[Opry99er]

You know when you see a "show quality" pure breed dog? Like a pure Siberian Husky... or a pure and perfect spaniel... Just the absolute personification and almost a caricature of the breed....... that very rare animal that is a perfect snapshot of what people visualize when they think of that breed or "species" if you will.


Such was the catch of the day yesterday.

We tried the honeyhole by the dam, but it was unbelievably high and muddy still... The rains we've had have been constant and heavy.

No luck.

We tried a small river (normally home to some fantastic fishing) and no luck there as either... water too high, muddy.

Then we tried a place completely new to us. It's not part of a river system, and is fed solely with runoff and has a well-constructed outlet partition so that it never gets over-full. We tried several things, but couldn't catch anything. 93 degrees with 80% humidity... the fish probably felt like WE did... having no moving water: hot, sluggish, tired, irritable.

Skunked there for two hours before this beautiful specimen hit the crawler.

I've caught many shellcrackers before, but none more typified the perfect representation of the species as this one. It was really a beautiful fish, 8 3/4 inches and THIIIIIICK.

Thought I'd share it, since crackers are less plentiful out west.

Next week, we will find us a catfish population somewhere nearby. That's the next target.

 

[bobys]

That is one beautiful fish!

 

[fishslap]

Nice!:thumb:

 

[Opry99er]

Thx fellas.

 

[pistoldog]

Nice Opry!

 

[rvinson]

Cool looking fish for sure!! AKA...... A tasty snack for a real fish LMAO

 

[Opry99er]

Actually, it gave me two lovely thick filets. I am making them for my son today for lunch.

One thing I can say for Tennessee, 7-9 inch panfish are as plentiful as the grass here. We've only caught 3 over 10 so far, but that's three more than we caught in Denver in 2 years.

 

[rvinson]

Actually, it gave me two lovely thick filets. I am making them for my son today for lunch.

One thing I can say for Tennessee, 7-9 inch panfish are as plentiful as the grass here. We've only caught 3 over 10 so far, but that's three more than we caught in Denver in 2 years.

My buddy FistFullaFish sent me a couple pictures of some 11" gills he caught the other day(Private dont count or I would post them up for you to see)

 

[Opry99er]

Buck's lunch... he's eating it now.

 

[rvinson]

Well..... I decided to post the pics anyway..... Keep in mind these were caught in a private pond:

 

[zebco]

now those are some bullgills.

 

[Opry99er]

Honkin' slabs, for sure.

 

[rvinson]

Those fish are about half the weight of the current state record!! They were over 1lb each but the state record is almost 2.5 lbs.

 

[CF LURKER]

Buck's lunch... he's eating it now.

That lunch looks tasty!

 

[CF LURKER]

So is a shellcracker the same as a redear? (i think so)

This whole pan fish identification is confusing.

I can not tell the difference between bluegill, green fish, sunfish and any hybrid of those.

Any simple way of knowing the difference?

 

[mrwigglestheworm]

So is a shellcracker the same as a redear? (i think so)

This whole pan fish identification is confusing.

I can not tell the difference between bluegill, green fish, sunfish and any hybrid of those.

Any simple way of knowing the difference?

Where I come from, they're all BREAM and they're all just food...

"That's all I have to say about that" -Forest Gump

 

[CF LURKER]

Where I come from, they're all BREAM and they're all just food...

"That's all I have to say about that" -Forest Gump

BREAM??? Really another term! Dang, I might have to stick to trout.

All Pan fish=Food=keep it simple. GOTCHA :biggrin1:

 

[Opry99er]

Shellcrackers are redear sunfish.

They have the red ear, greenish body and crappie-like markings.

Bluegills have a short, dark, blue/black ear, typically a yellowish coloration below the gills on the "breast" and often have vertical stripes in pairs of twos (but not always)

Green sunfish has lightning-bolt-like fluorescent green/blue markings on the head in front of the gills, a dark green body, and white or yellow fin tips.

Hybrids van be identified by the combinations of these features. For instance, if a fish has the red ear, but bluegill body markings and a yellowish breast, its likely a gill/cracker hybrid... Etc etc.

 

[CF LURKER]

The redears, are they the only one with that marking? (unless it is a hybrid)

 

[mrwigglestheworm]

Bream....

Food...

It's not that serious.