By late May, Northeast Cape Fear River anglers begin catching an abundance of warmouth sunfish. Some anglers call them “more-mouths” because they say they are more mouth than anything else. Another popular name is “goggle-eye.”
This spunky sunfish looks like a cross between a bass and a bream, with a gaping, bass-like mouth and a bream-like body. They can occur as individual fish or in schools and are especially fond of guarding cypress trunks and knees, pouncing any insect, crawfish or minnow that passes by. They readily strike any artificial lure or fly that resembles prey.
The streaks radiating from its mouth that look like Native American war paint give the warmouth its name. The scientific name is lepomis gulosus.
The N.C. Angler Recognition Program awards a certificate for a warmouth weighing 1 pound or measuring 11 inches long. Catching one that size is a possibility along the river.
Emma Sears caught the state-record warmouth on May 7, 1976, at McLeod’s Pond in Richmond County. It weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces.
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