Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass More ID Help

I've read the archives and I am completely confused about hybrids now and very curious what we may have added as HBG this past spring.

The first pic I believe is one of the Male HBG we added but why the dark orange tint and what kind of mix is he ?

The second pic is this years YOY , they are about 1.5 inches right now. Do pure BG typically have dark vertical lines as young ?

It's amazing to me you can all ID these fish from a picture. Until I started reading the forums a BG was a BG and a Sunfish was a Sunfish.. That theory was tossed out the window once I started reading the PB forums.

Thanks for looking

I believe they are both BG. The top one is a Male, and being that it's near the full moon, that could be spawning colors for your pond. I've seen spawning males of all different colors, from almost jet black to lighter than your colors.

The YOY BG look like your 2nd pic. Vert lines and all.

I don't see a larger than normal mouth, nor edge tints or bands on the dorsal, pelvic and tail fins, and no stripes on the cheek.

The top fish is absolutely a male pure strain bluegill.

I can't tell on the second pic. I don't see any reason to exclude the possibility that it's a pure strain bluegill however.

BG and BG yoy.

Ditto!

Thanks Guys,

I went back to reading after posting and realized a good indicator is a tipped or bicolor tab too which I should have looked for first.

I know we put some HBG in but only a dozen and we have a third sunfish I have seen in the shallows that definately has tipped fins and bicolor tab but I've yet to catch one. Fishing has been slow this week for some reason but I'll be looking for your help again when I finally land one.

I am amazed at how willing everyone is to help out in these forums, I for one greatly appreciate it.

Yep this is a great place. Joining in and posting like you have is what keeps this a great forum. Nice looking fish BTW.

Ok guru's , I finally caught one of the HBG that have been hiding out.

What an awesome day for fishing.I received my first issue of PB today and around 8:00 PM the pond turned on like a light switch. We were able to tag about 10 fish in all including this guy.. now known as "223 " ( thanks again Greg ).

Looking forward to hear what everyone thinks the mix is, the hatchery we bought them from said " yeah they are hybrids " so....

Standard HBG (BG X GSF). A nice specimen.

Looks like a nice job on the tagging, too.