Sunfish vs Bluegill ID

[doggonefishin]

Those green sunfish DO have proportionately larger mouths...and larger attitudes too. They will sometimes smack a large lure meant for larger fish. Bass tanglers often find themselves setting the hook (or trying to) on these small fish while fishing for smallies or largies.

One evening while fishing for smallies at Deer Creek, I kept catching green sunfish managing to get a 3 inch stick bait/senko in their mouth. Large attitudes indeed.

Another fishery that has a lot of the green sunfish/bluegill hybrids is Utah Lake. (and a healthy number of each progenitor species.)