Species: Guadalupe Roundnose Minnow (Dionda nigrotaeniata) Location: New Braunfels, Texas Date: August 25, 2018 So there I was, not catching Gray Redhorse when I finally decided to call it quits. I had a long drive back, and I wanted to grab a decent dinner before returning to base that night. I had some homework I’d…
Species: Blacktail Shiner (Cyprinella venusta) Location: New Braunfels, Texas Date: August 25, 2018 The fragile Texas Shiner came first, but after that, I caught nothing but Blacktail Shiners for the next hour. Cyprinellas are always agressive, and Blacktails are pretty ubiquitous in the south. I’ve caught them from Texas to Florida since, and their large…
Species: Texas Shiner (Notropis amabilis) Location: New Braunfels, Texas Date: August 25, 2018 After slaying the Redspotted Sunfish in the artificially cooled whitewater river flowing through New Braunfels, I opted for a more natural setting. I still had a number of potential species, but I’d become especially enamored with the Gray Redhorse. As I arrived…
Species: Variegated Platy (Xiphophorus variatus) Location: Austin, Texas Date: August 17, 2018 “This is my home!” “What do you want?” “Those fish are mine!” After the first homeless person accosted me in the little Austin park, I should’ve probably left. I was paying for parking, it was hot, I was hoping to grab a decent…
Species: Mexican Tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) Location: San Antonio, Texas Date: August 17, 2018 Several weeks before I finally caught one of these fish, I ran into Mexican Tetras in New Mexico’s Pecos River. I could clearly identify them, and I was frustrated by their relative difficulty in the shallow, clear water. After an undisclosed and…
Species: Inland Silverside (Menidia beryllina) Location: Lake Abilene, Texas Date: August 11, 2018 In hopes of finding an exotic gambusia species, we also tried fishing several of the ditches, channels, and canals around Abilene. It was about as terrible as you’d think. I already wrote this story, but let me just add that at the…
Species: Pecos Pupfish (Cyprinodon pecosensis) Location: Roswell, New Mexico Date: August 10, 2018 Alien. That’s exactly what you expect Roswell, New Mexico to be. And honestly, it is alien. The large town is surrounded by some of the strangest landscape I’ve ever seen with a mixture of sweeping sand dunes, sage flats, scab rock, muddy…
Species: Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) Location: Rio Hondo, Roswell, New Mexico Date: August 10, 2018 Every angler has those moments he or she would go back and change. Keep a little more line tension, set the hook harder, loosen the drag. Most of these regrets are tied to trophy fish that any angler would be…
Species: Longnose Dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) Location: Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico Date: August 9, 2018 I didn’t pace this trip very well. I spent a week in California, a day in Arizona, and two in New Mexico before making it down to Texas. I spent a whole day driving from Phoenix to Roswell, and it wasn’t…
Species: Longfin Dace (Agosia chrysogaster) Location: Peoria, Arizona Date: August 8, 2018 I did an absurd amount of driving that first day, and I ended up picking up a handful of random micros in the space from San Diego to Phoenix. My last win of the day came when I met up with Chris Moore….
