Do you love big bluegill?

Reflections....A Perfect Coppernose Male

great picture even highlighting the lateral line......

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Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on January 28, 2015 at 6:07pm: Hey Tooty........Mr. Livingston or Walt Foreman would probably be able to answer that question better.......Walt is the closest one I've seen to you growing nice Coppernose and Tony would probably have some if they would make it in his section of Indiana but that's just a guess on my part...............They have struggled in some parts of western North Carolina trying to relocate Coppernose.........I always get excited when the hatchery delivers another 50,000 to one of my areas but they have obviously adapted well to eastern North Carolina.......

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on January 28, 2015 at 6:01pm: Hey Jeffrey do ya think these could be present in Southern Illlinois waters?

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on January 28, 2015 at 5:57pm: Great discussion.......I hope somebody on my boat catches this fish again..........I've caught several citation gills that met the one pound requirement but were less than 10"..........those are exciting dynamics to have in your fish population.......

Comment by Jim Gronaw on January 28, 2015 at 4:03pm: I hear ya Tony on the longer dynamic of some of the RM fish. I caught a 12.75 incher two years ago that, with the 'rotund' body dynamic, would likely have hit the three pound mark. As it was a longer, thinner fish, it just made the 2-pound mark. I was still elated!

Comment by Jim Gronaw on January 28, 2015 at 3:58pm: Funny, Virginia list 'sunfish' for their awards program with no distinction of species. They list hundreds of 11 inch plus sunfish in their website each year...I believe the majority of them are red ears.

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on January 28, 2015 at 10:18am: PRIZE WINNING PHOTO HERE JEFFREY !!!!!! WHAT A BEAUTY BUDDY.....

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on January 28, 2015 at 9:23am: Yes Andy Coppernose qualify for the Bluegill recognition in North Carolina......

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 28, 2015 at 6:16am: It's funny that I have been catching them for about 50 years and barely know the species apart, but I grew up catching "bream" in AL, GA and FL. I also caught "speckled perch"; didn't get used to calling them crappie until I was a teenager and fished with more people besides my family.

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 28, 2015 at 6:11am: Yeah, a little more digging and I found that the CA state record bluegill is a coppernose. My guess is that is what I am likely to see next month in the Savannah River also. I really need to get better at telling all the species apart this year. I posted a "bluegill" to another forum a while back and had someone reply back that I should have measured what was likely a citation greenie... It did have a bunch of blue on the gills, but it was spider vein pattern instead of solid. DOH!