The Yellow Bullhead looks a lot like Brown Bullhead in some waters, but in Long Tom River, the yellows live up to their name.

Species: Yellow Bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)
Location: Long Tom River, Monroe, OR
Date: June 20, 2016

This was a phenomenal day. I caught a total of 50 fish, including Common Carp, Brown Bullhead, and Yellow Bullhead, the latter being a new species. Strangely enough, all fish took corn. The bullheads were ravenous but annoying as bullheads tend to be.

As for identification, Yellow Bullheads can actually be yellowish like this one, but the easiest way to tell them apart from other species is to look at their chin barbels. A Yellow Bullhead’s are white or yellowish while a Brown Bullhead‘s are darker.

This was a busy day, and I learned to “ghost set” for carp this skittish. Basically, you’ll know the carp are feeding nearby, so many of the hooksets should come even if you don’t feel a bite. Just wait a few seconds and lift up, and you’ll often catch carp. The bullheads nibbled pretty overtly, so they weren’t quite as unique a catch.

As bullheads are invasive and worthless, I killed every one I caught.

Common Carp are invasive but at least fun to catch, so I let those go.

I know. I’m a monster.

#SpeciesQuest // #CaughtOvgard

Read the next entry in #SpeciesQuest here: Species #76 — Goldfish.

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