Thought I was in Dixie�

Type: Nontidal
Region: Central
Location: Local Ponds

Had a good day panfishing at a Mason Dixon area pond on June 9th with an abundance of southern panfish species and bass. We were pleasantly surprised with decent 9-inch class coppernose bluegills along with numerous 10 to 11 inch red ear sunfish...both appeared to be in spawning phase with dark males dominating the catch. We caught them on worm tipped Dixie Cricket jigs of 1/64th ounce below bobbers. Those red ears are great fighting fish! My friend Loren displays a fine 11-incher.

Surely a stocked fish, I believe this is about as far north as coppernose bluegills have been observed on the Eastern portion of the nation, or Mid Atlantic area. A question for the DNR...could there be any native strains of coppernose gills in, say, the Pocomoke or Saint Marys river systems in southern Maryland? Have you seen any of these elsewhere?

DNR Response: "Coppernose" bluegill are a subspecies of bluegill that are native to Florida and southern Georgia and are not native to any part of Maryland. Much like the "Florida" largemouth bass subspecies, they were introduced. Identification of "coppernose" bluegills is difficult, especially when they have crossed with the "northern" subspecies.