Sunfish I.D. help -

[David Lee]

http://tnfish.org/FishIdentificationID_TWRA/TWRA_Sunfish_Identification_Key.htm

Remember , they do hybridize .

D.~

[John Sv]

Thanks for this David!
I grew up a block from a Chesapeake Bay tributary (as an aside: when someone says 'The Chesapeake Bay' they are saying 'the the great shellfish bay bay'...kinda like the LaBrea Tar Pits) and we had big 'ol brackish water pumpkin seeds that we'd fly fish for. Black gnats and wooly worms worked, if they did not, a fly cast live cricket sure did. This old timer that I fished with when I was a kid loved the fight of pumpkin seeds and bluegills. He said they were like pulling a paper plate sideways through the water.

[David Lee]

http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/species/?uid=81&ds=241

Our only California Native Sunfish -

D.~

[David Lee]

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrTcXwwVxBVytkAdGCJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIzNn B0cnZ2BHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAMzMThhYjY3MjdmMTNk ZjEyNjhhYmY0ZmE0YzU3MWMyMwRncG9zAzc5BGl0A2Jpbmc-?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearc h%2Fimages%3Fp%3DCrappie%2BSpecies%26fr%3Dyfp-t-901%26nost%3D1%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D79&w=450&h=503&imgurl=www.tnfish.org%2FSpeciesFishInformation_TWR A%2FImages%2FCrappieHybridMiddleDouglas2006Hammond sNegus.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tnfish.org%2FSpeciesFishInfo rmation_TWRA%2FBlackCrappieTennessee_PomoxisNigrom aculatus_TWRA.htm&size=41.9KB&name=...+black%2C+and+hybrid+Douglas+Reservoir+%3C b%3Ecrappie%3C%2Fb%3E+-+photo+by+John+Hammonds&p=Crappie+Species&oid=318ab6727f13df1268abf4fa4c571c23&fr2=&fr=yfp-t-901&tt=...+black%2C+and+hybrid+Douglas+Reservoir+%3Cb% 3Ecrappie%3C%2Fb%3E+-+photo+by+John+Hammonds&b=61&ni=96&no=79&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=1361cs1hr&sigb=135rgkjpp&sigi=1317638cm&sigt=12f0ch1td&sign=12f0ch1td&.crumb=KwX3EpPzEMM&fr=yfp-t-901

I've landed only 2 White Crappie here in CA. - the spots are indeed arranged into vertical bars .

D.~

[Terry Thomas]

Thanks David. Gets the warm water juices flowing.

[ptychocheilus]

Remember , they do hybridize

Yeah, but "hybrid" gets invoked a bit too often -- it covers up both natural variation between individuals as well as just poor identification skills. I don't understand how people that have >1000 fly patterns memorized, can tell 7x from 8x by feel, and ID small mayflies from across a stream can be so craptacularly bad at identifying non-target fish species.

[Ed Wahl]

Yeah, but "hybrid" gets invoked a bit too often -- it covers up both natural variation between individuals as well as just poor identification skills. I don't understand how people that have >1000 fly patterns memorized, can tell 7x from 8x by feel, and ID small mayflies from across a stream can be so craptacularly bad at identifying non-target fish species.

I hear you Squawfish.

One day while hiking up a popular canyon close to here I met a dude coming out who was carrying a fishing rod. I stopped to talk and he told me he'd caught a nice rainbow right over there. I'd been fishing this canyon for years and all I'd seen here in the summer were smallmouth, never a trout. The water here can get to 80 degrees in summer. He offered to show it to me and of course I said yes. Well, he had a cheap canvas like creel and inside that he had a bread bag, and inside that was a nice little Sacramento Sucker.

"That's one nice trout" I told the happy fisherman and we parted ways.

He wasn't your flyfishing expert but he was happy and I couldn't find it in myself to bring him down.