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Cecil I'm doing something similar with the M BG F YP pond - will try my best to add 25-50 M RES this Spring/Summer. I'm only confident on ID if I get them on the beds and confirm milt.


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
Cecil I'm doing something similar with the M BG F YP pond - will try my best to add 25-50 M RES this Spring/Summer. I'm only confident on ID if I get them on the beds and confirm milt.


The bigger super bright red ear tabs vs. the subtle orange ear tabs isn't good enough to differentiate a male from a female?

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 03/24/14 10:38 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1
Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
Cecil I'm doing something similar with the M BG F YP pond - will try my best to add 25-50 M RES this Spring/Summer. I'm only confident on ID if I get them on the beds and confirm milt.


The the bigger super bright red ear tabs vs. the subtle orange ear tabs isn't good enough to differentiate a male from a female?


Cecil as a general rule of thumb I would say so, but in my opinion it is not foolproof. Sunfish, redears included, can display a wide range of colors, even the same fish can look quite different based on lighting conditions or water clarity. Coloration on both female and male RES can darken up quite a bit when they stressed or agitated and colors can wash out under bright light conditions. Somedays I think I have three male RES and two females in my aquarium, other days I think I have four males and one female.



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When guys like Steve, who works with RES daily, convey their iffy confidence level on ID it makes me pretty suspect of my limited abilities to ID unless they are in full spawning mode. If I make one mistake the fishery will be impacted in a way I don't intend - so I'm going to be as certain as possible. I'll probably be fishing pretty hard for a week or two for RES on beds selecting males. Steve I'm looking for 25-50 verified males - if you have access to any I'm happy to pay or trade for them.

Of course it gets me to thinking...while the YP ID should be pretty simple for my caged fish, I am worried about how foolproof my BG selection was last Fall. I TRIPLE checked 100 fish and even got Bruce's help - but again, one mistake and my project is doomed!


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Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57


Of course it gets me to thinking...while the YP ID should be pretty simple for my caged fish, I am worried about how foolproof my BG selection was last Fall. I TRIPLE checked 100 fish and even got Bruce's help - but again, one mistake and my project is doomed!


I hear ya teehjaeh57! Especially have you go to all the trouble draining the pond and moving fish like I did! I've done that twice now with 1 million gallons. Ain't doing it again!


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Cecil - I can't even drain/seine this pond, if I screw up I will have to pump it out and somehow collect the fish when the water is super low. Would be a disaster.

When Bruce told me he verified some female BG with black scale tipping my stomach dropped. I've used that as a verification characteristic for many years now...again, I'm just holding my breath on my BG ID. I'll know for sure by this Summer!

Cecil, what traits did you use as a guide? I use opercular tab size, coloration, and black scale tipping. Am I missing anything?


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I placed what I thought were 10 all male RES into my pond. One was not... 90% is pretty good accuracy, but not good enough. Fortunately, I wasn't that upset about the mistake. So far I have stocked over 3 dozen all male BG into the pond and 16 all male GSF. The big question will be if the RES female will only spawn with the male RES or look for some love from the BG or GSF. There will also be male and female RBS in the pond as of this spring.

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Travis - I have a friend doing a cool water species fishery [SMB, YP, WE, HSB, GSH] and I've convinced him to try RBS as companion panfish along with RES based upon your recommendations. I'm pretty excited and wanted to credit you with the project idea.

Now...can you help me source these critters?


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
Cecil - I can't even drain/seine this pond, if I screw up I will have to pump it out and somehow collect the fish when the water is super low. Would be a disaster.

When Bruce told me he verified some female BG with black scale tipping my stomach dropped. I've used that as a verification characteristic for many years now...again, I'm just holding my breath on my BG ID. I'll know for sure by this Summer!

Cecil, what traits did you use as a guide? I use opercular tab size, coloration, and black scale tipping. Am I missing anything?


That's what I use but I also believe the sexually mature adults of the two sexes have a different body side profile and the female bar pattern is more intricate. According to the text I recently posted on the yellow perch sexing thread, post number 369564, one of the authors said the females have a swollen scaleless area around the urogenital area vs. scaled on the male. It said it was 100 percent. I haven't verified that yet but wonder if it wasn't referring to a spawning female.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 03/25/14 09:58 AM.

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Yes, I guess I noticed the bar pattern on female BG is more pronounced, or intricate as you refer to it.


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
Steve I'm looking for 25-50 verified males - if you have access to any I'm happy to pay or trade for them.


Of the 110 original RES that I stocked in my pond I have caught a total of one them on hook and line over the last two years. crazy



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Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
Travis - I have a friend doing a cool water species fishery [SMB, YP, WE, HSB, GSH] and I've convinced him to try RBS as companion panfish along with RES based upon your recommendations. I'm pretty excited and wanted to credit you with the project idea.

Now...can you help me source these critters?


Greg Grimes can probably source them for you. Owen & William Hatchery in GA has 1-2" color morph ones available this fall.

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They will package and overnight fish with no issues.

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Female? or immature male RES? This one is 6", maybe 6-1/2".

http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq153/Squidge_04/184_zps795bc6c7.jpg


http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq153/Squidge_04/182_zpsaf77b2bf.jpg

If I had to guess I would say female but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Last edited by Shorty; 07/29/17 09:20 AM.


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I also think female esp if it was caught during spawning season.


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Bill, maybe it's just me, but does the fish in the last picture seem to have an extra large mouth to you? Maybe a hint of a GSF?


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Both pictures are of the same fish that I caught late this morning. RES do have larger mouths than BG.

Last edited by Shorty; 09/21/14 08:36 PM.


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Another vote for female.


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Many studies state the high degree of incorrect id of fish species and sex by fisheries scientists based solely on outward physical features. RES are no exception. That RES looks like some Bruce had pics of and don't look like mine - see below.
















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A few of the male RES in my aquarium looked a lot like the pictures I posted, it wasn't apparent until the days started getting longer this spring and they sexually matured that they were male. The only clue was the larger red/orange area on the ear tab which became more red as they matured. Based on the size of the ear tab, the thicker orange margin, this one might be an immature male.

Here is a picture of the other side.

http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq153/Squidge_04/185_zpsb1d6865d.jpg


Last edited by Shorty; 07/29/17 09:20 AM.


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I still believe RES are one of the hardest sunfish species to accurate sex.

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Originally Posted By: CJBS2003
I still believe RES are one of the hardest sunfish species to accurate sex.


My vote for a difficult fish in the sunfish family goes to LMB/SMB. I don't have any first hand knowledge of Spotted Bass.


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At this point in my fish education and experience with RES, I would not try to sex RES outside of the main spawning period - way too risky.


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Originally Posted By: Bill Cody
At this point in my fish education and experience with RES, I would not try to sex RES outside of the main spawning period - way too risky.


I agree Bill.

I will say that the width of the orange/red margin on the the ear tab might be the best indicator of sex even with immature fish. Wide colored margins male, very thin margins female. The only problem using this is that you may occasionally get a male with a thinner than average colored margin, and female with a wider than average margin, or even individuals that fall in between the two.

I started this thread in order to try and sex the five RES I overwintered earlier this year and the width of the colored margin on the ear tab ended up being more accurate than going by any other visible trait.

I will take more pictures of the fish I catch and try and remember to include pictures of the vent as well.




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Nice work Shorty. Looking forward to more pics and info.
















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