# Hybrid Gills



## Steelheadquarters (Aug 29, 2006)

Was fishing a private pond where I was told they have Red Hybrid Gills that go a pound or better? Never seen a Redgill, but they sure have some fantastic color!







What do you guys think?


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

That is really just a Hybrid Bluegill, they get big and fat, I have a bunch of 9.5" ers in my pond and I bet most are just under a lb. They grow that big in about 2 years since they do not "hardly" reproduce, when they do, youll eventually end up with a pond full of stunted Green Sunfish, most pond advocates do NOT recommend stocking very many of them. hey will hit bass plugs and eat anything they can get in their mouth, you can actually thumb them like a bass and they fight really hard but if you stress them like catching them through the ice, they are the first ones to die in Winterkill situations so they are pretty fragile fish, handle with care.

Salmonid


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## Steelheadquarters (Aug 29, 2006)

Thanks Mark! Looks like they have been in my FIL's pond for a couple years now. He was told by the supplier that they were some special breed? But now I know they had a special price$ tag, so he really didn't know better. I use barbless hooks when fishing his pond or any other for that matter, and all fish are released asap. They sure are a blast catching them on a 3wt fly rod! They hit it as soon as the fly hits the water! Beautiful colors though.

Sorry about the pic size! Will reduce the next ones!


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## Star1pup (Aug 3, 2004)

The hybrids do sometimes reproduce and can fill the pond with green sunfish. It might be better to take them out when caught. It's much better to stock red ear sunfish (shellcrackers). They seem to reproduce true and also get big and fat. We put them in our lake and are now catching some nice big ones.


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## Steelheadquarters (Aug 29, 2006)

Star1pup said:


> The hybrids do sometimes reproduce and can fill the pond with green sunfish. It might be better to take them out when caught. It's much better to stock red ear sunfish (shellcrackers). They seem to reproduce true and also get big and fat. We put them in our lake and are now catching some nice big ones.


They are definately reproducing! Watched them in the shallows where they have their bowl cleared out, and the males were chasing others away! Father in law say's they have been reproducing since 2009. These guy's are pigs!


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## salmon king (Aug 20, 2008)

Hey Herb nice bull gills ya got there...Doesn't beat Steelhead though does it... lol
By the way I got to take ya Small mouth bass fishin sometime soon.. Dustin


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

From what I understand, the hybrid process produces about 90% males so yes, there will be some spawning but usually not enough to support a regular pond eco system.

Salmonid


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## Star1pup (Aug 3, 2004)

Salmonid said:


> From what I understand, the hybrid process produces about 90% males so yes, there will be some spawning but usually not enough to support a regular pond eco system.
> 
> Salmonid


The problem as I see it is that their offspring (mostly little green sunfish) will then spawn and their offspring spawn until that's all you have in the pond. If it was my pond I would catch and eat the hybrids and then restock with shellcrackers (red ears). Pond management is hard to do sometimes. I actually had a pond become filled with stunted 7" bass because I only allowed catch & release, but that's another story.


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## Mutley (Mar 24, 2008)

That's one beautiful specimen.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

While I agree that Red ears are the way to go, the real problem we have is that we are at the very Northern Limit to what they can handle, I have a bunch in my pond but they have not done well at all, I take about a dozen a year from my 4 year old pond where I started with 200 3-5" fish. I believe the last few Hard winters have really hurt them, so if you stock them, Id be prepared to add them a few at a time for a few years to get a good spawning population of them, They do not overbreed like Bluegills or straight sunfish do. Oh yeah, the bigger they get, the harder they are to catch as well.

Salmonid


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## Star1pup (Aug 3, 2004)

The red ears seem to be doing well here. I live on a 150 acre lake and we have stocked them a couple times. I am in lower Columbiana County.


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## Steelheadquarters (Aug 29, 2006)

Thanks for the responses! To give a little more informtion, these Gills have been breeding, and were first introduced to this pond back in 2008. The Winter of 2009 a lot of fish in that pond died off as a result of the harsh weather. About 50 huge catfish, couple hundred Gills, Sunfish and Bass, but there were still some of these Hybrid Gills left?

Whatever the reason they survived, my Father in law then restocked some more of them, both Blue and Red gills with some Bass and a few Redear Sunfish. All fish are doing fantastic and every time we go there, I check them out!

This past Sunday was a panfishermans dream! These guy's were a little wary of my presence, so I just bellied up to the edge and cast! The rest was a blast! I do have more pictures on my blog if you want to check them out? But I don't want to post a link here (cause I'm not trying to hook traffic) and I don't want to pee in anyones cornflakes either, but these fish are PIGS!


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## thistubesforu (Mar 30, 2009)

when hybrids are sold to stock ponds they are typically green sunfish/bluegill hybrid. reality of this is hybrid is they grow faster and are far more aggressive than a straight run gill. now on the other hand sunfish will hybridize no matter gill/redear, gill/green, gill/longear, etc. with the gill/green being the most desirable, and yes they will eventually revert back to green sunfish, but this takes at least 3 generations if i remember correctly. there is a pond i fish that was stocked with gills and years later redears. you can go to this pond and catch dink gill after dink gill, but if u can find a readear or a naturally reproduced hybrid they are typically well over 8 inchs. so it is very possible someone is reproducing and selling redear/bluegill hybrids as opposed to green/gill hybrids.

just a little added insight.


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