Warmouth

Anyone ever caught one of these in this area? My brother caught this one today in the Winona, MN area.

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Green Sunfish

Pumpkin seed

Buffalo Fishhead

munchy wrote:

Green Sunfish

Somebody call pug?

Yep,I would agree its a warmouth.
Definitely not a pumpkinseed.
Warmouth reach as far north as SE MN.
Pumpkinseed have much smaller mouths and are more round shaped.

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Pretty sure I have caught warmouth in some lakes in the hutchinson and litchfield area back in my HS days. Giant mounts but look like a pumpkinseed. Not that any of the lakes are big around there, but they seemed to be on all the smaller ones.

Don’t know why pics won’t attach…

Trying again

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Definitely looked more like the bottom pic than the top. I have seen green sunfish before too but these were different.

That fact that he’s in Winona makes it much more plausible. They’re somewhat of a common thing down there, but still pretty rare. But your guess is as good as mine. The bit of red edging around the gill spot makes me think maybe it’s a pumpkinseed hybrid of some kind, but perhaps Warmouth can have that, too? The body is definitely longer than a pumpkin and it has a MUCH bigger mouth.

These fish that we catch here in Minnesota that people think are Warmouth are most likely some type of a hybreed sunfish. I’ve caught a ton of fish that look far different than a normal sunfish or Pumpkinseed. Every time I’ve asked DNR about what they are they say a Green sunfish hybreed. That is their answer to anything they can’t really tell what it is. My understanding is a true Warmouth will not survive anyplace in Minnesota or even Iowa for that matter. I lived down south for many years and the odd fish we catch around here with larger mouths and odd markings are far different than the warmouth I remember catching down south. They also have shell crackers that look a lot like like the odd sunfish we catch around here. What ever they are, there is getting to be more and more of them in many Minnesota lakes. They are super aggressive and will bite a fairly large bait. I have caught them on a 1/2 oz spinnerbait and other rather large lures.

fishthumper wrote:

These fish that we catch here in Minnesota that people think are Warmouth are most likely some type of a hybreed sunfish. I’ve caught a ton of fish that look far different than a normal sunfish or Pumpkinseed. Every time I’ve asked DNR about what they are they say a Green sunfish hybreed. That is their answer to anything they can’t really tell what it is. My understanding is a true Warmouth will not survive anyplace in Minnesota or even Iowa for that matter. I lived down south for many years and the odd fish we catch around here with larger mouths and odd markings are far different than the warmouth I remember catching down south. They also have shell crackers that look a lot like like the odd sunfish we catch around here. What every they are, there is getting to be more and more of them in many Minnesota lakes. They are super aggressive and will bite a fairly large bait. I have caught them on a 1/2 oz spinnerbait and other rather large lures.

^Spot on.

I’d guess some sort of hybrid green sunfish as well. They’re notoriously aggressive and take over water without predators in a hurry. If you want something that you can catch on a bare hook in a backyard 1/4 acre pond, they fit the bill perfectly.