Pond Boss editor Bob Lusk nails mammoth bluegill.

[Bruce Condello]

Pond Boss editor Bob Lusk describes the ridiculously big bluegill that he caught just two days ago.

"This bluegill measures 10.75 inches and weighed 1 lb 10 oz on a hand held scale. It is a coppernose bluegill, stocked in December, 2005 into Richmond Mill Lake, a 125 acre impoundment outside Laurel Hill, North Carolina. The fishery is a combined stocking of feed trained largemouth bass up to 6 pounds with a remnant population of native strains of bass with bluegill, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish, chain pickerel and a number of other lesser species of fish. The fish are on a feeding program of Purina's Aquamax. Different sizes of Aquamax are fed at different places in the lake, in order to feed a variety of sizes of fish. The day this fish was caught, we caught another 25 bluegill, all smaller. Several were in excess of 3/4 pound, however. The bluegill were caught with a small inline spinnerbait we bought at Walmart. These colorful little spinners come on a card of 5 and cost about $5."

[Bruce Condello]

...as a matter of fact, I pity the bass that gets in his way.

[Bruce Condello]

It definitely looks like it has evil intentions, doesn't it? I'll bet it spent the last three hours head-butting some largemouth.

[Joe Hinton]

Boy, that is one ugly bluegill. Glad they are not found in the midwest, I would be tempted to run if I caught that looked like it.

[Bruce Condello]

This picture haunts my dreams.

[Bruce Condello]

The coppernose bluegill is a variety of bluegill found in the south, originally mostly near Florida. It has a copper banded nape area in breeding males, and a thin white border on it's fins. I'd never seen one until the last year, and it took a trip to Texas to see one. Check in the blog posts and you'll see other pictures and discussion. They're a neat fish.

[Robert Boland]

What is a "Coppernose" bluegill? I've never heard of that type.

[Frosch]

WOW!!!!!!! I would like to catch a coppernose one day.

[Bruce Condello]

I asked Lusk, and he said he wished he would have measured. Maybe we can enlarge the photo and figure out the ratio of length (10.75 inches) to height. That thing is something, isn't it??!!??

[Jacob Schneider]

That thing doesn't look real! Although I know it is. Man what a brute! What did it measure from the belly to the dorsal fin?