Are bluegills and pumpkinseeds the same fish? On the michigan dnr website they show a new state record pumpkinseed that to me looks like a bluegill due to the black dot at the end of the gill and bright orange belly. i have always thought they were differnent fish.

Sunfish are more orange-ish throughout the body and have patterns almost like a leopard while bluegills are darker with bars.

They are diffently a different species..

There are many different species of the sunfish family..

A few I'm familiar with are..

BLuegills

Red Earred Sunfish..which are the biggest..also called shell crackers

Green Sunfish

Red Breasted Sunfish

Pumplinseed Sunfish

Fliars

Warmouth Bass

Bluegills begin spawning when water temperatures reach about 70°F. Spawning may peak in May or June, but continues until water temperatures cool in the fall.

Part of the sunfish family, the pumpkinseed is a very deep-bodied, laterally compressed, almost disk-like fish. They’re one of the most colorful fish found in Wisconsin waters, breeding males especially so. The fish’s breast and belly are orange to red-orange, and its back and sides are brown to olive. Its sides and back are speckled with orange, yellow, blue, and emerald spots.

My avatar shows a sunny aka pumpinseed here in Vt. The actual fish we catch here look similar but are probably a slightly different version. We get blue gills too and they definitely look different than the sunnies on a side by side comparison.

Bass fishing is the activity of angling for the North American gamefish known colloquially as the black bass. There are numerous black bass species considered as gamefish in North America, including largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui), Spotted bass or Kentucky bass (Micropterus punctatus), Guadalupe bass (Micropterus treculii), and many other species and subspecies of the genus Micropterus. Though referred to as bass, all are actually members of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae: order Perciformes).

Yep ol mr black bass( small& large mouth etc) is not a bass at all but a sunfish & not a very big sunfish compared to some..

A sunfish caught in 1910, with an estimated weight of 1600kg (3500lbs)


The ocean sunfish resembles a fish head with a tail. Its caudal fin is replaced by a rounded clavus, creating the body's distinct shape. The main body is flattened laterally, giving it a long oval shape when seen head-on. The pectoral fins are small and fan-shaped. However, the dorsal fin and the anal fin are lengthened, often making the fish as tall as it is long. Specimens up to 3.2 m (10.5 ft) in height have been recorded.[7]

The ocean sunfish has an average length of 1.8 m (5.9 ft), and an average weight of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb),[1] although individuals up to 3.3 m (10.8 ft) in length[7] 4.2 m (14 ft) across the fins[8] and weighing up to 2,300 kg (5,100 lb)[9] have been observed.
The spinal column of M. mola contains fewer vertebrae and is shorter in relation to the body than that of any other fish.[10] The spinal cord of a specimen measuring 2.1 m (6.9 ft) in length is under 25 mm (1 in) long.[11] Even though sunfish descended from bony ancestors, its skeleton actually contains largely cartilaginous tissues, which are lighter than bone, allowing it to grow to sizes impractical for other bony fishes.[10] [11] This is also illustrated by the fact that the largest fish in existence today is the whale shark, an entirely boneless fish.