Species: Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys osculus) Location: Link River, Klamath Falls, OR Date: December 15, 2015 As of right now, this is one species. Likely, the Klamath Speckled Dace, Rhinichthys osculus klamathensis, will soon be classified as a separate species. It, like a number of Oregon endemics, hasn’t seen a lot of attention in the past 100 years, so it’s…
Read moreSpecies #123 — Klamath Marbled Sculpin
Species: Klamath Marbled Sculpin (Cottus klamathensis) Location: Klamath Falls, OR Date: March 10, 2018 My entire life, I’d known sculpins existed in the Klamath Basin. I’d seen them in the stomachs of the trout I’d occasionally kept, dead along the shoreline, and darting in and out of the shadows when I’d return from a last-light wade-fishing…
Read moreSpecies #122 — Padded Sculpin
Species: Padded Sculpin (Artedius fenestralis) Location: Newport, OR Date: February 24, 2018 The first micro sculpin I’ve ever caught using non-micro gear was the Padded Sculpin. I spent most of the night throwing little crappie jigs for juvenile rockfish. I slayed the Black Rockfish and Brown Rockfish, the latter being a surprise given their relative rarity…
Read moreSpecies #121 — Pacific Herring
Species: Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) Location: Newport, OR Date: February 24, 2018 I’ve had plenty of 100-plus-fish days. As of February 2019, my best day was 312 fish. But as of February 2018, I’d never done it with saltwater fish. Though I’ve now caught 100 or more specimens of the same species a total of 13 times,…
Read moreSpecies #120 — Shortnose Sucker
Species: Shortnose Sucker (Chasmistes brevirostris) Location: Undisclosed Location Date: January 12, 2018 A few people told me I shouldn’t write about this one, and I both understand and respect their reasoning; however, I think I should write about this precisely because nobody else wants to talk about it. We have a species at risk of extinction…
Read moreSpecies #119 — Tidepool Sculpin
Species: Tidepool Sculpin (Oligocottus maculosus) Location: Newport, Oregon Date: December 22, 2017 After discovering microfishing in the Willamette a few days earlier, I took my time staying with my brother, Gabe, during Christmas Break to expand my microfishing horizon. After finding about as much success fishing from the pier as I’ve found dating in my late 20s, I…
Read moreSpecies #118 — Chiselmouth
Species: Chiselmouth (Acrocheilus alutaceus) Location: Newport, Oregon Date: December 22, 2017 Trout fishing, specifically walking and casting the shoreline with spinning gear, remains my favorite type of fishing. I also love fishing for bass with topwaters, chasing staging crappie and sunfish with ultralight tackle, tossing streamers for hungry perch It’s pretty rare to catch any sort of…
Read moreSpecies #117 — Torrent Sculpin
Species: Torrent Sculpin (Cottus rhotheus) Location: Corvallis, Oregon Date: December 18, 2017 This is post 3-of-4 that will just link to an article after providing some basic identification tips. Torrent Sculpin is the easiest sculpin species to identify in the Willamette River Basin. At least, in my opinion. Not only do they behave differently (they’re very skittish and…
Read moreSpecies #116 — Prickly Sculpin
Species: Prickly Sculpin (Cottus asper) Location: Corvallis, Oregon Date: December 18, 2017 Here’s another post that will just link to a story I’ve already written. Ideally, I’ll catch another Prickly Sculpin soon, so I can put it side-by-side with my Reticulate Sculpin to help with identification. Sadly, my only photo of a Prickly Sculpin (above), is terrible. I…
Read moreSpecies #115 — Reticulate Sculpin
Species: Reticulate Sculpin (Cottus perplexus) Location: Corvallis, Oregon Date: December 18, 2017 I try to provide content on my blog independent of what I publish in newspapers and magazines, but if I’ve already told a story well, there’s no point retelling it. This is post 1-of-4 that will just link to an article after providing some basic identification…
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