I'll get the picture online soon, even though it's kinda crappy. This new spot of mine....the lighting is all messed up. You have a shaded canopy from the trees and as the sun moves across the sky even with my $370 digital camera it's tough. I try to get the water in the background of the picture and adjust the exposure but I haven't found my happy medium yet.

Either way, they were like bluegills but had a lot of orange colors to them and obviously were river only. I landed 1, and had a much larger one on shortly there after. I was getting a lot of "fiddler" bites so I moved to an insanely small hook (think chub/shiner harvester) and started getting much more intimate bites.

If so, I'm geeked. I'll take my smallest most sensative ultra light out soon with small hooks and my angle worms. They did seem to be schooling, slightly.

This spot is so fun, you never go without bites, landing muliple species and it seems like a new species schools through everyday. Just when it slows down, and you start to see bass jumping you bob a shad lure out right along the bank with slack line and they don't even care. They'll strike it and run with it 5 times in a row in the same spot before you get a clean hookset.

Tonight Jess and I found Shortheads, Channels, Turtles, Sheephead, Smallies and Chubs.

Either way, I'll fuss with the pics and find a big "orange bluegill" soon for ID purposes.

Ben,

looks like a bluegill. seems to be lacking the great colors of a typical pumpkinseed. Can't see the gill flap in the picture very well to see if it has the orange on the rear.

Definitely a bluegill.

I'll get a better picture soon(this one is actually washed out a little). I've only found bluegills in the lower river once or twice. This would be another rare occurence.

Ah well.

Pumpkins always have a red spot on the edge of the gill flap. On the large individuals in my lake it can be very faint. The other dead give away is the blue lines below the eye. If you have both of those you know its not a bluegill. It might be a green or a pumpkin... but not a blue.

I usually key in on those lines below the eye too. Check out JKnuth and Gary's pumpkinseed pics from today in the species contest forum for some textbook pumpkinseed coloration.

You also need to watch out for hybrid sunfish. they are VERY common. in fact Tylor It looks like your fish may have some green sunfish blood due to the mouth size, gill flap shape and fin edges.

Gary picked up a nice little Bluegill X Green sunfish today
Ill try to find some Hybrid pics for you. It can be tricky to Id a hybrid, but it can be done.

yup. tyler, that fish is part Greenie. and Ben's fish is definately a gill..
that's my 2 cents..

That pumpkin was stocked in my lake by Oswald Fisheries... I would be surprised if it was a hybrid because there are no green sunfish in my lake, its size and shape. All of the pumpkins I have caught in my lake have been 9" plus. I think Greens are usually smaller in MN and their genes would hold down the average size. I have also kept greens in an aquarium... and I just don't see the green in it, I usually think of greens as more elongated.

Then again, maybe it is... they do take big baits...

Bluegill
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ncwildlife.org/pg03_Fishing/profiles/images/Pumpkinseed.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ncwildlife.org/pg03_Fishing/profiles/pages/Pumpkinseed.htm&h=220&w=350&sz=22&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=ITI1vQshBgwYoM:&tbnh=75&tbnw=120&prev=/ images%3Fq%3Dpumpkinseed%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Check that out for a good picture

Well, the way I see it, it's definately part Greenie, most likely part 'seed, but telling hybrid sunfish apart exactly is pretty much impossible..

Look at the orange coloration on the fins, and the gill flap. Those give away the Greenie in it.

To be honest, I'd go w/ greenie x gill, but like I said, there's no real way to tell..

Not to stray off topic but can you guys tell my fish is a pumpkinseed in the contest forum. I got a better pic then that so it won't be a big deal if its hard to tell. thanks

I can tell..