Father in law claims it's goggle-eyed perch, but a look-up on the fish database doesn't give that name to anything.
I rarely fish freshwater, so I'm just learning.

That appears to be a fairly standard bluegill.

Agree.

So you can have bluegills without the dark plate on their cheeks?

Absolutely. Especially small, younger bluegill like that one.

The vertical stripes are very common on bluegill as well.

And technically, most of the fish you hear referred to as "perch" in Texas are actually Sunfish, so don't bother looking up perch in a fish ID website and expect to find them.

You'll find Yellow Perch or Walleye lol.

Looks to me like a Hybrid Bluegill, which is a cross between a male bluegill and female green sunfish. This breeding makes a fish with a larger mouth but still has the aggressiveness of the bluegill. They are perfect for kids because the larger mouth is easier to get a hook into. They are also 90% male so they don't overpopulate a pond or small lake. If all those feathers were not in the way I could see the mouth and tell you for sure.

Yeah, I checked sunfish stright off the bat at FishBase.
Here's the link for it. Great resource.
http://64.95.130.5/search.php

Let's name it Bob

I will call him Larry.

Odd looking Bluegill!

he sure did take a big fly

id say it a "very surpised fish" of the WHOA!!! variety lol ok that was stupid sorry

I vote we call him Fred

A Barney if I ever saw one!

duh, his name is Popeye