# What kind of Blue gill??



## MuskieLuv (Oct 29, 2007)

Never seen a Gill this dark, what kind is it?

ML


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## Phish_4_Bass (Sep 18, 2008)

Ive heard them called war-mouths. Some kinda hybrid or so i guess


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## Wiper Swiper (May 24, 2005)

Definately a warmouth sunfish...

...and a nice one at that! Had to come from the Scioto drainage?


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

I dont think its a warmouth. It has alot of green sunfish in it, however with a small mouth for the species and most of the specific charactors that could separate from a hybrid not in the picture I am guessing it has some bluegill crossed in. It could very well be a massive green sunfish but it just doesnt look right. 
With coloration this dark I am going to guess that the habitat was the factor, sunfish can change color very quickly, catch one from under a rock on a sunny day and put it in a white bucket. usually this dark a coloration is because of tannic stained water and heavy weedgrowth, or just caught right in a rock pile where it could get full cover from sunlight. I have seen them like that on some golf courses

on a second look thats just a giant green sunfish, 100%


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## Fish G3 (Jul 16, 2008)

I'm with riverKing on this one...just a pig of a green sunfish


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

definatly not a warmouth. i stared at this picture for 45 minutes and wondered why this guy hasn't called someone to see if its some sort of record. but that aside its just a massive green sunfish. and as stated above the water clarity and weed content are why it is so dark.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

i think a warmouth and green sun fish are one in the same fellas. could be wrong though. definetly is a greenie catch them that color at alum all the time. def massive i would be calling and checking if that is a record for sure hope it didn't hit the frying pan already that would suck to clean a record. the biggest one i have ever seen nice fish and congrats


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## cantsleep (Jul 25, 2007)

I stink at species recognition, but I had to congratulate you on that catch.


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## Chuck P. (Apr 8, 2004)

That looks like the Bluegill they have in the goldfish tank at Gander Mountain in Huber Heights..

The salesman showed it to me yesterday...


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## Wiper Swiper (May 24, 2005)

I said warmouth for one reason...the three prominent spines on the anal fin. The small caudal fin looked warmouth as well. I didn't think green sunfish had that much orange on their fin tips. I should have looked at a green sunfish picture as well.

"Definately" a hybrid. 

That might explain it's size.


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## FSHNERIE (Mar 5, 2005)

Its a pig..Congrats


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## MuskieLuv (Oct 29, 2007)

Fish was caught out of the GMR by a 4 year old girl. They brought the fish into Gander Mountain and did not want to keep it. My Dad works there and he kept the fish, it is now swimming in a safe location.

We thought it was a Green Sunfish as well but wasn't sure. 

ML


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## jimnrg (Aug 6, 2008)

This is a pic of the Ga State record greenie. You can see the similarities I think. I would definitely have this one checked by officials for record status. Great catch.

http://www.avidangler.net/photos/green%20sunfish.jpg


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## DavidH (Apr 1, 2009)

All I can say is that is big, wow, so nice.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

the one he gaught looks exactly like the ga recorxd ..........but bigger get that thing checked out and keep us posted


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## MuskieLuv (Oct 29, 2007)

We didn't catch the fish so it was released. Hopefully it will spread it's genetics and give someone else a chance at a trophy fish. 

ML


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## firstflight111 (May 22, 2008)

thats a green sunfish did you weigh it the state rec is olbs.99oz 10 5/8 in


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## grizzly70 (Jun 30, 2006)

nice fish, ur dad showed it to me yesterday, should go nicely with those stripers lol


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## ostbucks98 (Apr 14, 2004)

I caught this last year and was gonna post for fish identification.Kinda similiar to his fish but much smaller.


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## fisharder (Mar 18, 2005)

Any idea how old that fish might be to get that big I bet it is older than the girl who caught it. I know small mouth can live 30+ years and there in the same family of fish.


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## Brad617 (Apr 12, 2006)

Definitely a Fish SANDWICH!!!


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## pendog66 (Mar 23, 2005)

definately a greenie and congrats on the nice catch


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

I'd call the second one a warmouth, and good bait for flatties!

fisharder, I dont think the sunfish get as old as the black basses. I would bet that fish is only 4-5 it just had good growing conditions.


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## iteech (Apr 4, 2005)

Well now I'm completely confused. That thing looks to me exactly like the state-record bluegill I saw some time back--Georgia I think. Which is my home state, and when I got here in Ohio and caught what I called a giant warmouth, another fisherman in the area said no, that's a rock bass! And looking it up, lo and behold, it IS a rock bass, but we called them warmouths and I always thought they were a sunfish variety. It's a regional thing, y'all. Everywhere you go, they go by a different name. Even being confused, I care not...just let me catch 'em!  And also, at a big game lake my family goes to every year near the WV border, they have thousands of hybrid bluegills in there that are pretty close to that big...but they are light-colored. And they are such a blast to catch you will not eat or sleep while you are there. True story! We always stay 3 days and 2 nights, and the owner is silly enough to let us fish all night too (against the rules, but he likes us), and we are crazy enough to do it...many hundreds each of bass, cats, gills, trout, and perch--and 3 days later--sleepless, starving, dehydrated, and very sunburned with bloody shredded thumbs, we leave about as happy as you GET, having kept on all your clothes!!  Great memories, and I can't see a huge gill and not think back to that...


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## EE (Apr 13, 2004)

awesome pictures and good stories to boot, thanks for sharing! 
for what it's worth, ODNR recognizes the warmouth and rockbass as two separate species, even if their common names are often mixed up. here's a link to a cool species guide published by the ODNR, a good starting point with identification:
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/AZFish/tabid/17913/Default.aspx


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Muskiluv, I'd put my money on Green sunfish x bluegill hybrid. The dark coloration may be from turbid water and/or spawning colors. They are the most common natural sunfish hybrid and are sold by many fish farms. The fish in the picture has too small a mouth and too tall a body to be pure greenie. 

Here's a 3 year old one from my pond:









Here's another


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

the opercular flap on his fish is too short to be a hybrid I think, thats what I thought when I first looked but it doesnt have the mottling either


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

The gill flap isn't a defining factor. More a male characteristic though not absolute either. Although much less common female greenie/bluegill hybrids exist too.
http://bigbluegill.com/photo/giant-hybrid?context=featured


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## NNUUTTSS (May 14, 2008)

its a war mouth


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