I put 50- 2" warmouth in my new 1/4 acre pond the end of May. They are now 3.5-4" long and growing well. I have noticed a few very small recruits 3/4" ish. Too small to get an id yet, i can not tell if they are warmouth, bluegill, or some other variation. I have pictures of the adults, not of the recruits yet. Is it even possible that they could be warmouth yet?
Rock bass (RKB) are easy to recognize from green sunfish if one knows what features to look for just as any other sunfish or LM - SM bass. As Canyon mentioned RKB have red eyes that should be a very prominent character even if the two fish had the same body color which they don't. Another very distinct feature is the rock bass has 6 anal fin spines and GSF have 3 anal fin spines. In my experience RKB tend to thrive better in clearer water compared to cloudy 2ft visibility water. They are often associated as a stream fish. In lakes, with Rock bass I always caught them more often in rocky shoreline areas compared to angling in or near weed beds. However Fishes of Mississippi say RKB are strongly associated with woody structure and weeds and rarely in rocky areas. They are not real prolific and nests were found to contain 450-1800 eggs.
Similarities to GSF is both fish species have large mouths similar to YP which indicates to me both species will eat larger sized small fish. For a pond fish, if I had to choose between warmouth and rock bass I would always choose rock bass mainly because RB the grow bigger.
Some midwest state record sizes: IN = WM 1lb4oz; RKB 3 lb OH = WM1lb 5oz; RKB 2.0lb WI = WM 1lb1oz; RKB 2lb 1oz MI = WM 1lb 3oz RKB 3lb 6oz PA = WM none; RKB 3lb 2oz KY = WM 1lb 6oz; RKB 1lb 1oz TN = WM 1lb 12oz; RKB 2lb 8oz
Dave - Just a nosey question. Why stock some warmouth in the pond instead of rock bass that grow larger than warmouth? MI angler records = warmouth 11" 1.3lb, rock bass 20" 3.6lb. An in-depth study of warmouth in IL indicates warmouth can be mature at 3 inches long often by the end of their 1st year.
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