I’m back home in Alabama for the next week and a half so I decided to sling some bugs in the creek behind my parent’s house on light tackle. Fortunately, the creek still gets plenty of sun. The water temp seems to be significantly warmer than waters in Tennessee. Naturally, I can’t help but snatch up sunfish while I’m here.
The hole I frequent is below a spillway into the creek, and with steady rains the past few days, the pool is full. All you gotta do is sling a bug into the spillway and drift the fly until the sunfish beat it to death. I’ve always enjoyed this type of fishing in a small stream, which might be a good reason to get into Tenkara.
Being removed from my typical lakes and large rivers in Tennessee I noticed that these sunfish were a lot more fun to haul in. This lead to a discussion on Google+ earlier as to whether or not sunfish fighter better in small swift streams as opposed to still waters (lakes, backwashes, etc.).
So, what do you think? I think they do.
Tales from East Yahtam 
Through the ice, I fish panfish in both lakes and rivers 4-5 days a week. I find that the fish in the river put up a better fight. Maybe they grow larger and stronger due to the constant influx of nutrients and feed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if their close quarters to other similar sized fish means they have to be more competitive to eat too.
Around here the weather has been so sporadic that the only fish that want to play are in moving water. Maybe I’ll lay into a big one come spring in the lake, but until then I think that the panfish in moving water fight harder for their size.