trapping baby pumpkin seed

[fishlessman]

is there a way to tell them from bluegill when they are small, say 1 to 1.5 inches long

[fishlessman]

how are they legal as bait if no one knows how to tell them apart.

[THE JIGGER]

A baby bluegill has vertical stripes on its side





A baby pumpkinseed  has orange spots throughout its body.

I hope this helped.

[fishlessman]

those are alot bigger than what i have trapped before, the ones im seeing are silver with a flash of purply metalic but no real color that looks like either fish. i need to get a new trap and get some picks. if you look real close at the pumkinseed pic you can see grey bars that are vericle, they are very vague in the pic but they are there and ive read they can have bars as well, just dont know if they are born with the spots. i dont remember the spot on the gill plate having any color yet on the reall small ones so im thinking color developement comes later

[GrizlyGarou]

They cross breed with each other, too. I called fish and game a few years back and they told me it was hard to tell the difference between the two, but if I saw anything that looked like a blue gill it might get me a ticket.

I've always had better luck with shiners than any fish that had spiky fins as bait, myself. Just keep looking until you find a good shiner hole.

[THE JIGGER]

Believe me a small pumpkinseed has the yellow/ orange look and the bluegill is a silver blue.
Take a photo of what your catching and post it.
We'll tell you what it is.

[unoman]

Agree with Jigger...baby Pumpkinseeds always have some orange/yellow color....

[NYSporty]

They make great bait its natural forage for all boddies of water.
I use them all the time. This pike was trying to eat my walleye off the stringer so I tossed out a 8" sunny and bang.

[beeverfishing]

They make great bait its natural forage for all boddies of water.
I use them all the time. This pike was trying to eat my walleye off the stringer so I tossed out a 8" sunny and bang.

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