Was browsing through my pics I had on my phone and had just about forgotten about this guy, this one is from 3 years ago, caught on a nightcrawlers with flloater set about a foot from the hook. Casted into some weeds sticking up out of the water and caught a few more besides him, but none of them had that color. They were all the lighter color. I thought this was a rather pretty looking fish (hard fighter too).

Dunno exactly what a shell cracker is, is that just a generic term for panfish? This was a dark colored war mouth.

Yeah thats a colloquial term for that particular species of panfish.They are called that because they eat freshwater mollusks as part of their diet, and they can crack open the shells of those mollusks, hence "Shellcracker". They are more widely known as Red Ear, Red Ear Sunfish.

And that is a nice warmouth.

OP's picture is a redear sunfish, aka shellcracker. Don't see them that dark very often here.

OP's picture is a redear sunfish, aka shellcracker. Don't see them that dark very often here.

nor here in alabama really. I have caught hundreds of these things, not a single one was so darkly colored. And on a side note, this one was a male, somewhat on the large side too. How do I know this? Well it is said in fiahing circles that if you see orange on the black spot, is a female red ear, or shellcracker; if it is more of s blood red color, like that one, then it is a male.

Was browsing through my pics I had on my phone and had just about forgotten about this guy, this one is from 3 years ago, caught on a nightcrawlers with flloater set about a foot from the hook. Casted into some weeds sticking up out of the water and caught a few more besides him, but none of them had that color. They were all the lighter color. I thought this was a rather pretty looking fish (hard fighter too).

I have caught a few on beds like that