CaptainNemo68

I'm going with Ozark Bass as well.

I haven't gotten skunked in a while, but it happens Were you fishing for a specific species of Catfish? (Channel, Blue, etc.)

Nearly every picture I have seen of a Pumpkinseed X Bluegill hybrid has the red mark on the gill flap, which is another reason I was leaning towards Redbreast X Bluegill. But I guess in biological theory a Pumpkin-Gill hybrid doesn't HAVE to have red on gill flap - it could be all black like the Bluegill. Not sure.

I caught these fish on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Central Virginia. The history of this small lake shows that Redbreast Sunfish were in this lake before Bluegill were stocked years ago. Redbreast are very plentiful here on the East Coast. That was the reason I thought the first one might be a Redbreast/Bluegill hybrid. But Pumpkinseeds are also definitely in this area even though I don't see many of them. Green Sunfish are available also - I caught a couple of Greenies about 1/8th of a mile downstream from where I caught the aforementioned fish. The true Longears are found in the far Southwest part of Virginia and are somewhat rare.

Hi again everyone, caught a few Sunfish in which I am not sure what species they are. The first one looks like it might be a Redbreast/Bluegill hybrid and the second one looks almost like a Longear, but also looks weird. The range of the Longear does not extend this far east (supposedly). What do you think?

Yes, I would agree with you on that.

I caught my Smallmouth of a lifetime last year, but I was by myself and in a very bad spot along the river bank. It was extremely muddy where the river had resided. After I finally reeled the fish in the poor thing was completely covered with mud. The ground along the bank was extremely slick and I was afraid of falling (I had had back surgery), so with that I got the hook out and let it go. It was about the same size as Blazerman's wife's Smallie. I didn't get any pictures for my own safety reasons - I was in an extremely terrible spot. It was actually the easiest fish I have ever caught. I saw it out in the river and just simply threw the bait right on top of it. I kid you not - it took one second and the bait was already in it's mouth.

Sorry, no other pictures I will try to do better next time when it comes to taking more pictures

Both sides did not have the normal gill flap

Hello, caught this fish over the weekend but unsure as to why it lacks the normal Bluegill ear flap.

Most of the river accesses here are state owned, which means they will not be affected. I already called and confirmed this. Why would you limit your fishing spots to a federal owned access area anyway? Aren't most boat ramps and river accesses where everybody lives owned by the state?

If the pond has any vegetation and very little inflow/outflow then you might also find some Warmouth or Green Sunfish in there. Crappie is a bad thing for a small pond because they will overpopulate and stunt.

My favorite fighter used to be Smallmouth, but 5 weeks ago that all changed after I caught my first Bowfin! (See my profile pic)

Like a few other posters here, I have good days and bad days which do not seem to coincide with barometric pressure or the weather. I believe the most important things are lure or bait presentation; figuring out where the fish are; and whether or not the fish have already been eating that day. Some people overlook the fact that if fish have already found a lot of food that day, then they could be a little sluggish and might be less likely to bite anything presented to them.

Here is a bass that I caught last year with a similar problem:

Got a Garcia C3 with a 7' rod and it works great with single lures. However, I had minor problems when I started to use a live bait drop shot rig with the mag break set correctly. It seems like if the rig doesn't have all of the weight concentrated in one area on the line then backlash will start, even when I do everything correctly with my thumb and the reel is set correctly. The weight shift in the middle of a cast with an uneven line weight balance may be causing problems. I was using a heavy rig setup with the distance between the weight and bait about 2 feet. Should I not use the baitcaster with these types of rigs? Thanks

Redear Sunfish or Pumpkinseed? I caught this one out of the Suwannee River in Fargo, GA

Well, took a trip to NC over Thanksgiving weekend and went fishing for Pickeral in the Yadkin River. Wasn't successful with the Pike, but did manage to catch one each of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass

Thanks for everyone's help and input. The smallmouths that I catch out of this river are extremely dark as well....almost black. As a matter of fact, nearly all of the fish I get out of this river are a darker shade than normal. I guess it's the sediment or rock in the river that causes this.

I pulled this in from the Appomattox River in Virginia and thought it was a smallmouth, but it doesn't quite look like a smallmouth. It has the rows of spots on the lower part of the body just like a spotted bass, but it doesn't have the horizontal diamond shaped line across the body that a spotted bass should have. The colorization is more like a smallmouth. It had the rough patch on the inside of the mouth. What in the world did I catch? Is this some type of hybrid??

Thanks Idylwilde

This one seems to be a tough one to ID. I caught this out of the Nottaway River in Virginia where Roanoke Bass (a close look-a-like to the Rock Bass) does exist as well as Rock Bass. Here are two pics of the same fish. The lighting is a little different between the two pictures.

Chartreuse Pepper

I also have a Pflueger President spinning with a 6' M rod, but I usually use a 5' 6" L Ugly Stick rod with an Abu Garcia Cardinal spinning

From what I have read, the Spotted Bass were introduced on purpose into certain rivers in Virginia years ago. possibly by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (however, I can't find the source of "introduction"). I have caught all three types of black basses out of the Appomattox River in the past three months and hopefully it will not be a problem. The VDGIF website says that the Appomattox River is "home of the Kentucky Spotted Bass", so I guess they are pretty common but probably only in the upper half of the river. I have read that the Spotted Bass is much more rare downstream. So that explains why I have been unable to catch any Spots at Petersburg, but did catch Smallies and Largemouth there. This Spotted I caught was further upstream from that point (in Powhatan County). I'm not sure if the Spots even exist at all in lower half, especially where the Appomattox River runs into the James River. Here is another pic of the same fish, also blurry (I didn't have my good camara with me at the time). You can see the lines of spots on the lower rear half of the fish.