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Sunfish vs Bluegill Identification Guide

Bluegills are sunfish, but they're often confused with other panfish species. Here's a handy guide for identifying all the different sunfish

BY DAC COLLINS 


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Bluegills are beloved by anglers across North America. Many of us—this author included—got our start catching them in farm ponds and creeks, and bluegills can be found in every U.S. state outside of Alaska. Because of their popularity and prevalence, many people lump bluegills in with other sunfish. (Anglers are also guilty of this.) They’ll use these names interchangeably, referring to any sunfish as a bluegill when it might actually be a longear, a redbreast, or some other member of the sunfish family. To avoid this confusion, we’ve compiled a guide that compares sunfish vs bluegill and offers some tips on how to correctly identify them all.

Why the Confusion?

The confusion between sunfish vs bluegill stems from the fact that every bluegill is a sunfish, but not every sunfish is a bluegill. In other words, the term “bluegill” refers to one species, while “sunfish” refers to a family of more than 30 different freshwater species that are native to North America.

Overview of the Sunfish Family

The sunfish family (Centrarchidae) comprises eight different genera or branches. The majority of anglers will be most familiar with the last three of these branches as they include several popular game fish species:

  • Sacramento perch (Archoplites)*

  • Mud sunfish (Acantharchus)*

  • Flier (Centrarchus)*

  • Banded sunfish (Enneacanthus): Banded, blackbanded, and blue-spotted sunfish

  • Rock bass (Amblopites): Rock bass, shadow bass, Roanoke bass, and Ozark bass

  • Crappies (Pomoxis): White crappies and black crappies

  • Black bass (Micropterus): 13 species, including smallmouth and largemouth bass

  • True sunfish (Lepomis): 13 species, including bluegills, warmouth, and green sunfish

* This genus only has one species.

This article will focus strictly on the true sunfish genus. Many of these species look alike, and this is where most of the confusion occurs when looking at sunfish vs bluegill.

All true sunfish have a rounded body shape and small mouths, and most species average between three and eight inches long. These small fish are often referred to colloquially as bream or perch, although the latter is actually a misnomer. (Perch belong to a separate family of North American freshwater fish.)

All About Bluegill

Of the 13 true sunfish that inhabit North America, the bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) is the most abundant, widespread, and commonly caught species. This is why they are so well-known among American anglers, and it’s why people often use bluegill as a catch-all term for several different sunfish species.

Appearance

Like all the other true sunfish, bluegills have rounded, dish-shaped bodies, small mouths, and spiny dorsal fins. The name bluegill derives from the iridescent bluish coloration on the cheek and gill plate. They also have a black earflap, which is one way to distinguish bluegills from other true sunfish species.

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An adult bluegill has an average length of around seven inches, but due to their oval body shape, these fish can be nearly as tall as they are long. They average around one to two pounds, with the largest individuals growing to more than twice that size. The all-tackle world record bluegill weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces and was caught from Ketona Lake in Alabama in 1950.

Distribution and Habitat




Bluegills historically occupied a native range that covered most of the Eastern and Central United States. This included the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins—stretching from Quebec and New York to Minnesota and then south to the Gulf of Mexico—as well as the entire southeast region from Virginia’s Cape Fear River to the Rio Grande in Texas and New Mexico.

Because they’re relatively easy and fun to catch, bluegills have been introduced in every U.S. state except Alaska. Most of these stockings were done by state fish and game agencies. The species has also been introduced to various countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.   

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Bluegills are a warm-water species and they require water temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees F. While they can tolerate low levels of salinity, they are most at home in freshwater ponds and lakes, as well as slow-moving rivers and creeks.


They prefer areas with lots of aquatic vegetation, and are often found near logs, weed beds, or some other structure (both natural and manmade). Bluegills typically inhabit deeper water, where they tend to congregate in schools. They’re also territorial, and will typically stay within a 300 to 400 square foot area for most of their lives.

Behavior and Habits

Bluegills are voracious and opportunistic carnivores. Their diet consists primarily of insects, tiny crustaceans, zooplankton, and other small prey items. They’ll also prey on leeches and worms, along with minnows and other small baitfish. Bluegills typically feed during daylight hours, and they often move closer to the surface to eat bugs during the mornings and evenings.


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Bluegills are also prey to countless larger freshwater species, and they spend most of their lives dodging predators. Bass, muskies, walleyes, and catfish all love to eat bluegills, as do snakes, turtles, herons, and other waterbirds. This is where their spiny dorsal fins come in handy—by extending these spines, they’re harder (and more painful) to swallow.

Adult bluegills spawn in the spring. They build nests for spawning, and will typically nest together in large colonies in shallow water.

The males build nests by sweeping circular depressions in the lake or stream bed with their tail fins. They’ll swim around these nests to attract females. Once a female’s eggs are released and fertilized, the male is left to guard the nest. After two to five days, the eggs hatch into fry, which are then guarded by the males for another five to 10 days until the fry begin feeding on zooplankton and swim away on their own.

How to Identify Bluegill and Other Common Sunfish Species

It can be difficult to correctly identify each of the 13 true sunfish species. To the untrained eye, they all look very similar. These species also hybridize, which makes identification even more challenging.


Fortunately, there are some distinguishing features and a few visual markers that can help distinguish a bluegill from another common sunfish. The species that are pictured and included in the table below are the ones that are most often mistaken for bluegills:

Pumpkinseed

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Warmouth

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Green Sunfish


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Redear Sunfish



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Longear Sunfish


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Redbreast Sunfish

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Here’s a basic chart to help with identification:

Species Name

Average Size

Coloration

Distinguishing Features

Bluegill

6-9 inches, 1-2 pounds

Dark olive backs, copper sides, yellow-orange bellies, bluish jaws and gill plates

Black earflap; dark spot at base of dorsal fin

Pumpkinseed

3-5 inches, less than 1 pound

A vibrant mixture of green, orange, yellow and blue, with speckles on their sides

Vertical bars are less defined than a bluegill’s; black earflap has an orange-red, crescent-shaped edge

Warmouth

4-8 inches, 1-2 pounds

Dark, mottled brown with golden bellies

Reddish-brown streaks near the eyes; bright orange spot at base of dorsal fin

Green Sunfish

3-5 inches, less than 1 pound

Blue-green back and sides with yellow flecks

Gill plates have blue coloration that is brighter than a bluegill’s; longer snout that extends beneath middle of the eye

Redear sunfish

6-8 inches, 1 pound

Yellow-olive sides with a darker back and faint vertical bars

Red (males) or orange (females) edge is visible on the dark earflap

Longear sunfish

6-8 inches, 1 pound

Olive-brown back with a bright orange belly and blue-green specks

Pronounced, elongated earflap

Redbreast

4-6 inches, less than 1 pound

Olive-green body transitions to a vibrant, red-orange belly

Longer earflap than a bluegill; Reddish-yellow coloring on cheeks and throat; no dark spot at base of dorsal

The other six true sunfish species are easier to distinguish from bluegills. They’re also less common:

Sunfish vs Bluegill FAQs

Q: Are bluegills and sunfish the same thing?

Yes and no. All bluegills are sunfish, but not all sunfish are bluegills. The bluegill is just one of more than 30 freshwater species that comprise the sunfish family. There are six other true sunfish species that are often mistaken for bluegill, and those include the pumpkinseed, warmouth, green sunfish, redear sunfish, longear sunfish, and the redbreast. Hybrid bluegills are possible with these species, which makes identification even trickier.

Q: How large is a bluegill?

An average adult bluegill weighs around one or two pounds, but they can exceed four pounds. The biggest bluegills are roughly the size of a small dinner or salad plate.

Q: Are bluegills good to eat?

Yes. Bluegills are abundant and they make great table fare. They have a white, flaky meat with a mild flavor. They’re often filleted and fried in a skillet, or cleaned, descaled and cooked whole. They’re called panfish not just because of their shape, but because they fit in a frying pan.

Final Thoughts on Sunfish vs Bluegill

Remember that “bluegill” refers to a single species, while “sunfish” refers to an entire family of freshwater fishes. Bluegills are the most common and widely known of all the true sunfish.

To distinguish sunfish vs bluegill, look for the dark earflap and the dark spot at the base of their dorsal fin. This is a bluegill. If the fish has both these physical features, along with a dark olive back, a yellow-orange belly, and a bluish jaw and gill plate, it’s most likely a bluegill or a bluegill hybrid.



 

DEER BAITING NOW LEGAL IN THESE AREAS

By Daniel Schmidt


 

Thousands of deer hunters in two big deer hunting states will be allowed to hunt over corn, apples, carrots, pumpkins and other bait beginning this fall.

Michigan was the most recent state to rescind some of its baiting regulations when it announced earlier this summer that hunter in the Upper Peninsula will be allowed to hunt over bait. The new measure includes parts of Delta, Dickinson and Menominee counties, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

As a result, hunters in this area can resume baiting and feeding practices. The state’s wildlife commission adopted deer regulations that will be in effect for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 hunting seasons.

According to the Iron Mountain Daily News, the Upper Peninsula’s first and only case of known chronic wasting disease was confirmed Oct. 18, 2018, in Dickinson County’s Waucedah Township. Later that year a roughly 10-mile-radius core surveillance area — encompassing 661 square miles — was created. It centered on Waucedah Township as the DNR worked to determine whether CWD existed in areas around where the doe that tested positive was found.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, feeding bans have been lifted in 23 counties. Feeding and attractant bans have been removed from the following counties: Aitkin, Carlton, Chisago, Clearwater, Douglas, Freeborn, Isanti, Kanabec, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pennington, Pine, Pope, Ramsey, Red Lake, Roseau, Stearns, Steele, Todd and Wadena counties.

After years of banning the practice, Alabama allowed all deer and wild hog hunters to hunt via the use of bait in 2019. The state allows baiting on private land as long as each hunter buys a “baiting license.” The license costs $16.35 per hunter.



 

This Enormous Texas Largemouth was Just Certified as a New World Record

Lea Anne Powell was fishing on a central Texas lake known for lunker largemouth when she hooked into the IGFA line class world record bass

BY TRAVIS HALL, PAUL RICHARDS




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Lea Anne Powell of Jackson, Texas was fishing on O.H. Ivie Lake with guide Dalton Smith back in February when she boated a 12-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass after an intense 10-minute battle. Exhausted, Powell put the fish in Smith’s live well, and they took it to a nearby gas station and RV park where it was weighed on a certified scale. After recording its official weight, they re-launched the boat and released the bass. At the time, neither Smith nor Powell had any idea that it was a contender for a new International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world record.

“I was at the Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville back in March, and I told a friend of mine about the fish and showed him some pictures,” Powell tells Field & Stream. “He said, ‘You should get that fish certified.'” Powell decided to take the advice. She submitted a comprehensive list of the required information to the IGFA and sent them a 20-foot section of the 10-pound test line she was using when she caught the fish. On June 23, her bass was certified as the new world record for the 12-pound line class in the women’s category, according to KETK.

Here’s How the Catch Went Down

Powell fished for two full days on O.H. Ivie before netting the record-breaking fish. Because the lake is so highly pressured, the bass aren’t exactly eager to take an artificial lure, she says, so Smith employed a Livescope real-time scanning sonar system to locate a school. “Dalton said, ‘Cast where I cast,'” Powell recalls. “He casts about 50 feet from the boat into a bunch of saltcedars, and I cast about 55 feet and slightly to the left of that. I was watching the live scope, and I said, ‘Dude, I think I got a follower.”

Powell watched through the screen as the fish nosed down on her soft plastic bait and then turned away. When she opened the bail of her spinning reel to let the lure fall back onto the lake bed, the big bass nosed down again and took it. “I felt two little ticks and then gave her the beans,” she says. “It was on.”

Each time she got the fish close to the boat, it did a nosedive and took off again. She says she was forced to continually adjust her drag throughout the fight. “Once we got her into the net, I went to take the hook out and saw that she was barely hooked,” says Powell, who caught a 10-plus pounder on a crank bait the previous day. “That was probably the most stressful fight I’ve ever had with a fish. I didn’t actually freak out after landing the 12-pounder. I kind of got calm. But later on, after we weighed and released her, I got physically sick from the adrenaline crash of catching two monstrous fish.”

To becertified as the new women’s 12-pound line class world record, Powell’s catch bested a 9-pound, 1-ounce largemouth caught by Sarah Elizabeth Harris in Lake Baccarac, Mexico in March 2021. The all-tackle world record for largemouth bass is shared by two anglers. George Perry, fishing in Montgomery Lake in Georgia in 1932, caught a bass that weighed 22 pounds, 4 ounces. Manabu Kurita caught one the same weight in Lake Biwa in Japan in 2009.



 

What Colors Can Deer See?

To a buck, red and orange look gray while blue is easy to spot. Here's a complete hunter's guide to what deer see and how well

BY SCOTT BESTUL 



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Whitetail deer are famous for their ability to detect and avoid danger, with their nose, ears, and eyes combining to form a trifecta of defense mechanisms. But while their eyes are pretty sharp, deer do not see things the way humans do. A deer’s eye sees colors and spots movement differently than the human eye, and understanding those differences can make us better hunters. So, what colors can deer see? What colors can’t they see? And how do other aspects of deer vision compare to ours? Here’s a breakdown.


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Just like the human eye, a deer’s eye contains rods and cones. Rods work to absorb light and cones are for seeing color and distinguishing details. The human eye is packed with cones, which helps us see a pile of different colors and spot fine detail. A deer’s eye is packed with rods, which help the animal see in low light, but it has far fewer cones, so a deer’s ability to see some colors—like blaze orange—is compromised, and they won’t spot details (like the brand label on your camo) like we can.

It’s tempting to think that since a buck sees your hunter-orange coat as a drab yellow-ish gray that he’s color blind. Not so. Colors are seen in wavelengths, and reds and oranges sport long wavelengths that the deer eye doesn’t pick up on. But the shorter wavelength colors, like blue or green, are easy for deer to spot. This is especially true in the dim light of dawn or dusk, which is when deer are most active. According to the National Deer Association deer can actually see blue nearly 20 times better than humans. So if you’re in a tree stand wearing your favorite blue jeans, you’d better hope the buck you’re after doesn’t look up.

Deer See Way Better Than Humans in Low Light



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It’s not just the high number of rods in a deer’s eye that allow the animals to see well in low light. There is also a light-reflecting membrane in the back of their eyes, which bounces any light not initially absorbed by the eye back across the rods, where it has a second shot at being absorbed. Consequently, according to the NDA, deer see about 18 times better than humans in low-light conditions.Deer eyes also get a boost because the pupils are bigger in relation to the overall size of the eye and therefore let in more light.

Deer Vision is About 20/60, But Picks Up Movement Better

These large pupils also spot movement better than ours can, an important adaptation for a prey species that’s always on the lookout for danger. Biologist have determined that deer vision is roughly 20/60—so not great when compared to the 20/20 vision of a sharp-eyed human. On the other hand, Research at the University of Georgia Deer Lab concluded that deer detect and process images four times more quickly than humans, deer process visual information four times faster than humans, which allows them to spot movement very quickly and be beating a retreat before you realize that you shouldn’t have been sitting still.

Can Deer See Blaze Orange? And Does Camo Matter?



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Hunter orange isn’t invisible to deer, of course. But to them, it’s not the vivid, almost-neon color we see. Instead, they see a dull, yellow-ish gray color that typically blends in reasonably well with mixed woods. As for camo, I always remember a day in deer camp when folks were arguing over the best camo pattern. Finally, after listening to the banter for awhile, one of the old timers (not coincidentally, one of most successful hunters in the bunch) said “If you’re not moving, your camo pattern doesn’t matter. And if you DO move, it also doesn’t matter.” That shut everyone up for a few seconds, and the University of Georgia study mentioned above largely back him up.

A deer’s eyes are tuned into movement more than colors or patterns. So while camo may help hide your silhouette to a degree—it won’t save you if you move. Even a small movement and is apt to be spotted by a deer if you are in it’s cone of vision. And if that staring deer doesn’t immediately feel threatened and flee, my experience is that it will try to verify what it has seen by circling downwind or engaging in a stare down that you will likely lose.

Why It Can Seem Like Deer Have Eyes in the Back of Their Heads 


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Speaking of a deer’s cone of vision, If it seems like deer are busting you when they’ve got no business doing so, it’s probably because those eyes aren’t positioned like ours, which, of course, are in the front of our face. But a deer’s eyes are on the sides of its face, which creates a much wider field of view. While humans have about a 180 degree field of vision, deer are closer to 300 degrees; this means unless you’re exactly behind a feeding buck’s tail, he can still see you move. Plus, his eyes can rotate about 50 degrees and in opposite directions, according to the NDA, even when he’s munching clover, so if you’re gonna draw your bow on a feeding buck, make sure you move slowly, or have some cover between you.



 

Texas Men Noodle Potential Record-Breaking 98-Pound Catfish

Justin White and Drew Moore teamed up to wrangle the behemoth mud cat. Here's the full story of the epic catch

BY SAGE MARSHALL


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Two Texas anglers recently caught an absolutely giant flathead catfish—using only their hands. Justin White and Drew Moore were noodling at Lake Tawakoni, which is east of Dallas, on June 23 when they made the epic catch. The fish will go down as one of the biggest fish ever noodled.


Two weeks before the catch, White and Moore found a new fishing spot—a hole 14 feet beneath a concrete slope under a bridge. They caught two 30-pounders but thought they might be able to find bigger fish in the cove. When they returned on the evening of the 23rd, a storm forced them to take cover under the bridge, right by the fishing spot.


“When the storm passed, we geared up and jumped off the side of the boat with the intention of catching a good one,” Moore tells Field & Stream. “We didn’t know quite what we were getting ourselves into.”

The duo used a Hookahmax Dive System to breathe underwater. They descended to the hole and entered it through a relatively small rectangular opening, an experience that White describes as “very eerie.”

“After you swim under this concrete, you go for 5 or 6 feet before you get to where the fish is sitting,” says Moore. “We knew we were getting close to the bed when all hell broke loose.”

“The fish’s head was as wide as our chest and the lips were the size of a Gatorade bottle”

– Drew Moore

A massive catfish started ramming them. The two men struggled to subdue the fish, but eventually, they managed to pinch it between them and get a hand in its mouth. By then, they were disoriented and had to use the hose from the Hookahmax to guide them out of the underwater hole. “We still had to swim up 14 feet with this fish, which is a pretty tricky thing to do,” says Moore. “Anybody can grab one of these fish, but not everyone can hang onto them.”

Eventually, they wrangled the fish to the surface and used an oversized stringer to subdue it. “We didn’t know what to think at that point,” says Moore. “The fish’s head was as wide as our chest and the lips were the size of a Gatorade bottle. It was really hard to judge exactly what we’d caught.”

The Fish Could Go Down as the Biggest Catfish Ever Noodled

White and Moore used handheld scales to try to weigh the fish. One showed 103 pounds, and another showed 108 pounds. After celebrating, they decided to bring the fish to Duck Cove Marina to use an official scale. To get the fish there alive, they had to stop every couple of minutes to let it swim. On the certified scale, it came in at a whopping 98.7 pounds. “We were pumped, man,” says Moore. “It was very rewarding to know we’ve busted our asses for years and it finally paid off.”

Noodling is an alternative method of fishing that is included in the IGFA World Record Book. The anglers say that their catch may go down as the biggest catfish ever noodled and weighed on a certified scale. In 2021, Field & Stream reported on an Oklahoma man who noodled a 106-pounder in Texas, but that fish was released without being weighed on a certified scale. Moore and White are enjoying their moment of fame, but they plan to get back out on the water soon.



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