Utah Lake Variety Basket with a Surprise

[wagdog]

No the surprise wasn't a walleye so those that were hoping for walleye fish porn will be sorely disappointed. I have an hour or two before work (depending on how early I can drag myself out of bed) that I will typically use to get some fishing in. I did okay this morning. Nothing fast and furious but I did get a few channels, some bluegill, a green sunfish, and then...a couple of green sunfish/bluegill hybrids.

I'm sure the Utah Lake regulars have caught plenty of these but they were the first I had ever seen. The cool thing about the hybrids is that there mouths are bigger and they are possibly more aggressive than the average bluegill. One took my catfish rig (a size 1/0 octopus) and my bobber disappeared like a channel had eaten it. Growing up I would catch these and a lot of the time they would be bigger than most of the bluegill in the same body of water. These were about the same size as your typical 7-8 inch UL gill. Pretty cool to me but then again I am a:
1. panfish addict
2. fish nerd
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[Edogg03]

awesome post. I have caught a few of those gills with abnormally large mouths on them and wondered why they were bigger than most. thanks for the pics
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[wagdog]

Thanks. The easiest way to tell is the yellow/gold tips on the fins. Bluegill do not have this but green sunfish do and so do the hybrids. The ear flap (or opercle) is also tipped with color instead of being solid black. I hope to see more in the future and hopefully some that are a lot bigger than these.
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[gstott]

I used to catch some hybrids out of Salem Pond too. That little pond on the other side of the highway had quite a few. This was a good ten years ago, so I don't know it they're still in there or not.
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[Springbuck]

\See, an oversized bluegill with a large mouth??? Now, THAT'S a hybrid fish I personally would like to see stocked a lot more in the Community Ponds, and other panfish lakes.
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[biddaddy]

I need to join the panfish/nerd addicts club too. Nice fish.
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