State record?

Comment

Comment by GREG BOYKIN on March 2, 2011 at 5:18pm

GREAT FISH WITH GREAT COLOR

Comment by Bruce Condello on December 8, 2010 at 11:12am

That is a male. Generally about 90% of hybrids are males. In this case, we determined the sex of this fish by the length of it's ear tab.

Comment by Steve Gobel on December 8, 2010 at 8:28am

wow, nice fish , have caught many bluegills with the same color patterns, to get that big that fish is a ggg grandpa or ma ( was it male or female?)

Comment by Andre Sturkey on August 19, 2010 at 4:47pm

Bruce is that some type of hybrid? i ask that because the blue part of the gill seems to be longer than most Bluegills i see? But it could be just because it is a monster Gill Nice Catch!

Comment by Johnny Unn on July 8, 2010 at 8:13pm

thats nice

Comment by Bruce Condello on July 3, 2010 at 3:09pm

Thanks, Rick! That's really nice of you to say.

Comment by Magnolia Rick on June 30, 2010 at 12:30pm

It's a BIGBLUE GILL .COM RECORD. Nice fish Brue just the picture is putting more hooks in the water to catch bluegills. Again great catch.

Comment by Bruce Condello on June 30, 2010 at 7:25am

Since North Carolina doesn't have a category for sunfish hybrids in their program, this fish is not a state record. But it was sure fun to go through the process!

Comment by Bruce Condello on June 30, 2010 at 7:23am

Cut and paste from North Carolina fish identification expert, Wayne Starnes.

OK, Keith. Just had a good look and thorough comparison w/ some of our largest museum specimens.

First off the subject in question has long and slender gill rakers, definitely lets out pure Redbreast; that species' rakers rather gets nubbier and nubbier w/ growth based on our largest spms, nothing like this one has. Actually this spm's rakers correspond pretty well to our larger Bluefill spms.

On the other hand, now that the frost is off, as I said earlier I can see some coloration characters. The light stripe (likely white-blue in life) at the bottom of the earflap (but not also at the top as in pure Redbreast) is suggestive of Redbreast influence, as are some light markings around/on the lips, etc. The black soft dorsal blotch typical of Bluegills seems to be missing; even our largest pure spms usually retain a good hint of this on close exam. This specimen is more uniformly dark thru that fin. Finally, I would say the mouth size is intermediate. While the mouth tends to become proportionately smaller with growth in both spp, it appears to remain consistently larger in Redbreast.

So, lacking DNA evidence, I would say, on balance, the evidence points to Lepomis auritus x macrochirus hybrid.

I've put the spm back in the freezer. I've jotted down some data on the fish & would like to add locale & angler info to the record if you can supply it. BTW, in its present state, I measured the fish at 304 mm TL and 900 gr (1.98 lbs). Of course, we'd be happy to have the spm, too, if it happens back our way. Thanks. -W-

Comment by Bruce Condello on June 9, 2010 at 7:23am

Apparently we still have a natural history museum curator who is looking at this fish.

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