# what did I catch?



## exide9922 (Aug 9, 2010)

Not exactly sure what I caught. Saw a lot of threads a few weeks back about hybrid gills, warmouths, rockbass etc. This was from a private pond that was only stocked with blue gills, bass and channels. anyway, just curious what it was


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## I_Shock_Em (Jul 20, 2008)

Green sunfish. Put up a nice little fight for their size


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## Opsman (May 30, 2012)

Looks like a rock bass


They all laughed til I sat down to play the piano......


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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

I was thinking rock bass too


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## exide9922 (Aug 9, 2010)

my guess was rockbass? but ive never caught one and wasnt sure


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## Bass Assasin Slaton (May 22, 2011)

Green sunfish

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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

Green Sunfish upon further inquisition... The Rock Bass and the Green Sunfish are nearly identical, but the GS will have 3 anal fin spines versus 5 anal fin spines on the RB.


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## Opsman (May 30, 2012)

If you say so Dan. Looks like more than three. I was going by shape. Seemed too elongated for sfish and mouth seemed too large


They all laughed til I sat down to play the piano......


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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

Opsman said:


> If you say so Dan. Looks like more than three. I was going by shape. Seemed too elongated for sfish and mouth seemed too large
> 
> 
> They all laughed til I sat down to play the piano......


LOL... I had to google it. Both species look identical. There are spikes at the beginning of the anal fin. Only difference noted was 3 spikes vs 5 spikes on the website I found.

I thought it was a RB too... lol


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## Opsman (May 30, 2012)

Well at least we had a good conversation. New to this website, but I'm not sure I like how they segregate posts to certain forums. Had a live bait question but it was relegated to the live bait/tackle forum that has a viewership of about negative one.


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## BobcatJB (Mar 30, 2005)

Green sunfish no doubt.

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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

i have to go with the green sf. i catch a bunch of them in a friends pond and it looks just like the ones we catch. just my opinion tho.
sherman


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## fishinnick (Feb 19, 2011)

Yep, definitely a green sunfish.



> The Rock Bass and the Green Sunfish are nearly identical, but the GS will have 3 anal fin spines versus 5 anal fin spines on the RB.


I don't know about everyone else, but I never caught a rock bass that looked anything like a green sunfish. Yeah, their shape is the same, but their coloration, markings, etc. are totally different.


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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

Very similar fish... colorations vary enough in all fish to easily confuse them... As you can see from the pictures of the fish caught versus the fish below as an example.


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## AkronCATS (Nov 5, 2008)

I say a rock bass because of the big mouth.


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## dmaphukn (Apr 3, 2009)

Is that a Kellys worm?

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## FISHIN216 (Mar 18, 2009)

Rockbass/green sunfish? That is odd

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## las johnny (Sep 20, 2007)

not a rock bass, doesnt have the little red bead around the eyes. probally some kind of sun fish


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## fishinnick (Feb 19, 2011)

Just because it has a big mouth doesn't mean it's a rock bass. Green sunfish and warmouths also have big mouths and are the exact same shape as rock bass. Rock bass for the most part don't even live in the same habitats as green sunfish, heck rock bass are very rarely found in lakes(Except for Lake Erie, etc..). 

I guess what I was getting at in my last post is rock bass don't have blue on them(like green sunfish do), rock bass don't have bright colorful yellow fins(like grn sunfish do), and don't have a big gill spot(like green sunfish do). And rock bass usually always have a red eye(unlike green susnfish, although they sometimes can, but there not as noticable), and rock bass have black specks along their body(while grn sunfish have blue). So to me it is pretty hard to confuse the two. 

Green Sunfish


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## fishinnick (Feb 19, 2011)

Oh and btw although the fish in the original post is a green sunfish, it is a pretty bland colored one, so Dan44149 I do see what you are getting at how the original fish looks a little like a rock bass and a green sunfish just taking a glance at it and not looking at details.


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## Opsman (May 30, 2012)

I'm changing my vote to sailfish&#55357;&#56364;


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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

fishinnick said:


> Oh and btw although the fish in the original post is a green sunfish, it is a pretty bland colored one, so Dan44149 I do see what you are getting at how the original fish looks a little like a rock bass and a green sunfish just taking a glance at it and not looking at details.


Yeah, that's why I initially thought it was a rock bass. In my book, rock bass usually have red eyes like a Warmouth, but some do not. And, Green Sunfish usually have that teal green stripe but isn't prevalent on the one he caught which threw me off as well.


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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

Opsman said:


> I'm changing my vote to sailfish&#65533;&#65533;


LoL... My vote is Rock Green Sunbass.  !#


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## qck2fish (Apr 24, 2012)

Definitely a green gill


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

It is 100% Green Sunfish. It is not an F1 hybrid. They are often called rock bass in error.

Dan44149's post shows the clear difference. Green sunfish almost always have yellow tips on their fins...a sure sign it's a green sunfish and not a rock bass as rock bass never have bright yellow fin tips. Rock bass are generally drab and brown where green sunfish are often colorful...but this depends on the time of year and clarity of the water they come from too.


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## exide9922 (Aug 9, 2010)

i've caught plenty with the yellow fins as the one i'm posting below. but the original fish we're talking about did not have a body as round as this one.


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

If I'm not mistaken, that is quite large for a green sunfish. They usually don't get very big. It very well might have been a state record! Hope you didn't clean/eat it already!


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## exide9922 (Aug 9, 2010)

those fish are all from my inlaws neighbors pond, they all go back to be caught another day


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## scappy193 (May 11, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> It is 100% Green Sunfish. It is not an F1 hybrid. They are often called rock bass in error.
> 
> Dan44149's post shows the clear difference. Green sunfish almost always have yellow tips on their fins...a sure sign it's a green sunfish and not a rock bass as rock bass never have bright yellow fin tips. Rock bass are generally drab and brown where green sunfish are often colorful...but this depends on the time of year and clarity of the water they come from too.


beat me to it. one thing to add. no rock bass that i have ever seen have the black ear on the gill plate like green sunfish. the pic presented by dan show both these differences quite clearly.


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## Yellow Dog (Mar 12, 2012)

Cool discussion - Informative and entertaining to see the comments back and forth and ending in resolution. Thanks to those who participated from a by-stander.


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## Lucky Touch Charters (Jun 19, 2011)

i frequently catch both of these species in Canada. The first way i tell the difference is by the rock bass's big red eye. depending on fishing style the rock bass is an aggressive eater. we catch them while casting for bass and pike. the gills are usually caught on night crawlers, wax worms, or gulp.

If you freeze it then eat it you will know right away by the taste. the gills are great to eat whether fresh or forozen. the rock bass turn very stron tasting after freezing.

that fish is clearly a green gill


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Exide9922 fish is a hybrid, bluegill/green sunfish cross.

F1 bluegill/green sunfish cross, 4 year old fish. These hybrids vary drastically depending on the source and the conditions they grow in. Mine are pretty healthy, but the standard bluegills passed them up in the 3rd or 4th year despite heavy marketing as being superior to standard bluegill.









This is the result of an F1 like above crossing with a pure bluegill, yellow tipping still carrying through. As you can see, this F2 does not possess any qualities superior to either parent. (not as thick as an F1 and not as saucer shaped as a pure bluegill)









When F1s breed they tend to become more like green sunfish each generation but the yellow tipping is always apparent and they never look remotely close to rock bass.
Here's a good link with a photo of an actual rock bass like we typically see here. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/rockbass/tabid/6744/Default.aspx

The ones in Southern Ontario that I've caught look nearly identical to the DNR photo except they have very distinct red eyes like offshore24 described. For some reason, the two I've caught in ohio didn't have nearly as red of eyes...more brownish red...and were both caught in Southern Ohio.

To make it even more confusing, warmouth are caught occasionally. They are somewhere between a green sunfish and rockbass. They are colored like a rockbass but the browns are patterned like a green sunfish but have white tips on their fins sometimes.


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