On a trip this past summer to IL visiting family I caught several of these in a local creek with a small yellow popper. I did a google search and the closest thing I came to it is a green sunfish, but the google picture only kind of looked like this fish. Is this a green sunfish or something else?
It looks like a Pumpkinseed or Longear Sunfish to me.
I’d lean towards a longear, but it’s a little hard to tell without seeing the whole fish. Pretty little guy either way.
That looks like what they were. They were all that small but still lots of fun in moving water.
I’d add my vote to the Longeared Sunfish. Pretty fish, nice shot!
My first thought was a pumpkinseed, then longear … regardless, I’ve always thought they were one of the most beautiful fish … the orange and turquoise coloration are just beautiful.
I’d go with longear or pumpkinseed. Both are beautiful fish. I call them “warm water brookies”.
Jeff
A biologist at NHF&G told me that the several types of sunfish will interbreed if they are in the same waterbody and that the progeny are fertile.
Longear – check out the white at the back of the “ear” (opercular flap).
Here’s a good key to sunfish id:
As to someone’s suggestion about hybrids, I’ve read scienfitic guesses that there are no pure strains of any Lepomis species left anywhere in the country.
Great website, I bookmarked it. Thanks.
What you have is a young male longear sunfish. The key to the identification is the enlongated opercule flap, trimmed in white. That is the ‘smoking gun’. Other identification points are 8 dorsal spines, and 2 ventral spines (absent in pumpkinseeds). Pumpkinseed adults will always have a reddish trim at the rear of the normal-sized opercule flap.
Nice catch.
Thanks for all the help. We were fishing for smallies in that particular creek, and when they would not cooperate I changed to smaller flies and several of what I now know are longear sunfish helped turn the day into a memorable one. All our creeks out here are trout, so the couple weeks a year I spend in IL I fish as much as possible.
Another pic from the same section of Walnut Creek:
Looks like lots of fun, man! 
Neat pics and thanks to Redietz for that informative site.
