Bass Bluegill Hybrid?

[Outside Bend]

Many times they're introduced when the ponds are stocked with bass, bluegill, or hybrid sunfish- green sunfish are present in many hatchery facilities and aren't necessarily graded out before the fish are shipped to an impoundment. They can also live in some surprisingly tiny headwater streams, so if there's an inflowing streams with a couple year-round pools, they may have came in that way as well. Or they may have been accidentally introduced via a bait bucket.

Typically they're not a managent problem in ponds, although they tend to reproduce prolifically and seldom seem to get very large. As long as there's a decent population of bass large enough to prey upon them, things should be fine.

[hawghunter24]

There's no bass in this pond and nothing flowing into it, but I wasn't the one to stock it so I can't say whether or not they were originally put in there.

[ozark trout fisher]

My girlfriend and I went out fishing today in my pond and she caught this unusual looking fish. It was shaped like a bass and had a mouth much larger than a regular bluegill of its size. It was probably between 4-5" long and as you can see I've easily got my thumb in its mouth. I've never heard of a cross between a LM and a bluegill...

A green sunfish, and a pretty nice one too.

I'm pretty sure largemouth bass and bluegill can't interbreed.

[Justin Spencer]

Green Sunfish are a blast to catch on fly rod, but they do compete directly with largemouth for food due to the size of their mouth. If you notice that the bass are not growing well, big heads-little bodies then they may be stunting. Anytime I catch a greenie I either eat it or relocate it out of the pond. You won't ever get rid of them, but every one you take frees up a little food for more desirable species. If you have no bass in the pond then they are your main predator species and should get big and do well feeding on your bluegill, makes a fun ultra-light pond or a great pond for kids. If you catch only small bluegill and they have been there a few years, then they are stunting and you need to either keep a bunch or introduce bass to balance the population, or start feeding them as bluegill will train to pellets fairly easily.

[hawghunter24]

Yeah most of the ones we caught were just a tad bigger than this one. I'm beginning to think it may be a great pond for bait for bass.

[ozark trout fisher]

Green Sunfish are a blast to catch on fly rod, but they do compete directly with largemouth for food due to the size of their mouth. If you notice that the bass are not growing well, big heads-little bodies then they may be stunting. Anytime I catch a greenie I either eat it or relocate it out of the pond. You won't ever get rid of them, but every one you take frees up a little food for more desirable species. If you have no bass in the pond then they are your main predator species and should get big and do well feeding on your bluegill, makes a fun ultra-light pond or a great pond for kids. If you catch only small bluegill and they have been there a few years, then they are stunting and you need to either keep a bunch or introduce bass to balance the population, or start feeding them as bluegill will train to pellets fairly easily.

You are describing the exact situation in my home lake...Countless stunted greenies, and bass and bluegill that aren't as large or as numerous as they should be given the habitat generally excellent habitat. It doesn't take much observation to see that the things will eat anything-they can really mess up a fishery. I kill every one I catch, and that's actually the law on this lake. Green sunfish have become such a problem here that it isn't even legal to release them.

[Outside Bend]

Yeah most of the ones we caught were just a tad bigger than this one. I'm beginning to think it may be a great pond for bait for bass.

The one your model's holding looks to me like a straight-up bluegill, albeit a little guy. If you/the landowner are looking to improve the fishery, you may want to start with culling out a bunch of the greenies, then the smaller bluegill.

MDC's pretty good about doing private pond work when they have the time; you/the landownre may want to contact your local regional office and see if a biologist can come out and do an evaluation. Usually it involves a shock boat and an hour or two, and they can tell you what species are present in the pond, what their size distribution is, and may be able to provide a prescription for how to manage the pond based on your goals (i.e. trophy bass, big bluegill, a crappie pond, something for the kids, etc).

It may be worth looking into.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Green sunfish have become such a problem here that it isn't even legal to release them.

Really??? Can you provide a link to some info on the regs to this lake? I am not sure how this could even be inforced. I am not doubting what you are saying, just guestioning. Sounds almost like the MDC telling bird watchers that if they see a Starling they must shoot and kill it. Which is recommended but, you certainly won't get a ticket if you don't.

[ozark trout fisher]

Really??? Can you provide a link to some info on the regs to this lake? I am not sure how this could even be inforced. I am not doubting what you are saying, just guestioning. Sounds almost like the MDC telling bird watchers that if they see a Starling they must shoot and kill it. Which is recommended but, you certainly won't get a ticket if you don't.

It's a privately managed lake, so the MDC doesn't directly manage it, although the folks who do manage it get most of their info on fishery management from the MDC. I'll try to find a link, but all I can tell you now is that there is a big sign with fishing regulations at every access, and under the picture of green sunfish, it says " Keep all, do not return to lake". They don't enforce it, (I've never seen the folks who run the place enforce any fishing regulations, but that's a different story), but it is, at least technically the rule.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Ahhh, I had a feeling it had to have been a private lake. Sounds like that lake needs some flathead cats stocked.