Species: Striped Seaperch (Embiotoca lateralis) Location: Chetco River North Jetty, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 14, 2011 I first saw Striped Seaperch as a kid. The beautiful, coppery iridescence paired with stunning cerulean lines made the cooler full of these beautiful fish stand out in stark contrast to the muted colors of the rockfish, salmon, lingcod…
Species: Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias) Location: San Pablo Bay, San Francisco, CA Date: March 25, 2012 This is the third story in succession and ties in with the other species I caught on the same day, and you’re best reading them in order: First and Second. In the United States, Atlantic Cod is the fish…
Species: Bat Ray (Myliobatis californica) Location: San Pablo Bay, San Francisco, CA Date: March 25, 2012 If you didn’t read the last entry, be sure to catch up here or you’ll be missing out. They tie together. *** I’ve fished the salt a lot in the past 15 years. Not anywhere near as much as…
Species: Brown Smoothhound (Mustelus henlei) Location: San Pablo Bay, San Francisco, CA Date: March 25, 2012 Shark Week isn’t for a few months. I desperately wish I could’ve timed this to release then, but I didn’t want my readers to wait around for months and lose interest. I’ve already had enough women lose interest in…
Species: Grass Rockfish (Sebastes rastrelliger) Location: Mill Beach, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: July 14, 2012 Over the years, I’ve been admittedly quite blessed when it comes to fishing. I’ve captured rare species, rare color morphs, rare body types, and frankly, I can’t complain. One such catch was a Grass Rockfish, and I caught it on a trip…
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: 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…
