What have I caught?

Yep ... Green Sunfish !! Caught several that size last week at a local lake, getting ready to spawn.

We always catch a bunch of them, of all sizes, whenever we let the Road Runner or jig splash down very close to the rocky banks. I've cleaned and eaten a few that size, and they taste just like a Bluegill.

Beautiful green sunfish

I’ll take a dozen or so of those. Nice lookin fish!

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Originally Posted by Bert

Been fishing that lake since the early 70's and never caught anything like this. Caught plenty of redeye and rock bass (both have a large mouth like this one) but never one of these.

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I have found them in a creek near me, but once I started paying attention, I've found them at a few ponds too. They LOVE rocks. They will hide in and under them. I can look in the very shallow creek and see a few, but drag the bait over a rock and they smack it. The ones I've caught are highly aggressive and are most likely to hit as soon as the bait hits the water. They don't get as big as bluegills, but they do get thick near the spine (compared to bluegill) as they get bigger. World record is 2 pounds 2 ounces. In TN, the state record bluegill is 3 pounds, but the green sunfish record is 1 pound 4 ounces.

FL and NJ have them listed as an invasive species. They are good fighters when they get big enough to not be skiers :)

I'm gonna go with green sunfish and a good'un....

prespawn straight run green sunfish ,will hit hard and fight well when large