Long eared Bluegill

[camofish]

Not seen too many of these long eared gills around.

The awesome thing is, that it's still swimming. Just a little C.P.R. and back down the hole to swim away and fight again another day. :D

[popeyemaker]

In 40+ yrs. of bluegill fishin' I have never seen one like it. Is it a mutant?

[CrappiePappy]

In 40+ yrs. of bluegill fishin' I have never seen one like it. Is it a mutant?

Not hardly :p .... but, they're NOT "longear Bluegill" -- they're Longear Sunfish !!

They're all over the place, from the Great Lakes to Fla. They're what my Grandparents used to call "Redbellies" ... and are sometimes confused with the Pumpkinseed. Check this link, and scroll down to see the pics towards the bottom of the page : http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...&ct=image&cd=1

You've probably caught them before, and just didn't realize what they were ... or like most, just lump summed 'em all together as "Bream". You can download the KY FISH ID Booklet, and see alot of the fish that swim in KY waters : http://www.rbff-education.org/cgi-bi...?ID=1088605995 Just click on Fish ID Booklet Note: it is a 2.77MB PDF file !!

... cp

[Baxter1]

That's pretty cool.I've never seen anything like that.

[john h]

lol i have caught a few in my days but never got why they called them long eared when i have yet to see a fish with ears lol

[dixieangler]

It is actually a Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis auritus) but also called by other Common Names - redbelly, robin, yellowbelly sunfish, bream, river bream, longear sunfish, sun perch and redbreast bream. However there may be different strains and even hybrids of some bream (or sunfish if you prefer). I have caught both hybrids (usually sterile mixed breeds that do not reproduce) and strains. I have caught a strain of Longear here in Florida that I call a Texas Longear (since Texas is the supposed origin of the strain of this fish) that has no red breast but does have the long ear or gill cover flap (an exaggerated extremely long ear or gill cover flap). I only caught them in one place and have never caught any since so they may have been introduced at that particular place.

Redbreast

[wrwest]

Thats different, Never seen one before.

[popeyemaker]

Now I see. I've caught long eared sunfish all my life but I don't think I've ever caught a redbreasted sunfish. I used to catch what the country boys called robbins out of creeks but they weren't colored like the one in the post.

[camofish]

thanks guys for all the great info. :D
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REDBREAST SUNFISH

(Lepomis auritus)

Common Names - redbelly, robin, yellowbelly sunfish, bream, river bream, longear sunfish, sun perch and redbreast bream.
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Very cool, thanks for the clarification.
It was a weird catch for me, being all dark colored and stuff. I've got some in the summer but they are a lot brighter, but this one had the longest ear, I've ever seen.

[NIMROD]

Not hardly :p .... but, they're NOT "longear Bluegill" -- they're Longear Sunfish !!

They're all over the place, from the Great Lakes to Fla. They're what my Grandparents used to call "Redbellies" ... and are sometimes confused with the Pumpkinseed. Check this link, and scroll down to see the pics towards the bottom of the page : http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...&ct=image&cd=1

You've probably caught them before, and just didn't realize what they were ... or like most, just lump summed 'em all together as "Bream". You can download the KY FISH ID Booklet, and see alot of the fish that swim in KY waters : http://www.rbff-education.org/cgi-bi...?ID=1088605995 Just click on Fish ID Booklet Note: it is a 2.77MB PDF file !!

... cp

NOT SURE , BUT COULD IT BE A BLUEGILL/LONGEARRED SUNFISH HYBRID?