Caught my new record for largest hybrid sunfish

[Magnus_Bane]

As the title suggests I caught my new record for the largest hybrid sunfish today. It's the same as all the other ones I've been catching lately, just a green sunfish mixed with a pumpkinseed. This bad boi was at 8¼in and weighed roughly ½lb. Lol showed him off to my female FH and she went ballistic trying to bite him thru the glass. Would've gotten better looking pics if he didn't jump out of the bucket half way home. But yeah enough rambling and onto the pics.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

This here is a better pic of a bit smaller one (6in) I caught a few days prior.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Wonder why all these hybrids popped up suddenly tho. They never used to be in this pond before, atleast the weren't last year. But now I'm catching all these keeper sized ones out of nowhere for some reason. The weirdest thing tho is that pumpkin seeds aren't very common in this pond so it's kind of odd to find all these hybrid ones when the pure fish are so much harder to find. Kind of half tempted to start a breeding project with em and see if I can get some better colors out of em, not that they aren't beautiful already I'm just saying it would be neat to see how good looking they could be given a predator free environment.

 

[Ozzie73]

Wonder why all these hybrids popped up suddenly tho. They never used to be in this pond before, atleast the weren't last year. But now I'm catching all these keeper sized ones out of nowhere for some reason. The weirdest thing tho is that pumpkin seeds aren't very common in this pond so it's kind of odd to find all these hybrid ones when the pure fish are so much harder to find. Kind of half tempted to start a breeding project with em and see if I can get some better colors out of em, not that they aren't beautiful already I'm just saying it would be neat to see how good looking they could be given a predator free environment.

It could be birds transplanting the eggs from one pond to another.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

It could be birds transplanting the eggs from one pond to another.

It's possible for sure. Regardless of how they got there tho they sure do taste good all fried up lol. I wonder if they fall under the "game fish" category since they are hybrids. I mean they technically wouldn't be considered as a recognized specie as far as I know.

 

[Ruturaj]

This here is a better pic of a bit smaller one (6in) I caught a few days prior.

View attachment 1420325

This one looks pretty good, wouldn't mind one in tank either.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

This one looks pretty good, wouldn't mind one in tank either.

Yeah they do look very nice. Bright blue iridescent spots around the jaw line and gills, black ear tag with a red strip on it and that nice pumpkin seed body pattern with the yellow tipped fins from the greenie. Kind of half curious if I could sell these hybrids at all since they aren't a recognized specie of game fish. I'd have to ask my local GFP and see the legality of it. But either way it wouldn't be illegal if I were to breed a couple and sell the offspring atleast according to state regulations. Lol only problem with that is I just don't have anywhere to put a pair at atm.