Sunfish & Crappie

How to tell them apart

One identification cue for each species, from its profile. Open a profile for the full description, size and range.

Bluegill

The bluegill is a deep, laterally compressed, almost dinner-plate-shaped sunfish. Its body is olive to bluish on the back, fading to a yellow, orange, or coppery breast, often with faint vertical bars along the sides.

Crappie

The most reliable way to separate them is to count the spines on the front of the dorsal fin: the black crappie has seven or eight, the white crappie has only six.

White Crappie

White crappie are silvery, shading to green or brown on the back, with a white belly and five to ten dark vertical bars along the sides where a black crappie has scattered speckles.

Redear Sunfish

Unlike the bluegill, the redear has no dark blotch at the rear base of the dorsal fin and a smaller mouth.

Pumpkinseed Sunfish

The standout identification feature is the gill flap, or "ear": small, black, and crucially tipped with a bright crimson or scarlet spot - a half-moon of red that distinguishes the pumpkinseed from the similar bluegill, which has an all-dark ear.

Green Sunfish

Compared with the bluegill, the green sunfish has a longer, less compressed body, a bigger mouth, and shorter, more rounded pectoral fins.

Warmouth

Anglers most often confuse it with the green sunfish or rock bass, but the big mouth, red eye, and cheek streaks set the warmouth apart.

Longear Sunfish

The longear sunfish is a small, deep-bodied, brilliantly colored panfish. Breeding males are spectacular, with a body of burnt orange and red freckling over a background of iridescent blue and green, and wavy electric-blue lines streaking across the face and gill cover.

Redbreast Sunfish

The wavy blue cheek lines, long all-black ear flap, and orange breast make the redbreast easy to distinguish from bluegill and other panfish.

Spotted Sunfish

Compared with a bluegill, it is smaller, darker, and more heavily peppered with spots rather than showing bold vertical bars, and it lacks the long, pointed ear flap of some other sunfish.

Flier

Fliers are round and compressed like a crappie, olive-green with rows of dark spots forming stripes, tall dorsal and anal fins, and a dark teardrop below the eye.

Black Crappie

Black crappie are silvery-grey to green with irregular black splotches scattered over the whole body and rows of dark spots on the dorsal, anal and tail fins.