I disagree Jamie. It has no white, orange or yellow edging on the fins like a green would.

So what is it then?

Beautiful fish. With all that color and lack of white or yellow highlights on the fins I would have to go with redbreast/longear hybrid. It's also possible that its multi-generational with green in the lineage that lost the fin aura but that is less likely. Whatever the case, nice catch.

The thing is, J-Moe, that these fish can take on very different colorations from one water system to the next and even within the same system can look considerably different.

Let me give you some examples:

1) pure Georgia Giant



2) Another pure Georgia Giant from same pond




3) A Georgia Giant x Georgia Giant




4) A coppernose x Georgia Giant

A worthy aquarium fish! Nice catch Jamie

My RedbreastXBluegillXGreen. As Fish Chaser mentions, Greens normally have white/orange/yellow edges on their fins, but I have caught pure greens on San Gab that had very little white/orange/yellow.

Thanks Fish chaser, Meadowlark, Dfitz and jaymzinsa

Awesome pictures and information

I guess we agree on ONE thing. It's a Hybrid Sunfish of some type

I'll submit it as a record and see what the TPWD classifies it as. Although that may take 6 months or more

I would submit it as a Hybrid Sunfish! You will not wrong!

Beautiful fish, great catch

Thanks for sharing, beautiful fish brother!!

I tend to follow Meadowlark’s lead on all things sunfish. For whatever reason Georgia Giant absolutely slipped my mind until he mentioned it and it absolutely fits in most of the criteria. But, also like he says, they can take on varying characteristics from water to water and even in the same water. I’ve come to find that true about at least half of the different sunfish species.

That one may have naturally mixed in the wild or maybe someone’s pond up stream failed or overflowed and dumped a load of them in the creek. Great catch nevertheless.

Thanks Flee Fly, Alan and Jagg

Jamie, if you take that fish (or any fish) to a TP&WD office they can tell you exactly what it is. They have a book that tells them how many scales are in the lateral line on a fish, then the next line, then a number of other characteristics on different types of fish. By doing that yjey can pinpoint exactly the different types of sunfish, bass, etc.

Can you say ménage à trois? Lol