I am always eager to learn and share new insights about Mississippi, its people, its places, and especially its abundance of natural resources. That is my absolute favorite part of writing for Our Mississippi Home!
But after writing my last story (Lessons from the Pond…and One Stubborn Lawn Chair) about fishing for bream but catching my lawn chair instead, it came to my attention that our state is home to several varieties of bream, a fact I failed to mention in my blog. Consequently, I apologize. I should have been more specific in my fishing story details and should have identified the exact species of bream I caught.
To rectify my error and correctly identify my fish, I went to the official website of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (mdwfp.com). In my opinion, this site contains the most trusted and easily accessible source of information on Mississippi wildlife. So, that’s where I went online to get the lowdown on the various types of bream that inhabit our state’s ponds, lakes, creeks, and rivers. I was not disappointed with the information that I found.
Did you know that Mississippi is home to an impressive array of fish within the bream (Lepomis) family, including several hybrid varieties. But according to MDWFP, most Mississippi anglers who catch a bream will be reeling in a Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). But the Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus), the Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus), the Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), the Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis), and a host of other bream could also find their way onto the stringer.
But just when I thought I was making some sense out of this study on bream, my internet research threw me a curveball.
Did you realize that there’s a little bit of controversy over what constitutes a bream? It seems that more than a few fishermen debate whether sunfish, perch, and bream should all be classified in the same family of fish. It also seems there’s a strong consensus that these are three distinct types of fish. But I love how Mississippi Sportsman online solves that conundrum by calling them all panfish – after all, that’s the final and delicious destination for many of these fish.
So…after my deep dive into the world of bream fishing in Mississippi, I came up with a lot of new info and a broader perspective on just how amazing these fish really are, as well as the other 280+ species of fish that find their way into the freshwaters of Mississippi.
That, of course, brings me right back to my original fishing story and the lovely little Bluegill that I caught before also hooking onto my blue lawn chair. But the moral of this story and the moral of my original fishing tale are the same: There’s no better way to spend a beautiful spring day than fishing in Mississippi.
So, grab your pole and some bait, and go fishing! And if you are not quite sure which species ends up on your stringer, make sure to use the Mississippi Fish ID Guide on the MDWFP website to help identify your fish: https://www.mdwfp.com/fishing-boating/fish-id-guide.
