Help With Sunfish Ids - Hard To Id

[SpoonDog]

I agree it looks like a longear, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn of bait-bucket introductions on the Atlantic slope. Redbreast were not native to the Mississippi drainage, but have been introduced in coolwater streams of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as elsewhere in the region. You may want to contact your local game warden or fisheries biologist and pick their brain.

[Wayne SW/MO]

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/longear-sunfish

Ear flap gives it away.

JD we have more longears in the White basin then bluegills or black perch I believe. Their color is far too bright, IMO, to fade away in a hybrid.

The problem with trying to ID a hybrid is that you never know what generation it is. Once you get past the original and throw in some variations from water and environment it all gets muddled. These fish just aren't that different from any other bluegill and small differences aren't uncommon.

[Kayser]

I would say bluegill/longear hybrid (most likely) or a bluegill/pumpkinseed hybrid, depending on location. definitely a bluegill hybrid of some form.

[Justin Spencer]

I would agree with your title, hard to ID. Looks mostly bluegill to me, with a little something else on the side, all I know is gut it, scale it, and fry it up and it will be tasty!

[Guest]

Certainly not a longear, but they can have some amazing variation in coloration according to strain.

I would say it is a bluegill redear cross, probably from a state pond or lake?

bluegill x redear cross

[CaptainNemo68]

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.

[Guest]

Could certainly be a redbreast bluegill hybrid

[drew03cmc]

Could certainly be a redbreast bluegill hybrid

The mouth appears to be too small.

[Al Agnew]

Given where it was caught, I think we can rule out a longear/bluegill hybrid, even though jd is right that the gill flap looks longear-ish. I think we've got it narrowed down to either redbreastXbluegill or pumpkinseedXbluegill. Color pattern overall still looks more like pumpkinseed to me, but the gill flap might say redbreast, since they have long, all black gill flaps while pumpkinseeds have short gill flap with white and red on the margins.

[jdmidwest]

Looking on the VA Game and Fish website, you have a redbreast that looks like our longear with the long gill flap. The color of the photos is somewhat muted. You can barely make out the blue. The barring in the top fish may have just been because it has been caught for a while.

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/fish/details.asp?fish=010180