"On the lower end," said Armstrong, "we have emergent and submergent vegetation growing in rich soil that supports a strong snail population. Redear do not necessarily focus on snails, but they do have the ability to eat snails because of the strong bony plates in their jaw, so they can focus on a lot of foods that bluegill, goggle-eye or spotted sunfish can't eat. That's probably why we see a greater abundance of redear as compared to bluegill in the Lower Delta."

As for the Upper Delta, the bluegill is the lead species. "Goggle-eyes and stumpknockers are much less abundant than bluegill and redear," Armstrong reported. "Bluegill is the most abundant. But it also varies depending on habitat. In some places, you will see more warmouth or stumpknockers."

Armstrong describes goggle-eye habitat as little feeder creeks having a mix of submergent weeds and plenty of brushpiles or logs, while stumpknockers prefer a habitat that's heavily timbered.

Of course, this relates to how they feed. Warmouth feed on small to medium crawfish, minnows and even baby bream. In contrast, stumpknockers feed primarily on insect midges that colonize on wood and plant fibers -- hence the species' nickname.

From his samples Armstrong has concluded that anglers can expect to catch keeper bluegills measuring 6 to 10 inches, shellcrackers 8 to 11, goggle-eyes 6 to 8 and stumpknockers about 5 inches.

Inch for inch, shellcrackers and goggle-eyes yield the heaviest fillets. Much like the goggle-eye and unlike the bluegill, the shellcracker tends to feed on much bigger insects dwelling more on the bottom, Armstrong said.

To find a topnotch bream fisherman, we turned to Wayne Trusty of Bay Minette. Trusty is the founder and director of the No Hard Hats Bream Tournament held in early May each year from Upper Bryant Landing. At the 10th annual event last year, 168 boats from as far away as Louisiana, weighed in more than 1,258 pounds of bream from their 50-fish maximum stringers. More than 500 people watched as anglers brought their fish to the scales.

Trusty recommended Robertsdale's Roger Booth, who has won the tournament twice and has placed in the top 10 several times. He competes in approximately 20 tournaments a year on the Delta.

Booth said that his best average catch in a tournament was 50 fish weighing 24.23 pounds, and that his best winning weight with a partner at one of Trusty's tournaments was 100 fish weighing 38. His biggest bluegill and shellcracker caught from the Delta fell just short of weighing a pound each.

Last year, Trusty reduced the bag limit to 50 fish per boat. It now takes more than a half-pound average to win a No Hard Hats Tournament.