Bluegill-Shellcracker cross.

[Travis C.]

Cool and I'll bet... based on Jim's response and Dave's from mine the two fish we have must be the two variations possible.

Mine's more color of a gill yet with a rigid short opecular lope like red ears and red on the edge.

Your's had more color of a shellcracker yet with the fleshy opecluar lope like gills but with red edge.

Let's breed those together now and see if we can get tilapia.

Hey, been gone from the forum a while, but the fish is definitely a cross between a redear and a bluegill - as Habrera noted, the opercular is too big for a redear, and bluegill do not have the red fringing on their operculars. Beyond that, as Alpha noted, the body shape is much more that of a bluegill than a redear; and the coloring is unique to bluegill-redear crosses. I have several of these crosses in a pond I manage - here are a couple caught this year:

[Alphahawk]

Originally Posted by tnpondmanager

Hey, been gone from the forum a while, but the fish is definitely a cross between a redear and a bluegill - as Habrera noted, the opercular is too big for a redear, and bluegill do not have the red fringing on their operculars. Beyond that, as Alpha noted, the body shape is much more that of a bluegill than a redear; and the coloring is unique to bluegill-redear crosses. I have several of these crosses in a pond I manage - here are a couple caught this year:

Hey Walt...long time no see. Nice Gills you have in those lakes. While Williamsport is OK for being right at home it just does not have the big bruisers. Copper Nose are starting to show up at Laurel Hill. Have caught several down there at the pound mark but you won't find any all bunched up together that size. Have ordered some tungsten jigs to try and get deep at Pickwick yet keeping same profile as a 1/64 head but weighing almost 1/32. Going to try them out late Fall early Winter and on.


Regards

Nice to hear that more coppernose are showing up at Laurel Hill. Here are a couple more photos of bluegill caught this year from ponds I guide on:

[Alphahawk]

Nice fish!

Thanks, Alpha! My expensive digital scale broke recently so none of these were weighed, but the client holding the fish up close to the camera is an avid and very skilled bluegill angler and thinks we had thirty over a pound the morning of that fish he's holding - he estimated three of them at 24 ounces, which I think is about right.

The hybrid in the first set of photos weighed 1 lb. 12 oz. - that one was caught back in May.

[rsimms]

I've never seen one (until now). That's cool... thanks for sharing.