The little stream by where I work keeps surprising me. I wish I could find out it's name. Well anyway I went down there at lunch today because I wanted to try and catch the odd looking sunfish I had seen earlier in the week. I had my ultra light rod and one jig (big mistake) and my net. I went to where I had seen the odd looking sunfish and it was still there and even better I caught it on my first cast! I'm thinking it's a Banded Sunfish.





I caught a couple more sunfish of the same species including this handsome fella.





I also caught some Black Nose Daces on the jig which made me laugh since they could barely get it in their mouths. Then I managed to snag and lose my only jig. I did have some jig heads and and some large hellgrammite lures so I pulled the tail off of one and got back to fishing. I think I caught almost 10 of the sunfish and 3 or 4 Daces included this trophy sized one. I didn't think they even got this big.



All in all it was a lot of fun. I really have to hit this stream outside of work so I have more then 45 minutes to work it and be able to get wet.

Edited by davidjh2, 25 June 2010 - 08:56 PM.

well i dont feel like crushing your hopes....its not a banded sunfish...and that/those are not blacknose daces. looks like a creek chub...and that looks like a green sunfish/bluegill hybrid...im not that good of an IDer yet....but i do know enough to say what they aren't. you will never catch a blacknose or banded sunfish on a hook....well most likely not a banded...def not a BND dace and if you go to google earth click on terrain view you can get the name of the stream

Edited by bumpylemon, 25 June 2010 - 09:08 PM.

this is a blacknose dace





this is a banded sunfish, as you can see its only like 3 or 4 fingers long and thats a full sized adult



and a creek chub which you caught...

Edited by bumpylemon, 25 June 2010 - 09:16 PM.

Thank Bumplymon I thought the mouth looked like a chubs. I do have some BND's though here are some quick photo's from my phone





I saw the black stripe and jumped to conclusions. The color is totally different from any chub I've ever caught. I think did catch 2 bnd's though they were a lot smaller then the chub but probably huge for a dace. They didn't get the jig in their mouths, they were hooked on the outside of their mouths. I'll have to go back monday and catch some again and get some pictures. They are very aggressive feeders and a pack of them was attacking the jig.
If the sunfish aren't Banded Sunfish then they must be hybrids or given my proximity to Trenton mutants of some kind . According to Google Maps one branch of the stream is called Golden Run.

Edited by davidjh2, 25 June 2010 - 09:44 PM.

Nice that you can take a quick fishing trip on lunch breaks. First sunfish appears to be pumpkinseed and the second one is a green sunfish. And as said, the minnow is a creek chub.

yeah it's real nice being able to run out do a little fishing at lunchtime. Having to stay clean and mostly dry is hard though lol.

If the 2nd sunfish is a Green Sunfish then it's introduced since they aren't native to NJ and their native range is nowhere near NJ.Catching a new species of sunfish is cool but not so much if it's invasive.

Edited by davidjh2, 25 June 2010 - 09:51 PM.

I would say the first two sunfish are pumpkinseed/greens, the second and third pictures pure greens and the minnow a creek chub. Nice catches, I always enjoyed casually fishing for creek chubs and other stream dwellers.

That guy at the bottom is a creek chub, the easiest way to I.D them is that they make noise when you hold onto them. Those are also pumpkiseed-lookin fish and green sunfish. The first guy looks like a hybrid the rest pure green. Overall very very nice catches, Great work!

Edited by donkeyman876, 26 June 2010 - 05:31 AM.