Sunfish

Bluegill

Green Sunfish

Redear Sunfish

There are others but these three seem to be the most common. I don't know too many people that specifically target sunfish, but bluegill was pretty much everyone's first fish.

Baits

Worms of course are the most common bait that folks use for sunfish. Just rig a hunk of crawler under a float and go to town. Also very small (#3-5) Rapalas, Originals and Countdowns, are said to be effective. The thing is, though, that most sunfish have very small mouths for their size, so it's easy to get baits that are too big.

If you're after sunfish to eat, just use worms. See Ethics for reasons to not use live bait if you want to release your catch.

Where to Fish

Water. Most water that has fish has sunfish. They like warm water, but they taste better the colder the water is (this goes for almost all fish). If you can find some sort of structure you'll catch more fish, but I think we've all caught bluegill off the end of a dock with no cover in any direction.

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