I sent the picture back to Brian Zimmerman who sold me the fish 3 years ago. He is quite positive this is a northern longear and not a pumpkinseed, or RES/LES hybrid. The turquoise coloring is quite prominent even up into the dorsal fins.
I then found Ben Cantrell posted a neat series of pictures showing the different ways longear sunfish look depending on where they were caught. There is also a northern and a 'central' type longear sunfish. The folklore is that the northern have a more 45 degree angle or upswept ear tab and the central have a straight back ear tab. His pictures and his post suggest that we should NOT be using that as a way to differentiate central from northern.
But having looked at his pictures I'm much more comfortable that I have LES (northern) in my pond and not a RES/LES hybrid. They are BEAUTIFUL fish and would love to see if they could get established in more SW MI ponds. They seem to do fine in my pond, not sure why the DEQ would not stock them in local lakes as a bonus fish for panfishing enthusiasts!
see this link and then scroll down to post 7 where the great pictures are!
Great LES sunfish pictures
