When the dog days of summer hit, and the trout go dormant, fish for pikeminnows during mid-day to slake your thirst for hard-fighting fish.

Species: Northern Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus oregonensis)
Location: Umatilla River, Pendleton, OR
Date: July 21, 2008

We’ve established I hate baseball.

I respect it and those who play it, but it bores me to tears. So, when my brother Gabe’s team made it to the Little League state championship tournament for a chance at the Little League World Series, I was excited for him. Until I wasn’t.

Then I moved on to other things.

I’d just been given a cell phone as a graduation present. It flipped open and closed which seemed kind of cool, but it looked ridiculous, and it was one more thing I had to carry in my pocket.

I knew these were popular already, but they seemed a little unnecessary for everyday use. Still, I took a few really grainy photos of the fish I caught shortly after ditching the game to fish the river behind the stadium.

At the time, I had no clue what the fish were, but those photos later helped me identify them as Northern Pikeminnow.

These underrated “trash fish” aren’t the most popular sport fish, but they fight well, hit the same things trout do, and can actually grow quite large. The specimens I caught that day were all between seven and nine inches long, though.

Oh well. A new species is always better than baseball.

#SpeciesQuest // #CaughtOvgard

Read the next entry in #SpeciesQuest here: Species #23 — Brown Bullhead.

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