garyg199 Posted June 21, 2020 Posted June 21, 2020 Today my girlfriend caught two bluegill with a black belly and bottom fins. There's no warmouth around here, in the Jersey shore area, at least where we fish, and I'm not sure what else it would be mixed with. Is it hybrid? Due to season? I have NEVER seen this before. Can't seem to upload pictures due to file size. But it was def a bluegill, still had the blue, just had a black frontward belly portion and black black lower fins If anyone has experienced this, please let me know! 1 Quote
Super User soflabasser Posted June 21, 2020 Super User Posted June 21, 2020 Nice bluegill you caught. I have caught bluegill with a very dark coloration and other unique patterns. In Northern Florida there is a variety of bluegill called a painted bluegill that has a very unique coloration. 2 Quote
Heartland Posted June 21, 2020 Posted June 21, 2020 Sometimes during the spawn the big bulls turn a very dark color purple/black. 5 Quote
Super User soflabasser Posted June 22, 2020 Super User Posted June 22, 2020 Nice bluegill. I have caught many big bluegills with a similar coloration like the one you posted. 1 Quote
Bluegillslayer Posted June 22, 2020 Posted June 22, 2020 Me and my family have been catching bluegill that look very dark like the one in the photo 1 Quote
Super User Bird Posted June 22, 2020 Super User Posted June 22, 2020 Coming from a long line of aquraist, spawning brings out some amazing color variations. 3 Quote
Super User soflabasser Posted June 26, 2020 Super User Posted June 26, 2020 On 6/22/2020 at 6:36 PM, Bird said: Coming from a long line of aquraist, spawning brings out some amazing color variations. You should see the spawning colors of a big Copperhead bluegill from a clear body of water in South Florida. These fish have the most beautiful coloration of any bluegill variety I have seen. There are other species of sunfish that have beautiful colors such as the redbreast sunfish, longear sunfish, dollar sunfish, and other highly colorful species of sunfish. 2 Quote
Super User Spankey Posted June 30, 2020 Super User Posted June 30, 2020 When I have my grandsons out with me I start them out and try to guide them for the bass first. But we have plenty of panfish baits on board. They've had 50-100 fish days. Shiners, worms, crickets get it done. Here in PA there are many variations of bluegill, sunfish and crappies. 1 Quote
Fallser Posted July 4, 2020 Posted July 4, 2020 I've seen them that dark. It depends on the type of water they live in. South Jersey has a lot of tannic lakes with dark water and that affects the coloration of the fish. This one was caught out of Shohola Lake in the Poconos that has a high tannic level. Quote
Jleebesaw Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 Man, i wish i could catch more big ones like the pics on here. Im in ny and just never see big bluegills anymore. I normally catch a few that are big enough to keep while crappie fishing, but rarely see anything like those beauties. Quote
Black Hawk Basser Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 3 hours ago, Jleebesaw said: Man, i wish i could catch more big ones like the pics on here. Im in ny and just never see big bluegills anymore. I normally catch a few that are big enough to keep while crappie fishing, but rarely see anything like those beauties. Big bluegills are really prone to over-harvest, since greedy idiots like to keep every 9"+ fish they catch during the spawn. Good genetics is really important for bluegills. If people continually keep buckets of large fish, the gene pool can get decimated. Perhaps this is the problem where you fish. Quote
Guitarfish Posted July 10, 2020 Posted July 10, 2020 That may be reaching a bit, but I agree sort of. I catch a few crappie for dinner and then go catch and release mode. Who can eat 25 crappie? I just cringe when I see buckets. Quote
Fallser Posted July 10, 2020 Posted July 10, 2020 The problem in my creek is the flathead catfish fisherman. They've decimated the bluegils and other sunfish in sections of the creek I fish and use them for bait. In PA the limit for individual species of pan fish, including bluegill is 20 fish per day. You can keep 50 fish a day of combined species. No minimum size, no seasonal restrictions. Myself and the three guys I fish with could probably eat 25 crappies in one sitting. Do we keep that many pan fish. No. We spend a week on a lake in the Poconos, twice a year. At the end of the week, we have a "Canadian Shore Lunch" for dinner on the last night. Last time I cleaned 15 or 16 fish. Mostly rock bass, but a couple of big bluegill, crappie and perch. When I was in college in NW Tennessee back in the 70's, my buddy and I, who I still fish with today, would make a trip to Reelfoot Lake once or twice a month. The lake's noted for it big crappie and bream. If we had a good day, we could bring home a couple of dozen crappie, what we didn't eat that day went in the freezer for dinner another night. Often when we would get back to the dock, we'd see locals with coolers full of slab crappie. That was food on their table. Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted July 11, 2020 Global Moderator Posted July 11, 2020 On 7/9/2020 at 10:00 PM, Fallser said: The problem in my creek is the flathead catfish fisherman. They've decimated the bluegils and other sunfish in sections of the creek I fish and use them for bait. In PA the limit for individual species of pan fish, including bluegill is 20 fish per day. You can keep 50 fish a day of combined species. No minimum size, no seasonal restrictions. Myself and the three guys I fish with could probably eat 25 crappies in one sitting. Do we keep that many pan fish. No. We spend a week on a lake in the Poconos, twice a year. At the end of the week, we have a "Canadian Shore Lunch" for dinner on the last night. Last time I cleaned 15 or 16 fish. Mostly rock bass, but a couple of big bluegill, crappie and perch. When I was in college in NW Tennessee back in the 70's, my buddy and I, who I still fish with today, would make a trip to Reelfoot Lake once or twice a month. The lake's noted for it big crappie and bream. If we had a good day, we could bring home a couple of dozen crappie, what we didn't eat that day went in the freezer for dinner another night. Often when we would get back to the dock, we'd see locals with coolers full of slab crappie. That was food on their table. UT Martin? Quote
Fallser Posted July 11, 2020 Posted July 11, 2020 17 hours ago, TnRiver46 said: UT Martin? Yep, 1971 to 1975. A lot of the professors I knew owned small farms that had ponds on them that kept us in food. Fished the Obion River for shell crackers, Reelfoot a couple of times a month, and always made it over to the Paris Fish Fry. Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted July 12, 2020 Global Moderator Posted July 12, 2020 7 hours ago, Fallser said: Yep, 1971 to 1975. A lot of the professors I knew owned small farms that had ponds on them that kept us in food. Fished the Obion River for shell crackers, Reelfoot a couple of times a month, and always made it over to the Paris Fish Fry. Awesome! I got to spend a little time out that way when I was in college, neat area Quote
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