How do I determine if a fish is a sunfish or sunfish hybrid blue gill?

[Rob Greer]

How do I determine if these are hybrids or regular old sunfish? The bigger fish do not have the the dark spot on the rear lobe of the dorsal fin and the bodies seem more compact.

[Bruce Condello]

Good question.

Here's a fascinating discussion.

HOW TO ID PUREBRED VS. HYBRID SUNFISH



I'm guessing your photos are as follows:

1. Male GS purebred
2. Female BS purebred
3. Hybrid BG/GS

[Rob Greer]

That is what I was thinking but #1 does not have the spot on the rear lobe and I did not know if they "grew" out of them. I was pretty sure about #2 but it had some really nice dark tiger stripes that did not show up on the picture very well. #3 looks the most like a gill and I figured it was probably more of a hybrid than the others. They don't seem to be a problem since they only hang out in a certain area of the lake for the most part but I will have to keep a eye on them for sure. They are very aggressive and hard hitting which tells me they may be causing problems for the bluegills.

[Bruce Condello]

I just realized that I wrote "Female BS" when I meant "Female GS". Oops. I wonder what I was thinking.

Keep in mind that generations of inter-breeding can yield fish that are 90/10 or 60/40, or even possibly a mixture of three species. Very hard to tell for absolute certainty in many circumstances.

Some are just mutts.

[Rob Greer]

I read this on pond boss as recommended:

HOW TO ID PUREBRED VS. HYBRID SUNFISH

Of course a lot of it seemed like TMI for my small brain but it made me wonder if the "purebred male GSF" may actually be a hybrid that has a high GSF gene content but not high enough to keep the dorsal spots and longer body or is may be a regression of multiple generations of breeding that reverted back to the strong GSF genes? Either way I've got some cool fish in the lake but no really big bluegills. I went fishing yesterday and took pictures of 7 or 8 gills that I caught. They were all the same size and each of them had a different color scheme. I also managed to catch a number of bass, one of which was 21 inches. SO why are my gills so small since I have good bass numbers? I'll have to check the archives on that one.

[Bruce Condello]

An important question in this regard would be:

"How much vegetative cover does the pond have throughout the spring, summer and then fall?"

[Rob Greer]

It has some really nice underwater weeds beds (not very technical). The lake also has nice cat tail stands along the west bank and also a large 3 foot deep section of the lake with weed beds open water and cat tail stands. One problem that I can think of is that the banks drop off quickly into 6-12 feet within 5 feet of the bank. The bottom is pretty much void of any kind of structure. I usually do not catch and gills around the weeds or cat tails. I pick them up off the bottom of 6-12 foot deep open water jigging or along the rocky steep East bank in 6 foot of water.

[Bruce Condello]

One thing that keeps bluegill small is if they have tons of hiding areas during their first six months. So can you think of any way that large numbers of YOY (young-of-the-year) bluegills can hide from predation? Most of my best ponds for big panfish have limited hiding areas during the critical first few months.

[Rob Greer]

This could be the problem! The East side of the lake has lots of nooks and crannies in the rocks/bricks/concrete pieces. I will have to do some research on the problem and see what type of solution can be reached. I'll start a new thread if I don't have any luck. Thanks for the info I think I am getting pointed in the right direction. It might be easier to take you fishing and show you the 3 ring circus that I have going on.

[Bruce Condello]

I like fishing.

[Bill Cody]

Rob,
What brand and model of camera do you have? IT takes very good close up photos.

[Rob Greer]

It's a Sony Cyper-Shot DSC-P92 5 Mega pixel that I bought several years ago for $35.00 on clearance for my eBay sales. It's a awesome camera and goes fishing with me every time.

[Jeremy R. Mayo]

1. Now he's eatin size
2. To big for catfish bait and to small for the fryer
3. Just right for my alfreado dip.

haha.
They look like american fish to me. Just a good ole mixture of all. Unless you catch them from a purebread res. they prolly gotta lil bit of everything in em. I can say I dont think theres any red ear in there and that I dont believe that there is a pureblood bluegill in the bunch. My guess is going to be 1. male gs....2. female gs..... and 3. is most def a hybrid but im no scientologistististist. I just throw em a cricket and if they look like they gonna taste good then they go in the box. Thanks to gustov its gonna be a few days before I get to see any so get out there and stick a few for me.