Mantua 1/24

[FatBiker]

Made it up to Mantua for a few hours today. Other than a little slush, the I've is still good. Beautiful day to be out, especially when you find a few bluegills for dinner.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Nice. Looks like a green sunfish in the mix too.
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[TheFishSlayer]

Nice catch.
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[Springbuck]

That guy is looking kinda hybrid-ish to me.

http://showmeflyguy.blogspot.com/2016/05...u-may.html

https://www.louisianasportsman.com/fishi...s-a-hussy/

Am I wrong? He's got all the markings of a greenie, but the body is deep, the mouth smaller, and the scales look large like a bluegill. He's also got slight barring, and less blue flecking down toward the back of the body.

I have caught a bunch of hybrids in the Kaysville Ponds, and they look almost exactly like pumpkinseeds. This guy looks different from those, but there are several hybrid "looks" depending on strain and which species of each male/female contribute.

But all the greenies I have caught from Mantua had small, smooth scales, the longer body, mouths obviously bigger than bluegills, and a very slick dark green look down the body (not those dark lines and flecks) with the blue splatters. Also never caught one that big.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Could be. Without a personal up close squint at it I would not categorically dispute the potential for it being a hybrid. When both green sunnies and bluegills spawn in the same environment...well, nature will find a way.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]There are a lot of Utah goobers who can't even tell the difference between a greenie and a bluegill. Nor do they know the proper names. I had some old dude wanna go fist city with me once when I informed him that his "rock bass" was really a green sunfish.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]The green sunfish do not grow as large as bluegills, but they do get big enough to take home for dinner. I have always appreciated how pugnacious they are. If you can watch them smack your lure they are usually a lot more aggressive than bluegills.
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[RockyRaab]

They may get bigger in Willard than elsewhere in Utah. I caught two on successive casts last year that topped 8" each. Hit and fought like smallies. Fun tugs. Released both to make more large babies.
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[Springbuck]

Oh, yeah, I love em. And the meat yield seems good for their size.

But, yeah, even this past year a very experienced older gent (my father's college friend, with whom I fish a lot) suggested half the bluegills we had were probably "green sunfish". It was obvious to me they were just female bluegills.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Nice job Larry, ya know I got one of those sunfish gill looking critters there earlier this year too... I thought it was a gill at first, but looking later, it had the lightning bolt gill plate and bigger mouth, so I figured it was a sunfish, but it's body was like a gill also, so maybe they are crossing and they are hybrids... Cool looking fish anyway.. Nice job... J
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[RockyRaab]

Let's agree to call 'em aquagills, 'cause they're blue-green.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Works for me Rocky. Better than a blue Sunfish anyway. Later J
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[Fin-S-Fish]

It is for sure a hybrid green sunfish/bluegill. Been catching ones like this for decades at numerous places, mantua, UL, Willard. They have the green's big mouth and mottled streaking but the streaking is exaggerated. They are in many ponds and community ponds where there's both gills and greens. Honestly I think the fillet is actually smaller on them than a bluegill of equal length. Appealing to look at though.
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[AlexB]

Just curious, does anyone if someone has caught a channel cat in Mantua?
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[catchinon]

I guess I must be one of those goobers because I don't know the difference but I will study it out before I go to Mantua. I once posted that I had caught my first rock bass while fishing at Bird Island. I had actually reeled in a rock and thought that everyone would understand what I meant but in retrospect I realized that I might be taken for a goofus because I had caught something that I didn't understand. I was gratified that no one corrected me. Hard to know what to say when people get things wrong. The gent I was fishing with was explaining to the kids that some of the cats we were catching were blues and that you had to be very careful to cover the point of your hook. What's a person to do?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Better to have been a goober and lost than to never have goobered at all.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]By the way, it is fairly common to hook "rock fish" around Bird Island. It is a well known spawning area for them and they spread to other areas of the lake. Not to be with stone fish...a spiny fish with toxic spines. And when those rock fish get big it is difficult to bring them in. Many anglers have broken them off in frustration. Also, some of them rise up and cause boat damage at Bird Island. A few of them seem to favor eating propellers...like the one in the attached picture.

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[#0000FF]Blue cats? Yeah, right. I have been hearing of blue cats and flathead cats in Utah Lake for over 50 years. Heck fire! Some of them get over a hunnert pounds...and nobody can land 'em. All that from "reliable" sources, mind you.[/#0000FF]

[#0000FF]Don't sweat an occasional misidentification of fish. Happens all the time. Even newbie DWR folks have been known to stumble on the occasional fish ID.[/#0000FF]

[#0000FF]The main idea is to keep fishing and keep learning. At some point you will know more than you do now and the lab work is infinitely more fun than classroom.[/#0000FF]
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[catchinon]

Yeah, I have had to break off from some of those big rock fish. Have you ever tried to break 30# braid? Not so many blues would be lost if people would quit using line under 50# anyway.

Oh yes, we've had rock fish come up and bump us while we weren't looking. They surrounded us one time to the point I thought we would be trapped forever but we pushed them back with paddles until we got away.
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[lavaman]

Hey Pat! Are there populations of Northern Pike in Utah Lake still?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Yep. But not as many as a few years ago. Guys still bring one in once in a while. But not worth making a special trip for them. Still mandatory kill on any you catch.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]I heard through a semi informed source that the carp seiners catch them on occasion too.
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[Springbuck]

Indeed. Like I said in my first post, I catch quite a few at Kaysville Pond, but they look quite different from this one, for all the world like pumpkinseeds, just with a few extra markings. They have a mouth bigger than a bluegill, but a bit smaller than a green.

Still, thanks for the confirmation, it sure looked like a hybrid to me.
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[Springbuck]

Sure. Or bluegreens?
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[Springbuck]

Catchinon, no harm, no foul at all, but by way of resources, even the fishing proclamation has a fish identification guide toward the back. Pics and descriptions of improtant sportfish, native fish, and off-limits fish ihn the state.

There is also a Youtube channel called "Extreme Philly Fishing". Really seems more like an effort to get people, esp. kids out experiencing local waters. The young man who runs it is a "life-lister" fisherman, who likes to catch different species regardless of size, so he's a complete identification nerd, and knows all the scientific names. Some of his links are great resources.
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