names? 

       Many of the fish caught by boys and girls are the little round fellows we know as sunfish. There are a number of different kinds of sunfish to be found in the Midwest; and perhaps the most popular of all is the pumpkin-seed or sunny. These fish grow to a length of eight inches; but most of those that reach a boy's string are not more than four or five inches long. What the pumpkin-seed lacks in size is made up in color; for it is one of our most beautiful fish. The green of its back shades into a delicate blue on its sides and the blue, in turn, blends with the orange-yellow of its stomach. Its cheeks are orange streaked with blue; a dot of bright scarlet marks the lower part of the gill cover; and scattered all over its body are orange-red spots. The pumpkin-seed can be caught in nearly all clear brooks, ponds and lagoons; and it will bite on almost any kind of bait.

       As well known as the pumpkin-seed, but far more important as a food fish, is the bluegill. It, too, belongs to the sunfish family and has the round, flattened body and shiny scales characteristic of that group. The bluegill's body shades from dark green above to light green or white below; and the delicate blue of its gill covers and cheeks gives it its name. On each side near the head is a spot of rich, velvety black. Bluegills are the largest of the sunfish. They sometimes reach a length of fourteen inches and a weight of one and one-half pounds. The best place to fish for them is off the edge of a sandbar where there is a patch of water weeds. The fish go in rather large groups or schools and where one is caught there are almost sure to be others. The best baits for them are angleworms and grasshoppers; but they will take many other kinds.

       A third plentiful sunfish in the smaller lakes and streams near Chicago is the rock bass. Like the bluegill, it lives among the plants found in clear, cool water or hides among the stones of rocky bottoms. Some boys call it red-eye or goggle-eye because it has large red eyes. Its body is light green banded by darker green streaks. In the spring, the father fish can often be seen near gravel or sand bars. There he hollows out a nest and, after the mother fish has deposited her eggs, remains near it protecting the eggs until they are hatched. Any kind of bait may be used in fishing for the rock bass; but it seems to relish small minnows, grubs and angleworms more than anything else.

       Two other sunfish which you may catch are the warmouth and the green sunfish. The warmouth has red eyes like those of the rock bass; but it is much darker in general color and its scales are often tinged with red. It is found in shallow, mud-bottomed streams and lakes and its flesh is apt to have a muddy flavor. The green sunfish is a beauty. Most of its scales are marked with a sky blue spot edged with gold; and, at a distance, these colors blend to a bright, brassy green. Its sides are sprinkled with dark spots and its cheeks are striped with narrow blue lines. Like the other sunfish, it can be caught readily with angleworm bait. It is not an important food fish; for it never weighs more than four or five ounces.

       One of the finest fish of our area and one as easily caught as any of the sunfish is the yellow perch. It is valued by older fishermen as well as younger ones; for it grows to a length of fourteen inches and a weight of two pounds and it is an excellent food fish. The yellow perch's body is longer and narrower than that of a sunfish. Its back is green, its sides are yellow and its stomach is usually white. The upper fins are green and the lower fins, red or orange. The perch bites on almost any sort of bait in practically all of the lakes of our region.

       From the piers and docks jutting out into Lake Michigan, many lake herrings are caught each spring and fall. The herrings spend their winter and summer in deep water where they are caught in nets by commercial fishermen. In the spring and fall, they come in to shallow water and there may be caught with hook and line. They are slender, silvery fish and resemble somewhat their large and important relative, the whitefish, although their own weight seldom exceeds two pounds.

       The sunfish, perch and herring all wear an armor of shining scales. Bullheads are protected only by their tough skin. Their large head, wide mouth, curious barbels or whiskers and their dull color make them the homeliest of our fish; but they are, none the less, the favorites of many young fishermen. Perhaps it is because they are plentiful in almost every pond, small lake, water-filled quarry and sluggish stream and because they usually hook themselves firmly when they take the bait. Cockrell

Flicky Flies shows the fish in the rivers in and near Chicago.