Sunfish & Crappie

Bluegill Sunfish

There is scarcely a body of water in the state that does not have Bluegills in it. Bluegills get to a foot long, but are seldom seen at that size.

All sunfishes are aggressive and territorial. Their belligerence is heightened in the confines of an aquarium, where you may start out with several small ones, but you will end up with just one big one. A sunfish will tear a fish-store cichlid to pieces. They adapt readily to regular fish food, but lose most of the attractive wild colors.

-- Wikipedia


Pumpkinseed Sunfish

The Pumpkinseed is the second most common type of sunfish

-- Wikipedia


Redbreast Sunfish

note the long 'ear'

Redbreasts can be found in the D&R Canal.

-- Wikipedia


Black Crappie

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Black-Crappie-Duane-Raver.jpg

Crappies are fun to fish for - seems they'll hit just about anything. They also do well in an aquarium, where they are not aggressive towards anything they do not regard as food. They do require live food like minnows, although eventually you can train most individuals to take freeze-dried krill and worms.

-- Wikipedia


Paddlin' in the Pines
( 39.70208, -74.42738 )

  1. Batsto Lake - Batsto ( 39.64682, -74.65327 )
  2. Batsto River - Wharton State Forest ( 39.71014, -74.66747 )
  3. Cedar Creek - Berkeley ( 39.90248, -74.24513 )
  4. Cedar Creek - Lanoka Harbor ( 39.86936, -74.17065 )
  5. Great Egg Harbor River - Penny Pot ( 39.57547, -74.82239 )
  6. Great Egg Harbor River - Weymouth ( 39.51339, -74.77889 )

This map shows the three trips described in this article

by Andrée Jannette

New Jersey Outdoors
Spring 1998
$4.25

If you don't know how to turn your canoe on a dime when you put in at your first Pinelands river, you will by the time you finish. These are narrow, winding rivers, full of sweeping curves and sharply angled switchbacks. Yet these twists and turns are very much a part of the mystique and the delight of paddling in New Jersey's Pinelands.