Identifying panfish species

[Dwayne Denison]

I was wondering if there was a thread on here, where it shows different species of panfish and their sub species. Hopefully, with pics? I thought I knew alot about panfish, until I got on here. Sometimes, someone talks about a sub species, and I have no idea what it looks like.....Thanks Dwayne

[Dwayne Denison]

The reason I ask this, is at one of my favorite lakes the other day. My son and I caught some gills that where real deep purple in color. Are these coppernose?

[Dwayne Denison]

Jeff, looks almost like this

[Jeff Soto]

Dwayne-  Could you put up a photo to show us?  I have caught both "Northern" and "Coppernose"  Bluegills that have a purplish hue to them, and I have caught Coppernose that are very dark, almost black that have a purple cast too, so it's hard to tell without seeing a photo of your fish.  I know of three sub-species of Bluegill, but there are crossbreed hybrids also, so there can be just a bunch of color variants.

[Dwayne Denison]

Jeff,

I did not get a photo. I will try and fish lake again next week, and hopefully get pic. I have never seen a fish of this color, ther before. They were real dark, with deep purple and black looking stripes. Maybe a new strain put in, because they were all small. I have seen pics before on web, I will check and see if I can find one.........thanks Dwayne

[Jeff Soto]

Dwayne-  That dark Bluegill is a Florida coppernose.  You can see the slight coppery-bronze patch above it's eyes, (don't know why they call them coppernose and not copperheads, guess they would get mixed up with the dangerous snake) and also the light markings on the lower jaw/mouth area has more of a beige/tan color where as the "Northern" Bluegills these markings are light blue.  It also seems to me that the northern fish have double vertical stripes on their sides, where the coppernose have single stripes or bars.  Our Florida coppernose Bluegill we have here in Southern California also have beautifully cream-colored fin tips.