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Pumpkinseed sunfish

Lepomis gibbosus

Photo by EmilyUmbarger
Published on Project Noah
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Species ID Suggestions

Pumpkinseed sunfish

Lepomis gibbosus

Comments (4)

You guys are great! Thanks for the help. All these years, we just called these fish 'sunfish'. Thanks for the distinction here. Are my other 2 fish bluegills? Or is one also a pumpkinseed? Thanks!
The red 'ear' is a giveaway of pumpkinseeds (as well as redear sunfish, which lack the pumpkinseed's vividly-contrasting stippling and striped face).
I'd agree with LuckyLogan that this looks like a pumpkinseed. They are easily confused with bluegills though and most anglers, even experienced anglers, confuse the two species. Note the red spot on the "ear" and the yellow belly. Bluegills typically have a yellow or orange throat and bluish areas just under the gills and no red spot on the gill. While many sunfish species overlap in color and patterns, thus making ID difficult using color alone, this really does look like a typical pumpkinseed.
Not so sure this is a blue gill, check out Lepomis gibbosus (Pumpkinseed)
Photographed
PublishedAugust 18, 2013

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