I'm guessing many of you have caught one this big or bigger in your pond? Post your results here if you have! MI records only go by weight and not by length, so I guess you will have to weight your new personal pond record!

And then please tell me what this is? They call it a hybrid sunfish, but is it not a hybrid bluegill? Or does it have some pumpkinseed in it?

New MI Record HBG

I'll attach a blown up picture to see if this helps in the ID.

Looks like a HBG.

My thoughts also.

We'll have to let the media know that this was a record bluegill and not a record sunfish

Must be harder to grow big hybrid bluegills in the whole state of Michigan than in my 1/2 acre pond.

(Ohio natives: mentally insert your favorite Michigan joke here.)

Theocity, this thread got a rise out of you???

Nahh, I'm from Ahia and gradjeeated from THEE Ahia State Yuniversiy, so I'm supposed to hate all thing Meechigan. (For the record, I don't. Just Jim Harbaugh.)

Theo, do have similar HBG in your pond? I'd love to hear!

Why is it that public waters struggle to grow big fish? Overfishing? lack of supply in a 'natural' lake? Lake of proper fish management by the DNR/DEQ in public waters?

I've got BGxRES hybrids, F1's and their descendant Fx's. We've caught 6 in the last 15 months that eeked out a little better than the above mentioned MI record.

Here's the biggest, from not quite a year ago:

Public waters are where you catch monster Stripers, Flatheads, Blue Cats, Pike, and Muskellenge. Their presence hurts LMB numbers and some folks do overharvest LMB. Lack of LMB will stunt a bluegill population and once it gets stunted ... its expensive to fix the problem in a large impoundment. In some cases it can't be fixed.

Theo, some great fish.

Everyone here has their own great fishing hole and can manage it for the fish they like. But I can tell you that some good public BOWs for BG do exist when LMB are in sufficient supply and other predators are not present. The best places to fish are small impoundments and those that are good have been well cared for by local fishermen. I know I have caught and released HBG large enough to be a Texas state record. I'd rather have the honey hole than the recognition.

Question about fish ID for the experts. My uncle caught these in a lake around an hour south of where I live near Grand Rapids, MI. They look like pumpkinseed but are they hybrids? They have red ear tabs, but also have blue mottled cheeks. I'll try to see if I can edit and zoom in a bit first.

OK, pictures are inline.

Looks like a PS/BG hybrid? Beautiful fish!

Thanks TJ, I was not seeing pure pumpkinseed and wondered if they were hybrids of some type. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Agree with TJ - hybrid pumpkinseeds.

PS X BG is a very common cross especially in more northern waters. I would agree that those look like BG x PS.

See this thread for great pics.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=99961&page=1