“Bluegills”

I've been on the ice a couple times this week and have been getting a mix of different species of panfish. I've also seen a bunch of posts on the ice fishing facebook groups calling them all sorts of things. We've got quite a few different varieties of "bluegill" shaped species in Michigan that commonly get mixed up.

The most common one we come across is an actual purebred bluegill followed by pumpkinseed, redear sunfish, green sunfish, and warmouth. Most of the time it's pretty obvious what is what but they do hybridize and at times can be incredibly confusing. I'm going to lay out some common characteristics of each species. Big thanks to my buddy Travis for coming through some great pictures of the lesser known species.

Bluegill

Without a doubt the classiest of all these sunfish. An all black "ear" is pretty good giveaway here. Lots of variations in colors but often has a vertical stripe pattern like the fish in picture.

Pumpkinseed

The most vibrant colored fish in the bunch. Lots of mottling and orange bellies on sunfish. You'll also notice it has a red tip on the "ear" like a redear. They will often have a "taller" body then a comparable bluegill.

Redear Sunfish

They will have a characteristic "red ear" much like the sunfish but are going to have more subdued colors like a bluegill. They also will have larger scales compared to the other sunfish species. They get really big as well and are often confused as a "10 inch bluegill" on many of the fishing pages. Also you are unlikely to find one in west Michigan. However there are many lakes in the southern part of the state that have been stocked with them. A quick search of the Michigan DNR stocking database will turn up likely spots to look.

Green Sunfish

You won't often encounter this sunfish but they are pretty easy to pick out. They are generally really dark green with a lot of blue mottling around their face. A much bigger mouth compared to the previously mentioned species is another dead giveaway.

Warmouth

Like the green sunfish the warmouth is going to have a much bigger mouth than any of the more common species. It's also going to be much more mottled and colorful than a green sunfish. So while they have a similar body type their appearance is much different.

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