What do you think? Never caught one, so if it is one then it's a personal first.

Awesome fish Wish I was smart enough to help ya on the ID/info lol

if i'm not mistaken, an "orange spot" is usually a lighter silvery tone w/ their opercle flaps outined w/ either white or green...it looks like a longear with a nice,vivid "spawning mode"color...beautiful fish! whatever it is!

redspotted

Lepomis Miniatus- Red Spotted Sunfish

You have a Spotted Sunfish.
http://www.aslo.org/photopost/showphoto....ctatus-/cat/517


Here is a great picture of an Orange Spotted Sunfish. You will be lucky if you find one that makes 4 inches.
http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/inde...unfish_a_beauty

Beautiful Fish. Good job!

And no, Bret still hasn't entered redspot under the species list. Put it as spotted sunfish like I did mine

At least it counts as something other than a bluegill!

That is a nice fish. I hope to find one like that. I just like to catch all different kinds of fish. Sometimes the little ones are the gems.

cool fish,never realized the diversity of the sunfish species...awesome!

Definitely a Spotted Sunfish. Not to be confused with Orange, Red or Blue. Great Catch! jshaw2025.

Dollars to Donuts it's a red spotted sunnie. Female.

Here's a link to a Spotted Sunfish http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/PicturesSummary.php?ID=3379&what=species I think it looks much like yours, but I wouldn't bet my new floats on it. I'm no expert and just look at the pictures like any average angler, then try to make my best guess.

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txfishes/lepomis%20miniatus.htm
check out the characters and phylogeny and morphologically similar fishes sections. the link is from Texas State in San Marcos.