I caught and released what was most likely my biggest “sunfish” today, I took the time to take a pic and weight it. I was in a bit of a hurry to get it back in and go after an even bigger one that I saw. Unfortunately the bigger one didn’t come back to play. The thing is, when I released this fish, I thought it was a pumpkinseed, but then looking back at the pic, I think it’s a bluegill. The blue color pattern in the face made me think seed at first, but it’s lacking any of the reds and orange that seeds have. Is this a bluegill or a hybrid? Weight jumped between .65-.7 on my cheap digital scale.
This is a pumpkinseed I caught just before that “gill”.
Solid Gill I caught in the same watershed but not the same lake
Besides personal curiosity, my states record bluegill was lighter than this fish, but the pumpkinseed record is higher lol.