Dang I wonder if this is another Longear...but the tail is forked, and it had orange spots....I guess the spots are not sparse enough to be an orange spotted. I'm gonna have to investigate this further. Anyone have any idea?

I have never seen a tail fin like this on a sunfish before, I don't think.

thats a long ear, the tail is damaged or maybe a birth defect is my opinion.

You are probably right...the more I think of it, it must be a mutation. It looks too consistent to me to be regular tail fin damage...like something took a chunk out of it. But heck maybe something did...who knows. It is one beautiful fish! I have never caught so many beautiful fish as these in my life. They may not be big, but they are bad for their size....very aggressive. I had tons of them biting my flies today. I even caught a small bass on one. This fish was taken on a Mickey Finn fly. The sunfish wised up to me after a while, and quit biting my offerings. I just KNEW I would get a redbreast or redear today........HA.

I just noticed looking at this fish again, you can SEE the Mickey Finn sticking out of his mouth if you look hard enough...it kind of blends in doesn't it.... :-)

It had a chunk of tail taken out at some point of its life and it just healed up like that.

straight-up longear

Good luck getting an orange-spot. They don't get very big @ all and I myself have NEVER caught one on a hook.

Well I caught I don't know HOW many sunfish yesterday....not a redbreast or orange spot among them. I used my fly rod at first. I finally found a place that has decent sized bream. It is not a place you can use a fly rod easily. So I bought crickets and got busy. Soon as I threw one out, I got a hit. But by the time I found it, and wouldn't you know it was shady there too...I had little time left. I finally got another redear after the last pic was a little dark. :-( Anyway I was thrilled to finally get the redear this time after fishing 7 hours. I had hoped to get more varieties, but am happy with the amount I caught, especially since I am a bank angler only. (saw some more gorgeous longear, tons of bluegill...and I mean tons)

Orange-spots and longears are both more of a creek fish...at least that seems to be where I usually encounter them (save for one pond here in Lubbock that has orange-spots).

That is good to know. I don't think I have ever seen an orange spot. There are lots of longears around here. Some are in creeks, some in lakes. I guess it depends on the part of Tx you are from. Somebody could of released some they decided they didn't want to clean or something...resulting in a population at that body of water. Anyway it is good to know an orange spot can be found in the creek. Since I have used my flyrod I have really enjoyed catching sunfish....more than ever. If they were a big fish, they would knock bass out for heavy fighting! They are very aggressive little buggers. :-)

Here's a male in full breeding colors (orange-spotted):


And here's a female (or possibly a male in the off season):


Something I've always used to help identify these little guys is the way their head is almost like a crappie with that indentation on top. They are truly a VERY beautiful sunfish, and they don't get very big. Like I said, I pretty much have found them only in smaller creeks and streams.

Those fish are freakin gorgeous! My son thought from the picture that my redear was a crappie at first. They do kind of look alike, but then again, they are relatives aren't they.

What floors me is a LMB is a sunfish. They sure don't look like one to me...maybe the size is what throws me.

I must train my eye to see these fish better. My fish on the pic looks very similar to me. (except the tail of course) I need to get a book on sunfish i.d. I guess. I don't even know for sure if that will help me. Anyway they are beautiful fish. The orange spot has a bit of white around the ear flap on your pics...now that might be helpful. Are they all that way I wonder?

For the most part they will have that white margin around the ear flap. Like I said, another thing to look for is that "crappie" look to their head. Kinda like a "beak" like we call it where I work. Only time it gets tough to use that to ID is when they're really small (as in under 1"), but we can usually nail 'em pretty easily.

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txfishes/Brazos.htm

That's a pretty good website for IDing fish. Keep in mind that just b/c it's not listed on a particular river basin doesn't mean it is NOT there.

Thanks, I will bookmark that site. I am not sure what you mean about the beak look, but I will study it and see what you mean.

On the site you posted I see a beak look on a black crappie. The female orange spot sort of has it, but I cannot see it at all on the male.

Dr. Bonner's page in indeed outstanding.

I *highly* recommend his book to anyone interested in learning just exactly what it is they are catching.

Is that the book the winner got for the multi-species contest? If so I have it on my wish list on Amazon.