Longear Sunfish
Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) is a freshwater species. The first thing to check: a very long ear flap, angled upward and back, with a pale white or red margin all the way around it. The look-alike to rule out is Redbreast Sunfish: a redbreast's ear flap is long but narrow and solid black to the very edge, with no pale margin.
Last updated
| Scientific name | Lepomis megalotis |
|---|---|
| Also called | longear, cherry gill, creek perch |
| Water | Freshwater |
| Group | Sunfish |
| Temperature | Feeds well between 68 and 82 °F. |
How to identify a Longear Sunfish
- A very long ear flap, angled upward and back, with a pale white or red margin all the way around it.
- Brilliant turquoise wavy lines over an orange-red body — the most vividly coloured of the common sunfish.
- A short, deep body with a small mouth and no dark blotch on the rear dorsal fin.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Redbreast Sunfish | A redbreast's ear flap is long but narrow and solid black to the very edge, with no pale margin. |
| Pumpkinseed Sunfish | Pumpkinseed have a short ear flap with an orange spot at its tip, and heavy orange spotting rather than turquoise lines. |
Side-by-side comparisons
Read the full entry for Redbreast Sunfish and Pumpkinseed Sunfish.
Where it lives
Clear streams, small rivers and lake margins through the central and southeastern United States. Prefers moving water with gravel or rock more than most sunfish.
Temperature
Feeds well between 68 and 82 °F.
The conditions that matter
Longear are a small-stream, clear-water sight feeder, so clarity matters more than weather and they keep biting through bright, settled conditions. Water temperature drives the bedding waves, which on small streams are strikingly synchronised across a whole system.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about longear sunfish into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.