sunfish and hybrid Identification

[MultispeciesTamer]

We met some interesting locals this summer while sampling different areas of eastern Ohio. One kid (who probably should have been in school, it was very late summer) brought us a big dead spiny softshell with no head..."y'all ever seen one like this before?" and then through it in the river we were sampling.

I also got my first stonecat sting (actually two at the same time, 1 from each pectoral)...pretty painful

 

[sandtiger]

We met some interesting locals this summer while sampling different areas of eastern Ohio. One kid (who probably should have been in school, it was very late summer) brought us a big dead spiny softshell with no head..."y'all ever seen one like this before?" and then through it in the river we were sampling.

I also got my first stonecat sting (actually two at the same time, 1 from each pectoral)...pretty painful

That reminds me of when a couple local kids around here tried to teach me and my fishing buddies how to remove a bullhead from a hook. Evidently you take off your t-shirt and wrap it around the fish so it can't "horn ya". Needless to say I haven't done that one yet.

 

[andyjs]

That reminds me of when a couple local kids around here tried to teach me and my fishing buddies how to remove a bullhead from a hook. Evidently you take off your t-shirt and wrap it around the fish so it can't "horn ya". Needless to say I haven't done that one yet.

Haha, I prefer to put my fingers behind the spines, but whatever works. After working at a hatchery for two years and handling hundreds of baby channels a day, I got pretty good at it. I still get hit every once in a while though.

 

[sandtiger]

Haha, I prefer to put my fingers behind the spines, but whatever works. After working at a hatchery for two years and handling hundreds of baby channels a day, I got pretty good at it. I still get hit every once in a while though.

I hold them like this...

 

[MultispeciesTamer]

this one time i was fishing a local river and there was a bunch of mentaily challeged guys fishing no big deal i thought. So as i was walking down the river one was reeling in a fish so i walked over to the bank where he was and he had a small mouth bass on a stringer(season was catch and release only during this time, plus it was to small) So i said hay sir you got an illegal fish on your stringer you need to let let it go thats a small mouth bass and those are not in season. Well he replied with "its a rock bass", so after a wile of talking to no avail i left him alone and called the Dnr, havnt seen him or his budys since , kind of feel bad tho maybe they let him of easy

 

[MN_Rebel]

Oh yeah the misID fish story. My cousins thought the sticklebacks were baby eelpouts and the bait store owner who live near me claimed that he has lots of walleye fingerlings at home so I check out his tank...100gal full of sticklebacks and few random small fish such as logperch and madtoms. He had about 90ish brook sticklebacks and he though they were walleye...crazy.

 

[teleost]

Spotted Sunfish
Lepomis punctatus
Temp:70-89
Range: Central North America, as far north as Missiouri and southern Illinois, as far south as Texas-Florida

Identification:Another smaller sunfish, commonly has small black dots in horizotal rows across its body. Color is verys by fish but males are normaly black to red-orange while females are yellow to brown.3 anal, 10-11 dorsal spines. 10-11 dorsal, 10-11 anal and 13-15 pectoral rays. 39-42 lateral line scales.

Adult Spotted
View attachment 313118

Juvi/young Spotted
View attachment 313119

Juvi/young Spotted
View attachment 313120

Site:
http://aslo.org/photopost/data/517/64spotted_sunfish-med.jpg

http://books.google.com/books?id=-8...X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA438,M1

http://www.thejump.net/id/more-fish/Spotted-Sunfish.jpg

http://pro.corbis.com/images/CB044296.jpg?size=572&uid={1F101845-AB10-471A-BE5C-82017AF5B0B0}

Pictures are not accurate nor is the distribution.....Please stop...this is misinformation as this species was split a long time ago.

Again there is simply too much to refute here.

 

[teleost]

Redspotted Sunfish
Lepomis miniatus
Temp: 70-80
Range:Mississippi River vally from Illinois to the gulf of Mexico,also found in parts of Texas. River systems in Georgia.

Idetification: Dark colored body with a hint of red or orange. Dark red spots in rows across its body. Small mouth,pectoral fin does not reach nostril when bent forward. Upper jaw does not meet bottum of eye. Bottum fins are orangy or grey in color, Ear flap has a small ring of white or red around it. 3 anal, and 6-13 dorsal spines. 10-12 dorsal,10 or 11 anal, 13-14 pectoral rays. 35-43 lateral line scales.


Adult Male
View attachment 313163

Adult
View attachment 313164

Juvi/baby
View attachment 313165

Sites:
http://books.google.com/books?id=uZ...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txfishes/lepomis%20miniatus.htm

http://neworleanscitypark.com/guides/img/fish/redspottedsunfish.jpg

http://www.samford.edu/schools/artsci/biology/zoology/vertzoo-05s/photos/Redspotted-sunfish-(Lepomis%20miniatus).jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...p=20&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4SUNA_enUS307US245&sa=N

Again photos are mixed due to a species split that occurred a while ago. This is only going to further confuse the membership. You are spreading misinformation and I don't care what the links say...this is old data.

Please make this stop......

 

[MN_Rebel]

Why he need to be stop? Just let him learning from his mistakes.

 

[sandtiger]

Why he need to be stop? Just let him learning from his mistakes.

Well the problem is that other people might "learn" from his mistakes. I have to agree with Teleost, though the listing of various common names dosen't bother me his "profiles" for the redspotted and spotted sunfish are wrong due to the species split that Teleost mentioned. I'm seeing pictures of redspotted in the spotted profile etc.