What Are These Sunfish?

[MoCarp]

Most Of these fish are caught in our area....SE Kansas Strip Pits are a great place for Pumpkinseeds...the streams near KC you can catch redbreast....

[Chief Grey Bear]

I have to question that Ozark Bass. 

[MoCarp]

16 hours ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

I have to question that Ozark Bass. 

personally I think we have several rock bass "strains" the rock bass I have caught in shoal creek are different than the ones in Tablerock and the elk river shadow bass...the ones we caught on lake of the woods where a bit different as well.....

[Chief Grey Bear]

29 minutes ago, MoCarp said:

personally I thing we have several rock bass "strains" the rock bass I have caught in shoal creek are different than the ones in Tablerock and the elk river shadow bass...the ones we caught on lake of the woods where a bit different as well.....

Ozark bass should be more "freckled" and not so lined up. And should be lighter in color due to the clarity of the watershed  they inhabit. 

That particular  specimen appears to come from stagnant, brackish back water hence the darker green hue. 

The Ozark bass is only known to occupy waters of the White River system in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. That would be the reason they look different than the Shadow which do populate Shoal and Elk drainages. 

[MoCarp]

I also noticed the shadow bass running smaller..the world record is only 1 lb 1 oz.  my youngest brother caught a rockbass on shoal creek in the mid 70's that weighed 3# on a zebco de-liar thing was huge...I wonder how many records have been caught and never turned in......

[Al Agnew]

Chief, I think it's an Ozark bass...a few more black spots than I've seen on a lot of them, but still pretty scattered with only a few lining up, a lot more scattered than a typical shadow bass, not to mention a northern rock bass.  Look at the photo of the shadow bass above it, you'll see five or more spots lining up in several places and a lot more scales with spots compared to the photo of the alleged Ozark bass.  And I've caught them that dark on the James where the water is slightly murky.  Keep in mind that they change color with their surroundings, so one caught from deep shadow could be pretty dark.  It also looks a little longer and leaner than a shadow bass, which is typical of Ozark bass.

Other than where it was caught and the not perfect differences in spotting pattern, though, the only way you can supposedly tell shadow bass from Ozark bass is by counting the rows of scales from pectoral fin on one side across the breast to pectoral fin on the other side.  Shadow bass have 15-18 rows of scales, Ozark bass 20-26 rows.  If you want to spend the time counting!  

[Chief Grey Bear]

Well you both made me dig deep into my pictorial archives. And I see validity in your arguments. The one in my pic looks very similar to what Harry posted. And would have bet the opposite! But I still have never seen one that dark. Yet. 

You count all you want Al. That's too much work for me. LOL!! I have thought about it at different times, but always ended up deciding to leave it to the professionals. 

Now I do believe the Ozark is the smaller of the three. The Shadow's I've caught far exceed any Ozark without question in size. In fact there is one creek in the area that produces so many lager Shadows, an MDC biologist has contemplated doing a study to see if they may be a genetical difference or they just eat a whole lot better. 

[Phil Lilley]

Man, I can see someone going on a quest to catch all these species.  Pretty amazing we have all these in our area.

Anyone ever do it?

[Flysmallie]

2 minutes ago, Phil Lilley said:

Man, I can see someone going on a quest to catch all these species.  Pretty amazing we have all these in our area.

Anyone ever do it?

Catch one of every sunfish in the Ozarks? Okay. Anybody have a list of what that is and the best place to find them? 

[Chief Grey Bear]

There are  only about 4 listed here that I haven't caught.  I have never caught a Flier,  I know those are over towards the bootheel area.  Those last two or three he's posted I haven't caught either.  Don't believe they are from anywhere near my area.