'Wild Wonderful West Virginia'

Living only a half hour from the border, I buy both a non-resident hunting and fishing license in West Virginia. Fished a small pond down there today. Here's a few pics. The last fish is what I believe to be a warmouth. Red eyes and marked up differently than any of the green sunfish & green sunfish/gill hybrids I normally catch. Appreciate any comments you would have. Was surprised to read that warmouth are endangered in Pa. What I do know is that he sure gave me a tussle on that little 4 1/2 ft. St.Croix/Mitchell 308 setup he hit.Attachment 400893Attachment 400894Attachment 400895Attachment 400896Attachment 400897Attachment 400898

Some nice fish, good job.

Great pics, great job. Thanks for sharing.

Pretty fish.


Regards


Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

This was a good trip, MR. Congrats and some really pretty fish. Haven’t been through WVA in years - good idea to have the OOS license.
Bob

Sounds like an awesome trip

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Originally Posted by BobC

This was a good trip, MR. Congrats and some really pretty fish. Haven’t been through WVA in years - good idea to have the OOS license.
Bob

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Bob,
With all the development that has gone on in this area of the state the last few years it is good to have that option.

Nice fish Great pics and caught on different lures. Excellent

Good looking fish and a nice throwback reel!

Moonrunner, that last fish is indeed a warmouth We catch tons of them in the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia. Heading down there a week from Monday.

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Originally Posted by moonrunner

Living only a half hour from the border, I buy both a non-resident hunting and fishing license in West Virginia. Fished a small pond down there today. Here's a few pics. The last fish is what I believe to be a warmouth. Red eyes and marked up differently than any of the green sunfish & green sunfish/gill hybrids I normally catch. Appreciate any comments you would have. Was surprised to read that warmouth are endangered in Pa. What I do know is that he sure gave me a tussle on that little 4 1/2 ft. St.Croix/Mitchell 308 setup he hit.
.Attachment 400893Attachment 400894Attachment 400895Attachment 400896Attachment 400897Attachment 400898

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Moonrunner, that last fish is indeed a warmouth We catch tons of them in the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia. Heading down there a week from Monday.

Gotta love WV. Glad you found some good ones!

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Originally Posted by jones5420

Moonrunner, that last fish is indeed a warmouth We catch tons of them in the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia. Heading down there a week from Monday.

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Jones5420,
Thank you for your verification. I had seen pictures of them before, however, this was a first time catch for me. Funny how you guys can catch tons down there, but endangered up here in Pa.. It was like a WOW fish for me. Sounds like a great trip coming up for you in the Okefenokee Swamp. Please post some pics. if possible, would enjoy seeing some of those nice panfish from down there. Good luck!

Great catches !

I am curious to anyone that wishes to answer, how do you Guys distinguish between a Warmouth and a Green Sunfish??

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Originally Posted by Fly2bTied

Great catches !

I am curious to anyone that wishes to answer, how do you Guys distinguish between a Warmouth and a Green Sunfish??

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Here is a few pics. of what I call a Green sunfish/Gill hybrid. Do not have the mouth as large as Green sunfish and body shape is more like a Gill but coloration more like a Green sunfish. There was a pond on a gamelands here in Pa. that had what I would say were true Green sunfish. They were smaller but had very large mouths for their size with a lot of the blue streaking and had a more streamlined body than a gill. Quite a bit of yellow/white on fins also. It was drained for some reason and after being refilled I have not caught them in that pond since. The fish I caught in West Virginia had a more brown mottled coloration and red eyes, but I have caught these hybrids with red eyes occasionally. Attachment 401016Attachment 401017Attachment 401018

I envy you. First 308 reel I've seen in about 40 yrs! Absolutely loved mine!

The Mitchels were king of the heap back in the day. We all wanted one.
Bob

The warmouth is what we call goggle-eye down here. When you catch one, you'll know it. It is more primitive looking, more prehistoric, compared to a bluegill. It's less round than a bluegill. I've seen various colorations but they usually have red eyes. The giveaway is the much larger mouth. Their belly usually almost looks like they are gaunt but it's just their shape. A bluegill is more round there. And all over.

Nice they look pretty big