Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Question about BG

Is a Goggle Eye or War Mouth the same as a Hybrid? I know they both have very large mouths. Does anyone sell Goggle Eye?

A hybrid is just a cross between two different species of fish. A very common commercially available hybrid is a hybrid bluegill which is most commonly a cross between a male bluegill and a female green sunfish (BGxGSF=HBG).

Another hybrid would be a cross between a Striper and a White Bass which is sometimes called a wiper or hybrid striped bass.

War mouth is a species of sunfish. Warmouth can hybridize with other sunfish, but a pure warmouth is not a hybrid. For example a warmouthxbluegill cross could be called a hybrid warmouth or hybrid bluegill.

Warmouth and Goggle Eye or Rock Bass are two separate species. They are not hybrids of other species. I have not seen them advertised for sale.

I understand that most don't want them in their pond because of mouth size which make them compete with the lmb forage. And they don't get all that large when comparing them to Bg or Res. But, my favorite for eating over bg and res. Their meat is sweet tasting.
Sometimes we go ou fishing just for them in the lake because of the way they taste. Caddo lake has a lot of them if u know where and how to fish for them.

Tracy

Awesome info guys, I always wondered about goggle eye. We would always catch them when fishing reserves. Does anyone have any of these in their pond?? Just curious about the reproduction and availability.

I've seen the name Goggle Eye applied to BOTH Warmouth and Rockbass, depending upon location. Which species are you referring to?

There is a big difference as to genetics between all of those.

I googled War Mouth and Goggle Eye Bream and a lot of the pics were exactly the same so I am just confused on what is the difference.

Goggle Eye is more of a regional or local name, applied to whatever species dad, grandad, and/or uncle Joe felt was appropriate.

Kind of like "perch" in my area means any small sunfish that are not really perch at all.

In the south east of Pennsylvania where I grew up, we had rock bass in several streams. There the rock bass individuals whose eyes protruded were the "goggle eyes".
We might catch 10 rock bass and have 1 or 2 exhibiting the protruding eyes. We were told back then it was a result of a gas bubble problem in those individuals.
Roger

Kind of like in Ontario here everyone calls walleye "pickerel".

That is crazy that generations of people in ontario will grow up not knowing the difference between a pickerel and a walleye! If someone from your area Dono catches a pickerel do they call it a pickerel too or is it just that they haven't ever seen a pickerel to know the difference?

How does a section of the US start calling a sunfish a perch?

I find it fascinating that everything in the south is a 'bream' I wonder how far north you get before the bream name drops away and they are called sunfish again?

Sunfish, warmouth, and rock bass are all very different, I wonder why their names are intertwined/confused with each other?

Yeah when I first moved here to Arkansas from Wisconsin I was like... What is a bream??? LOL... I had no clue what they were talking about. In Wisconsin there were / are all called by their names not clumped up into one big category... lol

RC

However there is a HUGH difference between a pickerel and a Walleye.... lol

Couple three generations ago out in the country there likely wouldn't have even been books with black and white scetches showing the proper names of fish.

Likely whatever great grandpa called them got carried over. And there is a good chance great grampa did not really know.

Heck one generation ago we did not have the internet as we know it today. Sometimes we forget how far and fast we have came with the availibility of easily accessed knowledge.

I find that Warmouth, Rockbass, and Green Sunfish are the three most commonly confused/mixed up/interchangeably named by those not schooled in the fishallurgical arts....

I grew up hearing GSF called "Old fashioned Bluegill"

Around here a lot of people call BG, GSF, RES, and all similar looking species "perch". The only member of the perch family commonly seen around here is the Walleye, and some older people call it a "walleyed pike". You would be surprised at the casual fishermen that cannot identify species, can't tell a BG from a RES, or a CC from a BC, or LMB from Spotted bass and SMB, and etc. Some occasionally get into trouble over it with wardens with the LMB & SMB (which are actually sunfish).