Trapping Riverine Redbreast Sunfish fingerlings

For the most part bluegill and pumpkinseeds are pretty easy to trap or seine due to being lacustrine in nature. However, AFAIK all the redbreast sunnies are riverine (in any event, that's the only place I catch them when angling for trout). Any tips in terms of where in a stream the 1" fingerlings might be hiding? The areas I'm thinking of are more properly 10' wide streams with a mean 3' depth, although there is always the CT river itself, but I've never actually seen any there.

I'd be tempted to look near the mouths of adventitious streams (where a small creek enters a much larger river), particularly if you can find overhanging rootwads from bankside vegetation, or side pools that you can corral fish into. Nothing personal, but that you're having trouble finding them makes me suspect that there's something else wrong with your technique...

I'd be tempted to look near the mouths of adventitious streams (where a small creek enters a much larger river), particularly if you can find overhanging rootwads from bankside vegetation, or side pools that you can corral fish into. Nothing personal, but that you're having trouble finding them makes me suspect that there's something else wrong with your technique...

LOL - I haven't tried at all! I just figured I'd ask around to see what sort of refugia or sanctuary riverine sunfish typically use when in the fry to fingerling stage. It's pretty obvious in a lake or pond as thermal/shallow sanctuaries are quite evident, but in the streams in question, the topography is pretty one-dimensional.

FWIW, in the general area is a pond that feeds the stream (where I've never seen redbreast), but also some slower plant choked side streams more or less parallel to the main stream. Any clue if redbreast might spawn in the calmer waters adjacent to their preferred rivers in order to make fertilization and corralling the fry easier?

Also, you better check your regulations as in most states it is illegal to possess netted/trapped sunfish.

In my area, I will catch sunfish fingerlings in either exposed rootballs or in eddys where the current isnt so strong but theres cover like rocks or wood they can get under.