Species: Porthole Livebearer (Poeciliopsis gracilis) Location: Undisclosed Location, American Southwest Date: August 8, 2018 I didn’t end up pursuing a career as a fish biologist. From the time I was little, it was my dream. The reality was I graduated from high school in 2008, the year The Great Recession peaked, and by the time…
Species: Desert Pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius) Location: Undisclosed Location, American Southwest Date: August 8, 2018 Since the inception of Lifelist Fishing, its early leaders shared one common rule: publicly pretend protected fish don’t exist. If the reasoning were “Avoid protected fishes at all costs,” I’d be totally fine with that. I’m all about conservation and doing…
Species: Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) Location: Undisclosed Creek, Southern California Date: August 8, 2018 When you think of the most naturally widespread freshwater fish on earth, you probably think of bass, carp, or trout. That’s a reasonable assumption, but it’s wrong. Those three fish have been introduced worldwide to become the most prevalent, but the fish…
Species: California Grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) Location: Mission Bay, California Date: August 5, 2018 There are very few opportunities to catch true micros that sit up in the water column in the salt, but when you find them, they’re typically quite easy. The silversides swarming in Mission Bay were the exception to this rule. For almost an…
Species: Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) Location: Santa Ana River, CA Date: August 3, 2018 I haven’t written a #SpeciesQuest post in almost a year. My last one published in July while I was on my Fishing Across America trip, and I spent the time not fishing working on my book of the same now. This means I’m…
Species: Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) Location: Smokes Creek, Buffalo, New York Date: July 18, 2018 “Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high Take a look, it’s in a book, A Reading Rainbow! I can go anywhere Friends to know, and ways to grow A Reading Rainbow! I can be anything Take a look,…
Species: Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides) Location: Buffalo, New York Date: July 18, 2018 Microfishing is still relatively new to me, and the newness of it all is partially why I love it so much. This method has yet to hit the mainstream, but microfishing is a gem. In combination, the ability to sight fish, to actually…
Species: Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus) Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Date: July 16, 2018 The north is a tough place. If the elements don’t kill you, there’s always the next power-hungry leader, plague, or toothy beast waiting in line to give it their best shot. Though civilizations north of the equator have more or less dominated the…
Species: Golden Topminnow (Fundulus chrysotus) Location: Orlando, Florida Date: July 10, 2018 After checking off Golden Shiner, I tried to catch the tiny little pike-like fish that roamed just under the surface, darting this way and that to investigate everything on its turf. The telltale red-tipped tail told me it was another Golden Topminnow, and I’d…
Species: Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas) Location: Orlando, Florida Date: July 10, 2018 A school of Golden Shiners pestered me for almost an hour at the Lake Fran Urban Wetlands. I knew what they were, and I knew I’d never caught one, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t get one to bite. They were…
