Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Different Bluegill

First, God created the regular Bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus. He stocked them in waters all over the country, actually in several slightly different varieties that we tend to lump together. They do really well in cold Winters, look gorgeous, and can get nice and big.

Next, he wanted something special to catch when he was on vacation in peninsular Florida, so he created the Coppernose Bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus purpurens. It's even more colorful, may get even bigger, and can do well up to the Mason-Dixon line or so. But CNBG can't handle prolonged cold water temperatures, so you won't find them in Ohio, Nebraska, and so forth up North.

God occasionally creates Hybrid Bluegill by matching lonely Bluegills up with mate from other sunfish species such as the Green Sunfish, Redears, and Pumpkinseeds. Man often initiates these crosses himself, most usually the BGxGSF which is what we normally call a HBG. The commonly commercially available BGxGSF is colorful, aggressive, and has a bigger mouth than a BG/CNBG of the same size, which can give it a growth advantage (being able to eat bigger pieces of food) for the first year or so of life. HBG do not actually get as large as BG or CNBG if given equal food resources for equal numbers of fish. HBG do spawn, but they do not produce exact replicas of themselves, and they produce much lower numbers of offspring than BG/CNBG (in large part because most HBG are male), so they do not make good forage for bass.

In a situation where BG numbers are not well controlled, the lower offspring numbers of HBG can make them a better choice as they are less apt to overpopulate and stunt. They are IMHO best used as a put-and-take fish, utilizing limited numbers of predators to controll their few offspring , and restocking with more true HBG when numbers are depleted.

Who wants to post or link to identification pictures? I gotta run.