Thread: Redear, Pumpkinseed or hybrid....?

Could be a regional thing in "name calling", about a month ago I caught that identical fish in Florida, never see the gill veins so colorful blue down here w/ red tick on ear, sure reminded me of pumpkin seeds caught on trips to Wisconsin.....2 cents...dono......

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FUN is the word as far as what it is. LOVE it when you get into those in numbers with light tackle! Plus they eat up really well when you do them whole!

Originally Posted by P-row

Totally agree they fight like crazy! Caught this one yesterday....looks to be a true redear.

I would say pure red ear as well , if it came from the same pond I would revise my guess to say the first fish was a green red ear cross by the way

Pumpkinseed


Almost looks like it has some pumpkin seed in it but most likely a redear with its larger mouth:

Do straight-up redears have the blue rays in the area under the eye and behind the mouth?

Originally Posted by Fishfishwish

Do straight-up redears have the blue rays in the area under the eye and behind the mouth?

After looking at many pictures and the zoologist description I believe they are just one of many types of redear sunfish that can have different appearances, the one below typical:
REDEAR SUNFISH (LEPOMIS MICROLOPHUS)

• Small mouth relative to body size
• Upper jaw extends to the front of the eye
• Dark opercular flap with red to orange margin color
• Inflexible opercular flap
• Brown spotting forming a mottled, or checkered, pattern
• Pectoral fins are elongated, reaching past the eye when folded forward

LONGEAR SUNFISH (LEPOMIS MEGALOTIS)

• Upper jaw extends to the center of the eye
• Blue to teal stripes extend form mouth to opercular flap
• Flexible, dark opercular flap with thin red or white margin
• Pectoral fins are short and do not reach the eye when folded forward
• Males can have blue to teal dorsal fins
• Very small mouth

Green sunfish are different than most sunfish and may also have teal stripes from mouth to flap

• Relatively large mouth (closer in proportion to a lm bass)
• Lower jaw extends to the middle of the eye
• Opercular flap is black with white margin tipped in yellow, orange or red
• Pectoral fin is short and rounded
• Pectoral fin does not reach beyond the eye

Thx for all the responses....the colors these fish possess is too kewl!