Was throwing the cast net a little in my canal system and happened upon a very big shellcracker and one hellava blue tilapia.  Picks below... Has anyone else caught very large examples of these or other off target species. (panfish)  By the way the Shellcracker was almost a pound, and the tilapia went 4 pounds even.

Sure. While fishing for bass, I've caught bluegill, redear/shellcracker, crappie, warmouth, catfish, etc. Notable "off-target" catches were a 37.1lb grass carp and a 20lb channel cat. As far as panfish, I occasionally catch bluegill or redears in the 10" class but haven't got anything bigger. This little guy sorta surprised me last year - I thought I had a 2 or 2.5lb bass on the line and it turned out to be this scrappy 10", 1.2lb bluegill. The world record bluegill is over 4lbs - that would be a good fight!

It's all fun!

Shell Cracker I believe I was told...

Shellcrackers or redear sunfish as we call them around here seem to get bigger more often than bluegills. I had one follow a deep running crankbait to the boat last year that had to go over 2 pounds. I've caught a couple over 10" out of that lake so I'm not surprised to see it. One of our powerplant lakes has a 14" 2 fish limit on crappie and you can regularly catch keepers out of it.

If I could catch 1+ pound panfish with regularity I don't think I'd bass fish nearly as much.

Amen to that comment. The bigger bluegills, if you can find them fight harder than any fish I have ever hooked.

You get them on an ultra light with 2lb test and boy is it a battle...

A good size bluegill is more fun to fight than a bass any day.  Scrappy little dudes and good to eat to boot!