Species: Pacific Bonito (Sarda lineolata) Location: Dana Point, California Date: August 2, 2017 Apart from my immediate family (parents and brothers), I don’t get to fish with family much. I often offer, but few people take me up on it, and that’s okay. But when I finally convince a family member to go with me, it’s always…
Species: Pigfish (Orthopristis chrysoptera) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 The second-most popular baitfish in the Gulf of Mexico is just one letter away from the first (Pinfish). I’m speaking, of course, of the Pinfish. I caught my one and only Pigfish fishing from a public pier in Pensacola minutes after night fell. There…
Species: Frillfin Goby (Bathygobius soporator) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 This is likely the most aggressive fish I’ve ever caught. I buy frozen shrimp as bait, allowing a few pieces at a time to slowly defrost in the water to achieve that perfect, almost-frozen-but-not-quite texture that best allows them to stay on a…
Species: Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 Here’s the unsung hero of my Pensacola trip. These things fought like crazy, and I could always tell I’d hooked another Atlantic Croaker if it fought like crazy and made my imagination run wild. All of the Atlantic Croaker I caught were less…
Species: Hardhead Catfish (Ariopsis felis) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 Channel Catfish are the bane of the Freshwater Species Hunter’s existence across much of the United States and Canada, but Hardhead Catfish fill this role in the saltwater and brackish environments of the Gulf of Mexico. By day, Pinfish will ravage your bait….
Species: Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 Everyone should go fish the Gulf at some point in their life for Redfish or Red Drum. At least, that’s what fishing culture has told us. I have fished in Corpus Christi and parts of Florida where they could be found, but I’ve…
Species: Mangrove Snapper (Lutjanus griseus) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 When I finally caught a fish that wasn’t a Pinfish in Pensacola, I was stoked. I was fishing below the Graffiti Bridge and if the name doesn’t suggest this, it’s not the place you go to feel safe. In my time there, I…
Species: Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) Location: Graffiti Bridge, Pensacola, FL Date: August 1, 2017 Your first specimen of a common species is exciting. Your second and third are, too. Sometime shortly after that, though, it goes downhill. Anyone who’s fished the Gulf knows the world of annoyance Pinfish can induce. As I fished a lagoon in backwater Pensacola,…
Species: Spotted Sunfish (Lepomis punctatus) Location: Whataburger Parking Lot, Century, Florida Date: August 1, 2017 Florida is the destination fishery in the lower 48. As cool as salmon and steelhead and halibut are, it might even beat Alaska. So when I was driving back from Officer Training School in Alabama, I figured a small detour to Florida was…
Species: Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) Location: Globe Creek, Fountain Heights, TN Date: August 1, 2017 This might be the most “Species Hunter” post of my entire blog. After staying with my friend, Marcus Moss, in northern Alabama for a week of subprime bass fishing that culminated in a few gar and a lot of small bass, I…
