Indiana Lake Depths

Panfish · sunfish family

Pumpkinseed

Lepomis gibbosus · also called punkys, p-seed

Native to IndianaRecorded in 76 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

76 of the 186 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list pumpkinseed, across 15 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyLake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyBass Lake, Starke CountyJ C Murphey Lake, Newton CountyTippecanoe Lake, Kosciusko CountyHamilton Lake, Steuben CountyLake Manitou, Fulton CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyWinona Lake, Kosciusko CountyLake of the Woods, Marshall CountyWorster Lake, St. Joseph CountyKoontz Lake, Starke CountyCedarville Reservoir, Allen CountyAdams Lake, LaGrange CountyJAMES LAKE, Kosciusko CountyPike Lake, Kosciusko CountyBlue Lake, Whitley CountyBig Lake, Noble CountyShipshewana Lake, LaGrange CountySilver Lake, Steuben CountyWabee Lake, Kosciusko CountyPretty Lake, LaGrange CountyIrish Lake, Kosciusko CountyHoffman Lake, Kosciusko CountyBeaver Dam Lake, Kosciusko CountyLittle Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyRound Lake, Whitley CountyLittle Turkey Lake, LaGrange CountyBear Lake, Noble CountySkinner Lake, Noble CountyBixler Lake, Noble CountyDiamond Lake, Noble CountyCass Lake, LaGrange CountySechrist Lake, Kosciusko CountySouth Mud Lake, Fulton CountyClear Lake, LaPorte CountyFish Lake, LaGrange CountyRound Lake, Noble CountyPretty Lake, Marshall CountyMyers Lake, Marshall CountyBall Lake, Steuben CountyAppleman Lake, LaGrange CountyCree Lake, Noble CountyRiddles Lake, St. Joseph CountyEagle Lake, Noble CountySaugany Lake, LaPorte CountyLittle Long Lake, Noble CountyRoyer Lake, LaGrange CountyStory Lake, DeKalb CountyBig Otter Lake, Steuben CountyHill Lake, Kosciusko CountyMessick Lake, LaGrange CountyLower Long Lake, Noble CountyIndian Lake, DeKalb CountyWilliams Lake, Noble CountyBell Lake, Steuben CountyLittle Cedar Lake, Whitley CountyLukens Lake, Wabash CountyFletcher Lake, Fulton CountyEngle Lake, Noble CountyGilbert Lake, Marshall CountyRosser Park Pond, Lake CountyRound Lake, Steuben CountyOld Lake, Whitley CountyMcClures Lake, Kosciusko CountyCedar Lake, DeKalb CountyEve Lake, LaGrange CountyBaugher Lake, Noble CountyMartin Lake, LaGrange CountyRupel Lake, St. Joseph CountyHenry Lake, Steuben CountyPleasant Lake, Noble CountyLake Arrowhead, Steuben CountyLindsey Lake, Noble CountyMoss Lake, Noble CountySummit Lake, Noble County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 76lakes 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 6 to 3,508 acres (median 99) and from 8 to 125 ft deep (median 39 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
65 of 175 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
6.0 per hour where found
Highest
108 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 52 lakes at a typical 0.75 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Shipshewana Lake, LaGrange 2022 108
  2. Gilbert Lake, Marshall 2024 64
  3. Worster Lake, St. Joseph 2016–2024 57
  4. South Mud Lake, Fulton 2010 44
  5. Royer Lake, LaGrange 2019 38
  6. Eve Lake, LaGrange 2016 32
  7. McClures Lake, Kosciusko 2013 30
  8. Ball Lake, Steuben 2013 24
  9. Rosser Park Pond, Lake County 2018 24
  10. Bell Lake, Steuben 2015 22

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 76 lakes with pumpkinseed

Show every lake, by county

Allen County 1

Cedarville Reservoir

DeKalb County 3

Cedar Lake, Indian Lake, Story Lake

Fulton County 3

Fletcher Lake, Lake Manitou, South Mud Lake

Kosciusko County 13

Beaver Dam Lake, Hill Lake, Hoffman Lake, Irish Lake, JAMES LAKE, Lake Wawasee, Little Chapman Lake, McClures Lake, Pike Lake, Sechrist Lake, Tippecanoe Lake, Wabee Lake, Winona Lake

LaGrange County 11

Adams Lake, Appleman Lake, Cass Lake, Eve Lake, Fish Lake, Little Turkey Lake, Martin Lake, Messick Lake, Pretty Lake, Royer Lake, Shipshewana Lake

LaPorte County 2

Clear Lake, Saugany Lake

Lake County 1

Rosser Park Pond

Marshall County 5

Gilbert Lake, Lake Maxinkuckee, Lake of the Woods, Myers Lake, Pretty Lake

Newton County 1

J C Murphey Lake

Noble County 17

Baugher Lake, Bear Lake, Big Lake, Bixler Lake, Cree Lake, Diamond Lake, Eagle Lake, Engle Lake, Lindsey Lake, Little Long Lake, Lower Long Lake, Moss Lake, Pleasant Lake, Round Lake, Skinner Lake, Summit Lake, Williams Lake

St. Joseph County 3

Riddles Lake, Rupel Lake, Worster Lake

Starke County 2

Bass Lake, Koontz Lake

Steuben County 9

Ball Lake, Bell Lake, Big Otter Lake, Crooked Lake, Hamilton Lake, Henry Lake, Lake Arrowhead, Round Lake, Silver Lake

Wabash County 1

Lukens Lake

Whitley County 4

Blue Lake, Little Cedar Lake, Old Lake, Round Lake

Sources

← All fish of Indiana