I caught this interesting looking fish in my pond. At first I thought it was a hybrid BG/redear, but after doing more research I believe it is either a warmouth or warmouth/BG hybrid due to the presence of teeth on its tongue. Any thoughts?
I've looked at the pictures, did a little web research, and rolled my mix breed fish dice and come to the conclusion that it's...
22% Warmouth, 27% Blue Gill, 11% Green Sunfish, 17% Red Ear Sunfish, and 23% in the eyes of the fish beholder.
Seriously, I can see all those species in the photos, some pictures more than others. It's funny how the intermixing of these fish causes such unidentifiable fish.
Quarter Acre, I think your genetic assessment may be not too far off. Technically, it would be possible, as the pond was stocked with BG, RES, and HBG as far as candidates go. Warmouth and green sunfish could’ve somehow found their way in there as this is Texas and fish seem to sometimes be the product of immaculate conception. It will be interesting to hear from any of the experts on here. If not, I may try to contact someone knowledgeable at the university I attend or a local parks and wildlife expert. I agree that the fish shows features of all the aforementioned species and different features in different pictures.
This particular pond was stocked about 4 years ago with the previously mentioned fish species. So far, only 1 RES (which was gigantic) has been caught, and no HBG. Tons of BG and CNBG though. The pond could’ve had a partial die off or just no reproduction due to a large amount of predators such as overcrowded bass, giant BH, and giant (10lb+) channel catfish. Because of this, I am suprised to catch a fish such as this. It seems only the BG can reproduce in great enough numbers for a sustainable population.
