I caught this fish in a tributary of the Miller's River (freshwater large stream/small river) outside of Winchendon, MA (east-central MA) yesterday (Sun. Sept. 29, 2013). We were in a hurry, so I only took 1 picture (attached) and it's kind of blurry (sorry!). For size reference, the pinky finger in the picture is about 2-2.5 inches long. The big things that jumped out at me were the pretty strongly forked tail with the reddish color on it and the strongly streamlined body shape. I also noticed that the scales on the top of the head were smaller in front of the dorsal fin than behind the dorsal fin. And it's hard to see in the picture, but along the side is a slightly punctated, decurved line. (Unfortunately I didn't get a close look at the corner of the mouth to see if there was a barbel or not)

I'm new to this area, so I'm trying to learn the fish that are around here. Can anyone tell me what it is? Also, please tell me what features to key in on (or are likely to jump out at me) so that I know what to look for in the future. Thanks for the help!

i see no picture...

Hmmm. I don't know why it didn't load. I attached it to the original post. Here it is (I hope!)

That looks like a young Fallfish (Semotilus corporalis) to me. Slender fish with a large mouth for its size. Fairly large, well-defined scales. And this picture shows it better than most I've seen, but when you look at them out of the water, they have a very steel-blue sheen to them.

Wow, I have never actually seen a fallfish in my own hand. They have really large scales compared to the other Semotilus.

Fallfish do have large scales, and though not ideal (it's eye could be less white and tail a bit less forked) fallfish is the closest I can think of to it.

Their is one thing about this fish I think is very important though. It was caught two towns away from where I live.

I had thought it might be a fallfish, but wasn't sure. Thanks! I have never seen one before, so that's exciting for me!
Does anyone know if the difference in the scales along the top (smaller in front of dorsal fin, larger behind) is a good characteristic to use? It was pretty obvious to me when I was looking at it, but I haven't seen that mentioned in any of my books. Just curious.