Sorry if this is a no brainer, but I caught this guy this weekend at lake Mercer. At first when I reeled it in I thought it was a sick bass because it was so skinny but then I noticed the vertical stripes. Quickly check VDGF and did not see anything that looked like this guy.

Hey Slomoe I know exactly where you are there. The only thing I've caught in that spot is blue gill and other sunfish on my Rapala lures. I can never seem to get fish to bite on that side of the lake. You catch any bass out there this time out?

That's gotta be a fish that was released by somebody in the neighborhood or something, I can't find anything that looks like that. Maybe a rock bass or some type of hybrid perch??? I'm not sure though. I know Mercer has white perch, warmouth, largemouth, pickerel, blue gill, channel catfish, some hybrid sunfish... that's all I can think of that I've seen or heard of being caught. Cool looking fish though... hopefully someone can figure it out.

Yea, my initial guess was white perch, but i've never seen one, so I couldn't confirm. I have caught bass there, thought I had a pic of one the same day, but I guess I didn't bring it to work on my flash drive. They love the mepps black fury. Thats what I always catch them on, when nothing else works. All those bass are the same size though. I've never caught anything larger than 1lb. Looks like some selective harvesting is in order. I had caught one yesterday, and he gave me a hard time while I was taking the hook out. I told him if I enjoyed eating fish, he would have been fried up.

It's a white crappie. Not quite as common as the black crappie but present in many VA lakes including Occoquan Res. I wouldn't have thought there were any in Mercer but I guess there are. Usually they're found in larger lakes and rivers, unlike black crappies which are in almost every puddle in VA. Nice catch!

I guess looking at the fins and the face of the fish I could see that now.  Just looks a bit different from the ones I've seen caught. Good call though Bt. Makes sense with all the brush and pilings of wood that there are around this particular lake. Pretty cool. Time to bust out those Mepp's spinners haha. Maybe I'll try some next time I'm out and on that side of the lake.

Wow, thats pretty cool. Are they usually really skinny? I caught another one there yesterday about half the size but still very skinny. Maybe something about the water conditions there that make it possible for them to thrive?

Def white crappie. They can get bigger then that but not sure about how big they get in VA.

Definately a white crappie

yea we catch dozens of those spider riggin early in the year. Great eating fish.

White Crappie fo sho.  

Thanks for all the help guys.  

nice crappie  8-)