I know I am sorry I keep bugging y'all. It seems I cannot figure out how to tell sunfish apart. So I am here to quiz the resident experts. I believe this is a longear...very similar to what my son caught that I posted earlier. When I saw the fish, I thought, it is the same thing. I just want to know what y'all think. It was caught out of a different body of water, but in a creek.

Hybrid. Mostly Longear sunfish with a bit of green sunfish.

Thank you Mason. I wonder if that would work for the contest. I appreciate it.

Longear...BEAUTIFUL FISH!

Longear.

Thank you guys...yes it was beautiful. (very small though 4.5 inches) My son's photo I posted on this forum a few days ago was even prettier by far than this fish. Y'all MADE MY DAY!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP and EXPERIENCE. By the way, I caught the fish on a caddis fly...fly fishing...which I haven't done enough of lately.
:-)

Yes. 100% spawning male longear. One of the most beautiful I have seen. They have a lot of heart when attacking a fly. I do wish they were bigger.

Some sunfish have a lot variety with age, location, as well as mixed breeding. Books often have only a drawing rather than a picture, or a picture from a different part of the country than your fishing, and some books just a description and no picture. I found a good start when identifying a new fish is to use Google Images, http://images.google.com
For example go to that link and type in Longear Sunfish. You will see just how much variety there is with that fish as well as different subspecies of Longear.

Thank you JvT. Yes they do attack hard for such a little fish. I thought the one my son caught was the most beautiful longear I had ever seen. This was probably the second most. To think it came from a CREEK in my neighborhood! These sunfish are a killer for me to try and figure out. The coloring is so different from fish to fish for one thing. Different lakes and bodies of water, and temps seem to change their colors too. Did you see my SON's fish? If not look on this forum. It was outstanding!

very pretty little fish..and its now been officially "JVT approved"...lucky you

Just trying to help brother

Dang, Kelkay, I'd love to have a few of those for a pond...got to find some around Lufkin.

Meadowlark, I have never seen sunfish as pretty as these. (I don't usually target bream though...I just targeted them at the right time, in full spawning colors it seems...can't get better than that! ) If they were that pretty all year long they would sell them at the pet store!

How about this. I'm seeing a cross between a longear and a redbreast. The longears I catch here in the Medina and Guadalupe have much deeper bodies, and a steeper slope from mouth to head. This has the markings of a long ear on a redbreast body.

i kinda still think it has some green sunfish in it as well because of the colors on the head...thats just me tho

i just call em all perch

^^haha sounds like a good way to look at things