I took this hybrid sunfish from my pond today (and returned it safely after snapping this picture). It got me to thinking: just how old can hybrids get?
I moved here in 2002, and the last person to stock the pond did so in '97 or '98. At that time he put in a remedial stocking of l.m. bass, channel catfish and 8 grass carp ... all for a 1/4 acre spring fed pond.
The grass carp are huge (and almost useless against chara); the bass remain pretty much a bunch of runts; the channel catfish are quite big, thanks mostly to the pellets I feed my trout.
But these sunfish interest me. Any way to tell from just a picture if it's a true hybrid or an F2 green sunfish? What little I know about the hybrids stocked is that they came from an Arkansas supplier who sells fish several times each year at the local Co-op.
The fellow who owned the pond then, and stocked the hybrids, swears he was told the fish wouldn't reproduce at all. Obviously, at least two of the fish had other plans!
So, could this be a nearly decade-old hybrid, or merely one very healthy offspring? (By the way, these sunfish have found their way to the trouts' pellets as well.)
Thought I'd add a picture of my pond, too. I was actually fishing for trout today when I hooked this sunfish. -- Mike
