The red and the blue

By Aaron Horrell

This photo shows two fish I caught recently while fishing a farm pond. The shortest of the two is a 9-inch bluegill. The top fish is a red ear. Both fish are native to Southeast Missouri. They often are found in proximity to one another.

It is easy for a novice to mistake the red ear for a bluegill, but side by side there are plenty of obvious differences.

Look at the eyes. Look at the color of the "ear" (at the top of the gill) and see that there is a reddish mark on the ear of the red ear, while the bluegill does not display red. Notice the shape of the heads of the two fish.

As I fished, I realized another difference in these two fish.

I used a very tiny fish hook (about 3/4 of an inch long) and earthworms to catch both fish. But I used two different techniques.

Fishing with a bobber set to about 16 inches deep and a whole earthworm threaded onto the hook and the tail of the worm left wiggling, I caught bluegill.

To catch the red ear, I pinched the front end off the earthworm and threaded it onto the little hook (no worm tail to wiggle).

Bobber removed from the line, I cast with only the hook and piece of worm. I did not use a sinker. The bait would fall naturally to the bottom (maybe 5 feet deep).

On the bottom, I would reel the bait only a few inches and stop. Very little motion would be effective. I used a small, very smooth casting rod and reel with 4-pound line.

Fishing for about two hours, I caught six red ear off the bottom and 14 bluegill using the bobber.