Quote Originally Posted by ArthurLK11 View Post
I disagree. Regular northern strain bluegill have bright red breasts like that. Especially the males when they're spawning. Nothing in that fish says it has any redbreast ancestry.
I disagree also. Males coming off northern beds can be that hard red and off the same bed softer reds. Whether it is a strain or result of diet I do not know, but I have certainly seen male bluegills colored like that during the spawn here in Minnesota where we have neither coppernose nor shellcrackers.