Quote:
Originally posted by Theo Gallus:

FWIW here's my opinions on the fingerling ID. I don't count 'em as fer-shure Redears until I see the color of anger on their opercules. And I have seen plenty of red/orange fringes on gill opercules of RES fingerlings as big as the one(s) in DonJovi's pictures. My backup, I don't trust it 100% identifier is side bands. IMHO DonJovi's fingerling side bands are too distinct and solid to be RES. Based on these two pieces of info, I would judge his fish to be BG (or CNBG) and would definitely not include them if I was trying to segregate Redear fingerlings.

Ewest's picture of a fingerling is smaller than I have seen many/any red-lined gill tabs on, but the sidebars on it are SO distinct and solid that I would class it a BG, 100% sure, if called upon to make a BG or RES judgement.

I think body condition (tall-and-fat or skinny-and-drawn-out) can vary too much from fish to fish and seasonally for me to use it as a reliable indicator of fingerling BG versus RES identification. My criteria are designed to work like your BG sexing methods - one might miss some small RES, but be able to select fingerlings that are all RES, definitely no BGs mascarading as the angriest of all Lepomis.
Well put.

Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.