Bluegill

Description:

A deep slab-sided fish with a small mouth and a long pointed pectoral fin. They have 5-9 dark bars on their side and an overall dark green body color. When caught in muddy water they can appear more silver in over all coloration. The ear flap (opercle) is always black with out a red tip like redear sunfish. Bluegill sunfish often have a black blotch near the back of the soft dorsal and anal fins. They have blue along the bottom edge of their jaw line and rear bottom edge of their gill covers. They do not have any wavy blue lines on the cheek like pumpkinseed, green, and longear sunfishes. Their belly is white in young, yellow in females, and orange to a rusty red in breeding males. Both bluegill and green sunfish readily hybridize with other species of sunfish, most often each other. Hybrids between two other sunfish species are relatively rare. Young bluegills' diet consists of rotifers and water fleas. The adult diet consists of aquatic insect larvae (mayflies, caddisflies, dragonflies), but can also include crayfish, leeches, snails, and other small fish.[7] Their diet can also include the waxworm and nightcrawler that can be provided for them by anglers. If food is scarce, bluegill will also feed on aquatic vegetation, and if scarce enough, will even feed on their own eggs or offspring. Spawning season for bluegills starts late in May and extends into August. The peak of the spawning season usually occurs in June in waters of 67 to 80°F. The male bluegills arrive first at the mating site. They will make a spawning bed of six to 12 inches in diameter in shallow water, clustering as many as 50 beds together. The males scoop out these beds in gravel or sand. As a female approaches, the male will begin circling and making grunting noises. The motion and sound of the males seem to attract the females. Females are very choosy and will usually pick males with larger bodies and "ears", making larger size a desirable trait for males to have. If the female enters the nest, both the male and female will circle each other, with the male expressing very aggressive behavior toward the female. If the female stays, the pair will enter the nest and come to rest in the middle. With the male in an upright posture, the pair will touch bellies, quiver, and spawn. These actions are repeated at irregular intervals several times in a row. Once the spawning is done, the male will chase the female out of the nest and guard the eggs. The fertilization process is entirely external. The male's sperm combines with the female's eggs in the water. Smaller males will often hide in nearby weeds and dart into the nest as they attempt to fertilize the eggs. The bluegill generally begins its spawning career at one year of age, but has been found to spawn as early as four months of age under favorable conditions. Bluegills can live up to 11 years. Anglers find spawning season to be a very successful time to fish for bluegills, as they aggressively attack anything, including a hook, that comes near.

Habitat:

Bluegill live in the shallow waters of many lakes and ponds, along with slow-moving areas of streams and small rivers. They prefer water with many aquatic plants, and hide within fallen logs or water weeds. They can often be found around weed beds, where they search for food or spawn.