Indiana Lake Depths

Panfish · sunfish family

Pumpkinseed

Lepomis gibbosus · also called punkys, p-seed

Native to IndianaRecorded in 39 Indiana lakes
Illustration of a pumpkinseed in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Typical adult
5–8 in, under half a pound
Spawns
May or June, often the first sunfish to spawn
Nests
As shallow as 6–12 in
Favors
Clear, still water with dense plants

Where pumpkinseed have been recorded

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

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyLake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyJ C Murphey Lake, Newton CountyLake Manitou, Fulton CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyWorster Lake, St. Joseph CountyCedarville Reservoir, Allen CountyJames Lake, Kosciusko CountyPike Lake, Kosciusko CountyBlue Lake, Whitley CountyPretty Lake, LaGrange CountyHoffman Lake, Kosciusko CountyLittle Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyRound Lake, Whitley CountyBear Lake, Noble CountyBixler Lake, Noble CountyDiamond Lake, Noble CountyCass Lake, LaGrange CountyFish Lake, LaGrange CountyPretty Lake, Marshall CountyMyers Lake, Marshall CountyAppleman Lake, LaGrange CountyRiddles Lake, St. Joseph CountySaugany Lake, LaPorte CountyLittle Long Lake, Noble CountyRoyer Lake, LaGrange CountyStory Lake, DeKalb CountyMessick Lake, LaGrange CountyLower Long Lake, Noble CountyWilliams Lake, Noble CountyBell Lake, Steuben CountyLukens Lake, Wabash CountyFletcher Lake, Fulton CountyRosser Park Pond, Lake CountyCedar Lake, DeKalb CountyEve Lake, LaGrange CountyBaugher Lake, Noble CountyMartin Lake, LaGrange CountyRupel Lake, St. Joseph County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 39lakes 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 25 to 3,508 acres (median 96) and from 8 to 85 ft deep (median 43 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
34 of 105 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
4.2 per hour where found
Highest
57 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 23 lakes at a typical 0.50 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Worster Lake, St. Joseph 2016–2024 57
  2. Royer Lake, LaGrange 2019 38
  3. Eve Lake, LaGrange 2016 32
  4. Rosser Park Pond, Lake County 2018 24
  5. Bell Lake, Steuben 2015 22
  6. Blue Lake, Whitley 2013 20
  7. Cedarville Reservoir, Allen 2017–2025 14
  8. Appleman Lake, LaGrange 2012 12
  9. Baugher Lake, Noble 2018 12
  10. Round Lake, Whitley 2016 12

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 red spot on the rear edge of the short ear flap, long pointed pectoral fins, blue-green streaks radiating from the mouth and eye, and a bright orange belly.

Don’t confuse it with

Bluegill — A solid black ear flap with no red spot.
Redear sunfish — A red or orange border on the ear flap and no blue cheek lines.
Longear sunfish — A much longer ear flap with a white border.

Up close

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 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 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.
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.

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

Pumpkinseed prefer clear, still water over dense submerged plants and organic bottoms, and are rare in fast streams. They eat insect larvae, snails and sometimes small fish.

Males dig nests in very shallow water in May or June and guard them until the eggs hatch; several females may use one nest.

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 39 lakes with pumpkinseed

Show every lake, by county

Allen County 1

Cedarville Reservoir

DeKalb County 2

Cedar Lake, Story Lake

Fulton County 2

Fletcher Lake, Lake Manitou

Kosciusko County 5

Hoffman Lake, James Lake, Lake Wawasee, Little Chapman Lake, Pike Lake

LaGrange County 8

Appleman Lake, Cass Lake, Eve Lake, Fish Lake, Martin Lake, Messick Lake, Pretty Lake, Royer Lake

LaPorte County 1

Saugany Lake

Lake County 1

Rosser Park Pond

Marshall County 3

Lake Maxinkuckee, Myers Lake, Pretty Lake

Newton County 1

J C Murphey Lake

Noble County 7

Baugher Lake, Bear Lake, Bixler Lake, Diamond Lake, Little Long Lake, Lower Long Lake, Williams Lake

St. Joseph County 3

Riddles Lake, Rupel Lake, Worster Lake

Steuben County 2

Bell Lake, Crooked Lake

Wabash County 1

Lukens Lake

Whitley County 2

Blue Lake, Round Lake

Sources

← All fish of Indiana