Species: Rock Greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus) Location: Brookings, OR Date: Summer 2012 This is really just a placeholder post. I’d originally counted the Klamath River Lamprey as a species here, after catching one attached to a trout. In revisiting this and due to popular opinion within the #SpeciesQuest community, I’ve replaced it with a Rock Greenling,…
Species: Deacon Rockfish (Sebastes diaconus) Location: Off the coast of Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 14, 2011 My last entry featured a Red Irish Lord. I noted this was the last “new species” I’d recorded in my paper fishing journals, and as of the time those journals were written, that was true. But as of August 27, 2015,…
Species: Red Irish Lord (Hemilepidotus hemilepidotus) Location: Off the coast of Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 14, 2011 I began this blog with the first story I ever recorded. That story took place in 2004, and I wrote about it afterwards in a spiral-bound notebook by hand. My last story from those hand-written journals takes place seven years…
Species: Calico Surfperch (Ampistichus koelzi) Location: Chetco River South Jetty, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 12, 2011 Misidentification is to fishing what the New England Patriots are to football: an unfortunate everyday reality that can’t be ignored. Fortunately, just like tonight’s Patriots’ Super Bowl loss, good can get a foothold in the fight against evil and make that unfortunate…
Species: Canary Rockfish (Sebastes pinnager) Location: Off the coast of Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 15, 2010 Many people experiment with drugs in college. Don’t spit out your coffee, but I was one of them. I experimented with Dramamine in the fall of 2010, and it wasn’t bad. If you were looking for more dirt, that’s the end of…
Species: Buffalo Sculpin (Enophrys bison) Location: Chetco River South Jetty, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 13, 2010 This is a story about misidentifying sculpins and feral cats and world records. Yes, you read that right. I’ll start with the record. Here’s the picture of my record-setting fish. My first saltwater All-Tackle World Record was for Buffalo Sculpin (2017), but…
Species: Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) Location: Big Butte Creek, Butte Falls, OR Date: August 14, 2010 I debated how to record this species. The reason being that there are 10-to-14 living subspecies of Cutthroat Trout (depends whom you ask), and many anglers document and note each subspecies separately. Obviously I do. And while I’d like them to be…
Species: Sacramento Perch (Archoplites interruptus) Location: Topsy Reservoir, Keno, OR Date: June 14, 2010 There wasn’t anything crazy about this day. In fact, apart from the fact that spelling the word “Sacramento” has been a lifelong struggle, there isn’t much to tell. I always spell it “Sacremento” instead of “Sacramento,” but I live with my imperfections. But this…
Species: Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) Location: Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz, CA Date: March 24, 2010 During college, trips to the coast were a somewhat regular occurrence for Ben Blanchard and myself. But when our other friend Christopher Puckett decided to go as well, we were pleasantly surprised. Christopher is a good friend, but he was never really…
Species: Pacific Staghorn Sculpin (Leptocottus armatus) Location: Chetco River South Jetty, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 10, 2009 Rashomon Effect 6-of-6: My Hands The phone started beeping, and I fumbled for it in the blackness. My hand found it in the dark, but as I flipped it open with my thumb, the split at the base of the thumbnail cried…
