You know - this warm water thing ain't too bad after all!

[WWKimba]

My handle just might give away my love for warm water fishing! I love fishing for 'gills especially - loved them as a kid and now that I'm retired - well let's just say I'm an older kid! I also garden and I have a few underfished ponds around with stunted gills. No problem - I bury them about a foot and a half deep in the garden (do the same after cleaning the bigger ones too!). The plants LOVE the extra food! That and a few bass released in the ponds have given me some nice fishing holes over the years. Great way to make friends with the pond owner.

[FishnDave]

Hit the same reservoir last night for the last few hours of daylight with a 6wt. Besides the baby sunnies and baitfish harassing my flies on the last yard or so of retrieve before the next cast, the only hook up was this 7" rock bass on a #6 purple conehead bugger.

Bass Bug...this is a very cool-looking fish, and sort of has me flummoxed. I've only ever encountered Rock Bass in streams/rivers, never in a lake. So, I was thinking maybe this was a Warmouth. I've caught rock bass, warmouth, and green sunfish...all of which have the same general body shape. Usually I don't see Warmouth with the iridescent markings on the gill cover (usually they just have dark bars radiating out from the eye), but I did a web search and did see some warmouth pics with those features, unless they happen to have some hybridization with green sunfish? At any rate...VERY COOL!
Here's a couple links to what I turned up:
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/wp-co...warmouth-w.jpg

http://www.bellbucksandbeards.com/im...uth2640480.jpg

And here's a pic that the guy suspects may be a warmouth x green sunfish hybrid. Actually, to me it looks more like a pumpkinseed/green sunfish hybrid, but who knows? Its pretty!
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9678/dscn0835.jpg
Given that image, I now suspect you may have a (at least nearly) pure strain warmouth?

What do you think?

[Bass_Bug]

Dave,
I was guessing based on pics I found, so I wont say for sure what it is.
Here are 2 links to the Ohio DNR website that I was getting some info on.
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/spec...4/Default.aspx
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/spec...2/Default.aspx
The reservoir where this was caught (and harmlessly released I might add) is connected to 2 other small reservoirs and the local creek via large pipes (3' to 4' dia) for the municipal water system.

I was basing my guess on the coloring (vs the gills, sunnies etc.) but after looking closer I see the rusty coloring on the trailing edge of the fins. Could be some kind of hybrid as well.
This reservoir is less the 10 years old and was originally stocked by ODNR, so who knows what in there now.

[Big Bad Wulff]

Another one bites the dust....