Other Sunfish

[David Merical]

As bluegill anglers, we often are fortunate enough to tangle with some other interesting sunfish species. One that I most often hear mis-identified is Green Sunfish. Mostly, I hear folks calling them Rock Bass. Warmouth look even more like Rock Bass, but there are differences, especially in that Rock Bass are often found in rocky streams or lakes, and Warmouth seem to have a preference for weedy slackwaters & ponds.

Anyway, here's some pictures of these 3 sunfish species that might help others with identifying what they are catching:

Green Sunfish

Rock Bass

Warmouth

[Farm Hunter]

Here is a picture of a Green Sunfish from the Erie Canal near my house in NY. We don't see them in too many lakes/streams around here, The Canal is full of them though.

[Bruce Condello]

How about the blackbanded sunfish? Where's the love?

[Bruce Condello]

....or the redbreast sunfish??

[Jeremy R. Mayo]

im having trouble identifying this fish! our state record is only 13oz. The fish you hold here Ive cought several over a lb. I wanna get more into detail on some record fish cause I think Ive got some record setters here in the delta. Ive already caught a bowfin that would hold a state record and I released him. Im getting close to just takin my daily creel down to the game warden office every time and sayin YOU GO THROUGH EM! Red breast and bluegill all look the same to me.

[Alex G.]

Bruce, you've got two species there I've never caught..... both are very cool!

[Dale Fortin]

did you catch that? ive also never heard of it. can you tell me where to catch them?

[Farm Hunter]

Oooooo. I like that redbreast sunfish - would like to see more of them.

The Blackbanded sunfish - tell me - is it a species, subspecies? Where?

FH

[Zig]

testing

[Zig]

Just as I thought!!!
I'm calling you out on the lens tricks Bruce!! No wonder all your fish look HUUUGEEEEE.
(LMAO)

That is one COOL looking fish! Never saw one before.

[Dean]

Growing up in northern Illinois most everyone I know called them all bluegill. Maybe that's all we caught. My goal this year is to actually know what I'm catching. And, since I've never targeted "bluegill," maybe I'll have a lot of opportunities to hit or miss. Thanks for the pictures.

[James Feasel]

easiest way to tell a warmouth apart from a rockbass is to count the spines on the anal fin. rockbass usually has 6 and a warmouth has 3.

[Ray Danders]

I tried on another thread to help ID this fish. Any ideas?