warmouth

[Eskimo]

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Tough question. Common names for panfish can get confusing. I did a Google search for "warmouth" and I'm even more confused than I was before.

If you mean Lepomis gulosus. Here's a map of their range.
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/facts...?SpeciesID=376


I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those.


If you mean the Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris, Ambloplites constellatus) they are all over. They attach themselves to every bait and lure in the evening in the Delaware River. I also catch a lot of them at Merrill Creek Reservoir, especially around the rip rap dams.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_bass

[acabtp]

i like sunfish. around here, our usual suspects (and the identifying characteristic i use to tell them apart) are the bluegill (black spot behind gill, olive body), pumpkinseed (prominent greenish/blue spot pattern on sides, tiny mouth), redbreast sunfish (bright red belly, larger mouth) and the green sunfish (green spots, larger mouth). of these, red breasts give the best fight pound per pound, IMO.

sometimes the males and females of the species will look different. with bluegills for example, males get an orangey belly and females get more of a beige/cream colored belly. male redbreasts have a brighter red belly than the females as well. i find it harder to tell the difference with pumpkinseeds.

Originally Posted by Eskimo

Tough question. Common names for panfish can get confusing.

even more confusing, most members of the lepomis genus will easily hybridize. so you might end up catching a pumpkin-gill or a greenseed. they look pretty much like you'd expect, somewhere in between the two source species. however they don't always act in-between... bluegill-redbreast sunfish hybrids are some of the largest and hardest fighting panfish in northern NJ. in the places where i can catch them regularly, they are much larger than either the regular bluegills or the redbreasts... averaging 10-11" while straight bluegills go 8-9" and redbreasts 6-7" in the same body of water. the difference in size could be a hybrid vigor type of thing (like with tiger muskies or splake), or they could just be better suited to the locations than the parent species are on their own. either way, i find it interesting.

rock bass are in a different genus and don't really look like these other sunnies