How Many Species?

[Pete Collin]

Hello All,

The recent thread about favorite species got me to thinking about how many species of fish have I caught. Here's a list of all i can think of:

Brook Trout

Brown Trout

Rainbow Trout

Cutthroat Trout

lake Trout

Palomino Trout

Bull Trout

Arctic Grayling

Western Whitefish

Eastern Whitefish

Pike

Pickerel

Largemouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Spotted Bass

Black Crappie

Bullhead

Channel Cat

carp

Grass Carp

sheephead

Atlantic Salmon

Chinook Salmon

Coho Salmon

bluegill

pumpkinseed

yellow perch

white perch

white bass

redhorse sucker

quillback sucker

white sucker

fallfish

chub

SALTWATER

Striped Bass

mackerel

harbor pollock

flounder

bluefish

If I have "bucket list" species, i have never been shad fishing, and have never successfully netted smelt. Would be really fun to get into a heavy Alaskan run of Pink salmon, too!

Pete Collin

[Mortigan]

Boy, have I got some catching up to do!

[alex1young]

Hey Pete,

Awesome list I'm from PA and fished the Delaware for shad many times. Its a good time but it takes a lot of practice.

Best of luck on your quest

PS: no walleye?

[kremer01]

no Musky?

[Pete Collin]

I knew I'd forget one or 2! I have caught walleye many times, but don't get to target them too often nowadays. Want to go out in erie for that someday. The only musky i ever got was about 8 inches long in Canadohta Lake in PA. Didn't think that counted, at least it shouldn't!

Pete

www.pcforestry.com

[DtD]

Oh, Peeta ! no burbot or bowfin......can't be ! See you at the jigging station ! Dave D.

[Deaf Fisherman]

no sea robin, scup, sea raven during flounder fishing or even atlantic cod or dogfish?

The list look great so far! Keep it up!

I don't think you want to hear my list that how many species that I caught so far! you will be surprise how the small fish smacked my hook!

Btw, where did you catch the whitefish, sheephead, channel catfish? Those three fish are still winning from me from cross out the bucket list!

[Pete Collin]

DF,

I got the sheephead mostly in Irodequoit bay. The bigger ones were like 6 pounds and fought nice. The cats came also from irondequoit, and and also a friend's private pond. I got the eastern whitefish in Maine and Quebec. The western whitefish in British columbia, Montana, and Alaska.

Never caught a burbot or bowfin. I have seen some big bowfin in Oak Orchard creek while fishing for.... GAR!!! Forgot to list longnose gar!

Pete

[alex1young]

Alright Pete, I don't mean to step on your toes but you inspired me to make my own list. I'll be 24 in July, so I've still got sometime. Haha

Freshwater

Brook Trout

Rainbow Trout

Brown Trout

Tiger trout

Lake Trout

King Salmon

Cutthroat

Palomino

Blue Gill

PumpkinSeed

Sunfish

Rock Bass

White Crappie

Bullhead Catfish

Channel Catfish

Yellow Perch

Walleye

Chain Pickerel

Northern Pike

American Eel

Northern Sucker

Red Sucker

White Sucker

American Shad

Largemouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Freshwater Drum

Cisco

Saltwater

Striper

Bluefish

Dogfish

Sea Robin

Croaker

Fluke

Skate

Saltwater Drum

[Deaf Fisherman]

Pete - Much thanks for reply! I'll attempt to go after them. hope to catch one or two... Also, is longnose gar that easy to catch in Oak Orchard creek? I have been dying to catch that one after broke line with one in Irondequoit Bay. (I would guess it was around between 25-30 inch from kayak sight.)

I'll try to find my list of species that I kept it as log book. Last time I recall, it was around 105 different species. I'll upload on here when I find it.

[Pete Collin]

DF,

I wrote a short article about fly fishing for gar years ago. Here's an excerpt:

I thought I would write down some conclusions I have reached about gar

fishing. They are:

1. The rig – 9 foot 8 weight. Don’t worry about the reel drag. Gar don’t

make runs. 6 foot level leader of 10 pound trilene XT. 6 inch shock tippet

of 25 pound Maxima chameleon.

2. The articles you read about gar fishing say to use a 6 inch fly or

bigger. The fish I cast to ranged from 17 inches to maybe 30 inches. A six

inch fly seemed too big. Since I got many strikes on bunny buggers, I made

gar flies the same size as them – 3 or 4 inches long. When you examine a

gar, its mouth opening is really not all that big, so I don’t believe they

swallow baby ducks or anything like that.

3. Gar flies are so easy to make, they might encourage conspicuous

consumption. Save the flies that you have caught fish on. The more fish

you catch on them, the tanglier they get.

4. You will miss many strikes, particularly when they are not aggressive and

hit lightly. This is to be expected with any hookless fly, I suppose.

5. As tricky as they can be to get tangled in the frayed rope, gar are

equally tough to get untangled once they are caught.

6. The danger of dealing with a gar’s teeth offsets the safety of fishing

with a hookless fly. And vice versa.

7. Getting bit by a gar hurts even worse than you would think.

8. Gar are day feeders. Forget about morning and evening.

9. Gar are easy to locate. They seem to live their life within a yard of

the surface, and their constant gulping of air into their swim bladders

gives them away at a hundred yards.

10. Sight fishing is by far the best way to go about gar fishing. You must

manipulate the retrieve and tighten upon a strike according to how you see

the fish reacting. You are usually casting to the limit of your range, so

as not to spook them with your boat, arm movement, or upright form.

11. Canoes are lousey gar boats. Most of the time you want to stand to

cast.

12. Gar don’t fight all that well. Their slim physique of scales, beak and

bone doesn’t leave much room for muscle. When entangled, gar will swim

right at the boat and thrash a little at boatside. They will patiently lie

very still in the bottom of the canoe while you photograph them. This is

probably because they can breathe through their swim bladders so they aren’t

suffocating. Although they just might be dimly pondering whether this,

after a 250 million year procrastination, might be a good time to evolve.

13. The all important strike: They didn’t smash explosively like pike. Most

of the time gar just sidle up and deftly snip the frayed rope fly. After

hitting, gar just sit there. Let them. They will either shake their head

or take a run, and this will help getting themselves snarled up. Apply

tension slowly after a little while – you will either have them or you will

lose them.

14. I learned that eels are caught the same way as gar, with hookless lures.

15. Fly color is less important than varying color. After casting to a pod

for a while, they get wise to you and cool off. Changing fly color might

turn them on again.

16. Action usually occurs in spurts throughout the day. Even if the gar are

listless and inattentive, keep at ‘em.

17. Gar flies pose an interesting problem of how to mount them in a fly box.

Clips and crinkle foam are useless.

18. Gar smell kinda funny.

19. It’s fun to watch the reaction of passing boaters.

20. Gar fishing is wide open to creating new angler jargon. (suggestion:

“We sure did tweak some beak!â€)

[Pete Collin]

Alex,

You reminded me of 2 more species i forgot on my list. Tiger trout and rock bass. That' an impressive list for a young guy like yourself. Did you eat the cisco? I might remember hearing they were a food fish. Never got one before.

There is also an ocean fish called a sculpin I have caught several times. they are ugly bottom dwellers, not very memorable when compiling a list like this.

Pete

www.pcforestry.com

[alex1young]

I did not eat the cisco. I was fishing northern Quebec at the time, after landing it the local I was fishing with called it an F#&%ing chub and proceeded to kill the fish and toss it overboard. He explained the cisco's are out competing game fish for food, and they grow quickly which only makes them prey for large predators like pike. It was very shocking, and to this day I'm still confused by it still think it was the wrong, but who was I to say.

Alex

[BullGator]

20. Gar fishing is wide open to creating new angler jargon. (suggestion:

“We sure did tweak some beak!â€)

Thats funny right there..........

[Deaf Fisherman]

Pete - Much thanks on that article! I gotta give Gar a try on fly-fishing...

Btw, I just found the log book and took some time to list them all. so here it is.

Freshwater

Freshwater

1. Largemouth bass

2. Smallmouth bass

3. Spotted bass

4. Black bass

5. White bass

6. Bluegill sunfish

7. Pumpkinseed sunfish

8. Redbreast sunfish

9. Longear sunfish

10. Mud sunfish

11. Yellow perch

12. White perch

13. Chain Pikerel

14. Northern Pike

15. Tiger pike

16. Black bullhead catfish

17. Brown bullhead catfish

18. Yellow bullhead catfish

19. American eel

20. Goby

21. King salmon

22. Coho salmon

23. Atlantic salmon

24. Steelhead trout

25. Rainbow trout

26. Brown trout

27. Brook trout

28. Tiger trout

29. Splake

30. Smelts

31. American Shad

32. Common Carp

33. Grass Carp

34. Alfwere

35. Walleye

36. Sauger

37. Black Crappie

38. White Crappie

39. Lake trout

40. Cisco

41. Common Sucker

42. Redhorse sucker

43. Northern hogsucker

44. Quillback

45. Mooneye

46. Fallfish

47. Rainbow smelt

48. Slimy sculpin

49. Round Whitefish

50. Glizzard shad

51. Pugnose Shiner

52. Rock bass

53. Gold fish

54. Mosquitofish

55. Banded Killfish

56. Central Mudminnow

57. American Brook Lamprey

58. Sculpin

59. Central stonerollers

60. Golden shiners

61. Creek chubs

Saltwater

62. Striper bass

63. Bluefish

64. Monkfish

65. Wolffish

66. American Eel

67. Atlantic Cod

68. Haddock

69. Pollock

70. winter flounder

71. summer flounder

72. Fluke

73. Black sea bass

74. Tautog

75. Sea robin

76. Scup

77. Herring

78. Mackerel

79. Smelts

80. Skate (caught 4 different kind but don’t know exactly name of them)

81. Bluefin Tuna

82. Thresher Shark

83. Blue Shark

84. Sunfish

85. Permit

86. Pufferfish

87. Dogfish

88. Spiny shark

89. The stick Pipefish

90. The Opossum pipefish

91. Hake

92. Cusk

93. Red Fish

94. Pout

95. Two Horned Sculpin

96. Sea Raven

97. Bonito

98. Bull minnows

99. Mummichogs

100. Butterfish

101. Anglerfish

102. Sand eels

103. Northern Kingfish

104. Cunner

105. Rock wrasse

106. Pilot fish

107. Redfish

108. Sand Shark

The total species is 112 species so far. There are far more species to be caught soon. (Hopefully)

[Deaf Fisherman]

Btw, I am same age with alex1young.

[PolarBear]

#1 CHINNOOKKIE (Salmon)

#2 STINKFISH (Lake Trout)

everything else don't count

[Skinnyskins]

No big old Blue or shovel head catfish? If you travel like you said I would def. recommend giving it a shot some night people always rip on things like the cat fishing for some reason but I swear theres nothing like hearing that bait clicker start screaming grabbing your rod and having a 40+ lb blue ripping down river so hard it damn near pulls ya overboard! Id say if u ever find yourself in Ohio bring your rods and give it a shot they got some great cat fishing out there!