Indiana Lake Depths

Panfish · sunfish family

Longear sunfish

Lepomis megalotis

Native to IndianaRecorded in 22 Indiana lakes
Illustration of a longear sunfish in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Typical adult
About 3–4 in; rarely over 5
Lives
Usually 3–4 years
Spawns
Late May to late August, in colonies
Favors
Clear water over clay or gravel, often in streams

Where longear sunfish have been recorded

22 of the 111 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list longear sunfish, across 14 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyDewart Lake, Kosciusko CountyBig Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyCedarville Reservoir, Allen CountyKickapoo Lake, Sullivan CountyPike Lake, Kosciusko CountyDeam Lake, Clark CountyBeaver Dam Lake, Dubois CountyHuntingburg Lake, Dubois CountyBrush Creek Reservoir, Jennings CountyIndian Lake, Perry CountyYellowwood Lake, Brown CountyGriffy Lake, Monroe CountyNyona Lake, Fulton CountyLake Salinda, Washington CountyElk Creek Lake, Washington CountyFletcher Lake, Fulton CountySpear Lake, Kosciusko CountyCypress Lake, Jackson CountyPigeon Pit, Pike CountyChrisney Lake, Spencer CountyCrooked Creek Lake, Brown County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 22lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them

A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.

Inland lakes on this list run from 12 to 3,508 acres (median 127) and from 8 to 75 ft deep (median 28.5 ft).

How many turn up in DNR surveys

Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.

Found in
20 of 105 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
6.2 per hour where found
Highest
144 per hour
Method
fish per hour of night electrofishing

“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 6 lakes at a typical 0.25 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Beaver Dam Lake, Dubois 2013–2025 144
  2. Deam Lake, Clark 2011–2024 58
  3. Lake Salinda, Washington 2013–2025 55
  4. Kickapoo Lake, Sullivan 2017–2024 48
  5. Brush Creek Reservoir, Jennings 2018 38
  6. Griffy Lake, Monroe 2016–2019 18
  7. Huntingburg Lake, Dubois 2012–2021 14
  8. Crooked Creek Lake, Brown 2014–2024 9.0
  9. Yellowwood Lake, Brown 2019 8.0
  10. Dewart Lake, Kosciusko 2018–2020 6.4

Fish per hour of night electrofishing, with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.

Often found with

Share of these lakes that also list each fish.

How to recognize it

A long, dark ear flap with a white border, a very colorful body with bright blue spots, and wavy blue streaks on the cheek; breeding males are green above and bright orange below.

Don’t confuse it with

Pumpkinseed — A short ear flap with a red spot.
Bluegill — A solid black ear flap with no border.

Up close

Illustration of a longear sunfish's head from the side, with a long dark ear flap bordered in white, wavy blue lines on the cheek and blue spots behind it.
Longear sunfish: a long dark ear flap with a white border; wavy blue lines on the cheek and blue spots behind it.
Illustration of a bluegill's head from the side, with a small mouth and a dark ear flap that is dark all the way to its edge.
Bluegill: a small mouth; the ear flap is dark right to its edge, with no colored rim.
Illustration of a pumpkinseed's head from the side, with wavy blue-green lines on the cheek and a bright red-orange spot on the tip of a short dark ear flap.
Pumpkinseed: a bright red-orange spot on the tip of a short dark ear flap; wavy blue-green lines on the cheek.
Illustration of a redear sunfish's head from the side, with a small mouth, a plain speckled cheek and a red crescent along the edge of the dark ear flap.
Redear sunfish: a red crescent along the edge of the dark ear flap; a small mouth; no wavy blue lines on the cheek.
Illustration of a green sunfish's head from the side, with a large mouth reaching below the middle of the eye, wavy blue-green cheek lines and a dark ear flap with a pale edge.
Green sunfish: a large mouth reaching below the middle of the eye; a dark ear flap with a pale edge; wavy blue-green cheek lines.
Illustration of a warmouth's head from the side, with a very large mouth, a red eye, dark stripes running back from the eye and a small dark ear flap edged in red.
Warmouth: a very large mouth, a red eye, dark stripes running back from the eye, and a small dark ear flap edged in red.

AI-generated close-ups, not photographs, drawn from the cited descriptions. They show what to look for; they are not a substitute for an expert identification (provenance).

Life in an Indiana lake

Longear sunfish are most at home in clear, warm stream pools over hard clay or gravel, but also live in lakes. They eat aquatic insects, small crustaceans and fish eggs.

Males build nests in shallow colonies and guard them vigorously until the young leave.

Source: the sources below.

Rules and eating

Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.

All 22 lakes with longear sunfish

Show every lake, by county

Allen County 1

Cedarville Reservoir

Brown County 2

Crooked Creek Lake, Yellowwood Lake

Clark County 1

Deam Lake

Dubois County 2

Beaver Dam Lake, Huntingburg Lake

Fulton County 2

Fletcher Lake, Nyona Lake

Jackson County 1

Cypress Lake

Jennings County 1

Brush Creek Reservoir

Kosciusko County 5

Big Chapman Lake, Dewart Lake, Lake Wawasee, Pike Lake, Spear Lake

Monroe County 1

Griffy Lake

Perry County 1

Indian Lake

Pike County 1

Pigeon Pit

Spencer County 1

Chrisney Lake

Sullivan County 1

Kickapoo Lake

Washington County 2

Elk Creek Lake, Lake Salinda

Sources

← All fish of Indiana