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<p>This first sunfish was caught in Lake Flower, New York, a dam-created lake in the town of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. I assumed it was a pumpkinseed, the default sunfish in the Adirondacks, but it lacks the red spot on the ear. Is it normal for pumpkinseeds to lack the spot, or is this indicative of hybridization?</p>
<p>http://imgur.com/psjCI7j</p>
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<p>The next fish was caught in the Toronto Reservoir, New York, south of the Catskills. I first assumed it was a pure redbreast sunfish, but is it actually a hybrid between that and a bluegill?</p>
<p>http://imgur.com/wFuOJBY</p>
My opinion is
Fish 1. Is a pure pumpkinseed. Female. sometimes the spot is not visible. it happens ocasionally, everything else there points to pumpkinseed though.
Fish 2. Is a Redbreast X Bluegill Hybrid. A pretty typical speciman for that mix. Neat looking fish.
First looks like Pumpkinseed to me, might have some Bluegill in there but I doubt it,
Second looks like a Pumokinseed X Bluegill to me. Although there aren't Redbreasts in my area so I'm not aware of what hybrids of that species look like.
First fish is a bluegill-pumpkinseed hybrid. It lacks the characteristic white edge along the ear, and both the spots and vertical bars are too faded. The entire fish maintains a green tone, unlike a more yellow tone found usually one female pumpkinseeds.
next is a redbreast pumpkinseed hybrid. Long ear, shape of a red, spotting like a pumpkinseed and face bars like a seed.
Sorry, I miss IDed the second one. Jknuth is right.
Well that's painful; now I have to remove redbreast sunfish from my lifelist. Still a nice fish though. I'd be easily open to considering some bluegill genes in the first fish, but I've never caught, seen, or heard of any bluegill in the Adirondacks, so I'm skeptical about that.
Search up Adirondack bluegill, and go to " videos."
Bluegill are pretty common everywhere. While there may not be a large population in the Adirondacks, they still could be there and hybridize with the more common pumpkinseed. They have the same spawning season, and hybridize frequently. I've caught my share of their hybrids.
Here is a typical bluegill seed hybrid.
To my eyes, my fish doesn't really look like that hybrid. Also, even that one still shows some white and red on the ear. I think I'll go with pure pumpkinseed for mine, as Jknuth suggested. Thanks all.