We caught these two out of my pond, but am not sure what we have. The smaller one looks like a GSF, but the larger one looks different, and was about 7+" long.
First one, I think your guess is correct, GSF, Second one, hard to tell because of the sun's glare over the mouth. Was its mouth as large as the first one?
No, not nearly as large a mouth, and I don't think it looks the same. So, the biggest one is just a very large and healthy GSF? man, but he is got a big belly, must be hitting the FHM I put in to start the food chain...
They're both a little difficult to make out, but simply based on the mouth size, as well as your hunch, I think the top one is GSF. Bottom one looks pretty BG to me, but also a little tough to make out with the sun behind it.
Could you catch a few more and post photos of them on a tape?
Could the smaller one be a CNBG--I had a bunch of those stocked, as well as RES. Won't be able to catch any more until after Christmas as we don't live close to our land.
Look at the ear flap(operculum), the edge is light color indicating it is not a pure BG as pure BG always have black edging to their ear flaps. The coloration although poorly displayed because of the photo's lighting, rules out some species(LES, RBS, WM, OSS). Mouth size is still rather large but not big enough to be a pure GSF. Subtle coloring of the rear fins leads me to believe it has GSF genetics. It would seem to rule out that is is a PSS or RES. Not many options out there that match other than HBG.
CJ, I had a couple of these show up in my pond. Must have been accidently put in with CNBG when they where stocked 18 months ago. I fish the pond regular and only caught 2last fall, which I got rid of. Do these spawn right along with BG, and CNBG? I'm curious because I want these out.
"I have not failed, I have only found 10,000 ways that won't work" Thomas Edison
They will attempt to spawn. Most HBG are male. There is no scientific consensus as to just how successful their crossing back with pure BG or another hybrid is. If they make up an extremely small percentage of your pond's sunfish community I wouldn't stress it. They most likely will not last long if no more are added and you don't have pure GSF in your pond. If you have pure GSF, then you will continue to see occasional hybrids.
But here are the major ones you are going to see 90% of the time: largemouth bass-LMB smallmouth bass-SMB bluegill-BG hybrid bluegill-HBG coppernose bluegill-CNBG redear sunfish(shell cracker)-RES green sunfish-GSF pumpkinseed sunfish-PS yellow perch-YP walleye-WE hybrid striped bass-HSB fathead minnow-FHM golden shiner-GSH
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