White bluegill

[ChuckN]

Has anyone ever caught a white bluegill? It had slight blue tints to it too. I caught it last weekend, and of course, that was was the only day I did not have a camera to share a picture.

Come on MJ, the gill master, have you ever seen anything like this?

[Bushwacker]

Just last week I was fishing in about 2.5'-4' of water for gills and I had polarized sunglasses on and there were a group of 40 or 50 fish. They were all the same coloration except one. The one was completely white. I tried to sight fish to catch that specific fish, but others kept picking the lure off first. I followed the school around for about 10 minutes and caught about 20 fish, but I couldn't hook the white one. I just thought it had to be an albino bluegill. It would have been cool to catch and get a pic of.

[deeky]

I have caught just a couple in the last couple of days. They weren't white white, but they were very pale (almost gray) with shades of blue. To me, it looked like fish that were spawned out and exhausted or worn down from the frenzy. Maybe?

[Matt Johnson]

Sunfish can go through phases of color, especially this time of year. Last week BDR and I chased sunfish a few different times and there were a few that were almost silver in color when the light hit them just right. All the color spectrums can become apparent during the spring when talking about sunfish, and that doesn't always necessarily mean they are each a different species of the sunfish family. There are several factors that play a role (many of which I'm not aware of). My guess would be that you caught a sunfish that took on a unique color scheme or might have just not took on any color scheme at all. Maybe someone else can add to this...

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Corey Bechtold]

All I know is that the Sunfish are spending a lot of time in the shallows and the sun will kind of bleach some of them out. There is also a type of Sunfish that spends a considerable amount of time in the shallows and they take on a grayish hue. I call these Mud Sunfish. They typically have a bigger head from what I have noticed and are rarely bigger than 7 inches. The bigger Bluegills with brillant colors and the dark ear patch tend to be those that spend more time in deeper water. This isn't science or anything, just an observation I have made over the years.

Good Luck,

Corey Bechtold

[river-rat4]

"PIEBALD" (sp?).

I have run across this a couple of times. It is like an Albino person, squirrel, or deer.

In fish, like people I am guessing it is a melinin thing.

The Sunfish that I have seen, were all white with kind of a blotchy, but faded coloring, and very light. I have only seen this in Sunfish.

Does this sound like the same thing you noticed?

Brandt

[ChuckN]

This fish was albino-like, not bright white, but white if you know what I mean. On/around the gills and head there was more obvious blue hues. That was the only colors, even the spot behind the gill was white.

I've fished darn near all my life and I have never seen anything like it before. Wish I had a pic!!

[fishinaddict]

I catch them all the time on Fountain Lake

[megger8]

I just got one of those this week. It was smaller than the others but very pale w/ blueish tints like you stated. As kids we always called those blue sunnies. Seemed only to catch them during spawning seasons from what I remember.

[mitch]

Albert Lea's Fountain Lake? Any tips on where to go?

[fishinaddict]

depends on what u wanna catch. All I do is shore fishing. You can go on the channel behind the china restraunt and slowly reel in a mister twister. You might want to use the snag free jig head made by Lindy though or youl get cauht up in the rocks all of the time. You will catch mainly little ones but a couple weeks ago a little kid gave me one that was about 16" long. I was there last night and I caught two crappie and a bullhead You can catch bluegill like crazy out on that little island that has the small wooden bridge going out to it. On the brige there is a spot were someone spray painted something in blue. On the left side of that is where you want to drop your line. I would use eather wax worms or rip off a little piece of night crawler. I prefer the wax worm because you dont catch quite as many bullhead . Last weekend one guy caugt a nice cat and a couple 4lb carp just floatin a piece of bread. If you have any more ?s just ask. Its summer now so ill be doin a lot of fishing there

[mitch]

I will try to catch anything but bullheads and carp. I have been fishing behind China Restaurant a lot and havent been catching much there lately. I went to the Jugland dam last night and didnt catch anything. There were a lot of fish feeding on the surface, they might have been bass. One guy caught a couple walleyes with a rapala. In the Edgewater bay there is a little stream that comes out by the enourmous house and people have been catching crappies there. How big do the Bluegills get and do you use the worms with a jighead or a regular hook?

[fishinaddict]

Most of the blue gills are small but there are some bigger ones in there. I just use a regular hook.

[Sharkey]

When I lived in Georgia their sunfish are called Bream. Look kinda like what you're talking about. Maybe someone transplanted them here??? They love bugs.

[icehousebob]

Last week, I saw a picture taken in Wisconsin by their game and fish people. They had test seined a lake and had a 33 inch albino muskie. It seemed to be fat and healthy so the lack of color didn't affect its ability to find food. Of course, a Muskie is an eater and an albino Sunfish would be the eatee. Probably not many remain uneaten long enough to reproduce.

[Matt Breuer]

Sun-bleached 'gills are pretty. They're almost iradescent. I'm sure this is what you seen. When they are in really shallow the ones that roam out from under cover get bleached down to a very light color with beautiful blue hues!