Species #192 — Blacktail Shiner

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…

Read more

Species #191 — Texas Shiner

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…

Read more

Species #178 — Threespine Stickleback

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…

Read more

Species #113 — Koi

Species: Koi (Cyprinus rubrofuscus) Location: Oregon Date: November 24, 2017 This was an interesting one. I caught several Koi on my trip to Arizona in 2017, but at the time, I didn’t realize they were a separate species from Common Carp; I just assumed they were an ornamental variety like Mirror or Leather Carp. In fact, I…

Read more

Species #164 — Hardhead

Species: Hardhead (Mylopharodon conocephalus) Location: Pit River, CA Date: July 23, 2018 I wrote about this trip. It’s kind of an interesting read. Check it out here if you missed the last post about my Sacramento Pikeminnow. If you read it, you’ll remember I talked about going to fish the Pit River in hopes of massive,…

Read more

Species #158 — Shorthead Redhorse

Species: Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) Location: Caledonia, Ontario, Canada Date: July 16, 2018 I live in Oregon, a place where half of our native suckers are threatened or endangered, and the other half can be difficult to locate and catch. Apart from Largescale Sucker, none of the sucker species we have are caught very often. Oh…

Read more