Yup. I look at three things if there is any question on what it is.
1. Size of mouth. (Once you look at a few thousand it becomes pretty easy to determine what large vs. small looks like.)
2. Is the opercal tab black all the way to the margin?
3. Shape of the pectoral fin.
I rarely use color as that can be so variable from water to water and state to state.
ClearCreek
CrappiePappy thanked you for this post
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing. I thought it was great because of the multiple pics of each species. Water clarity affect them and how they look, and seeing them, in different sizes, and coming out of different waters, along with your descriptions, made it all so clear. Now yes, I'm gonna look at them in a whole different light. Thanks for sharing. I'll copy this thread to the archives.
Great video, thanks for sharing!
Well, around here everybody calls everything in the sunfish family "perch " even though we don't even have yellow perch.