For smalish (<1 acre) ponds in Indiana, do longear sunfish fill the same niche as pumpkinseed? Do longear grow as large as pumkinseed? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I don't believe Longears eat snails like Pumpkinseeds do. That's an important function in parasite control.

Probably would need RES as well then.

To my knowledge, no. Longear Sunfish don't have pharyngeal teeth like Redear and Pumpkinseeds do. Longears get about half the maximum size of Pumpkinseed Sunfish.

Thank you. With the longears being smaller, I think that I'll not stock them. The greater size and snail-eating habit of pumpkinseed seem more like what I want.

RAH,

Though I wouldn't recommend LES over PKS, I can share some thoughts on LES. They persist in low numbers in many of the ponds I fish. They are native in all the streams around here and have found their way into the ponds by either swimming in or by bucket. They seem to find a niche that prevents their extirpation in the presence of BG and LMB. An Oklahoma study references that their presence is associated with higher LMB standing weights. In the ponds I fish where they are present their typical lengths are comparable to BG despite not having the same potential. I take this to mean that they are not overpopulating their niche to the same degree the BG are and so are achieving a higher proportion of their potential than are the BG.

I enjoy them in my catch and always release them. They are more robust than BG ... having greater weight than BG of equal length. They strike aggressively, chasing down streamer flies without inspecting the fly thoroughly like BG tend to do. Because of this quality, they comprise a higher proportion of the catch than their population would suggest they would. I think LES, similar to RES, are a fish that will play well with other lepomis. They aren't going to be a large proportion of the standing weight but they will contribute to forage, persist, and grow to acceptable sizes for enjoyable fishing. So I guess I would say that while you shouldn't choose them instead of PKS, there probably would be no ill effect from choosing them along with PKS. They could also be combined with RES ... such would probably yield larger panfish as the RES would probably compete less with LES than the PKS would. The largest LES I have caught was 7.5 to 8 inches long and probably exceeded 1/2 lb ... a memorable fish. The typical LES I catch is between 5" and 6" and they weigh as much as a BG that is 1" longer. I think they would certainly do better in a pond without BG and considering these are the limits of both in the ponds I fish I consider their potential acceptable provided there is sufficient predation.