Hi, I'm new here and have been looking around the forums. Just curious how many of you grew up calling a native fish something unusual compared to other people. I grew up calling yellow perch "tiger perch". I'm not planning to stop anytime soon either, they're green where I live. I'm not sure where this name originated but everyone in my extended family calls them that and almost no one I met while out fishing does. My family also refers to sun fish as kiver and crappie as calico bass.
Did you grow up calling a fish a different name than most people?
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Guest_NorthEdge_*
, Oct 15 2013 03:55 PM
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#2
Guest_Gavinswildlife_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 04:16 PM
Common shiners are silversides and crayfish are crawdads. Hellgrammites are salamanders.
#3
Guest_Skipjack_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 04:27 PM
Hellgrammites are salamanders? That is a stretch. I have heard them called "grampus" in Tn. Green sunfish were rock bass around here, and longears were pumpkinseeds. Bullhead catfish were yellow bellies. Sure I could think of a few more.
#4
Guest_Gavinswildlife_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 04:33 PM
Hellgrammites are salamanders? That is a stretch. I have heard them called "grampus" in Tn. Green sunfish were rock bass around here, and longears were pumpkinseeds. Bullhead catfish were yellow bellies. Sure I could think of a few more.
Yeah, but this is backwoods WV in the 1940s were talking about.
Edited by Gavinswildlife, 15 October 2013 - 04:34 PM.
#5
mattknepley
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 04:51 PM
In the chunk of Southern Tier NY / Northern Tier PA (the Twin Tiers to residents of that border region) I have been lucky enough to have spent so much time in, any crappie is a "Calico", any small stream-dwelling, whiskery fish is a Tony, crayfish are (often) crabs, and we wouldn't know what the heck anyone talking about "bream" was referring to...
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#6
Guest_Orangespotted_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 07:23 PM
I second the Rock Bass moniker for Green Sunfish. How I delighted in telling my dad that he was wrong! 
Redear and Pumpkinseeds were both Bluegills ("man, this is one funky colored bluegill") and everything else was minnows. Once we saw a "duck catfish" (shovelnose sturgeon) and a popular story I heard once was of a man claiming he had caught a rare "Yellow-bellied Catfish" to DNR officials. I'd love if you guys could try to guess this one; it's nothing close to what you think!
Redear and Pumpkinseeds were both Bluegills ("man, this is one funky colored bluegill") and everything else was minnows. Once we saw a "duck catfish" (shovelnose sturgeon) and a popular story I heard once was of a man claiming he had caught a rare "Yellow-bellied Catfish" to DNR officials. I'd love if you guys could try to guess this one; it's nothing close to what you think!
#7
Guest_jblaylock_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 09:17 PM
Nobody ever catch a Sun Granny?
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Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
#8
Guest_EricaLyons_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 09:49 PM
The small flowing water in our back yard, short enough to jump across, is the crick.
Not sure why, my Dad called it that.
Every sunfish is a 'crappie' because .... it sucks compared to other fish. (sorry, not my phrase!)
Not sure why, my Dad called it that.
Every sunfish is a 'crappie' because .... it sucks compared to other fish. (sorry, not my phrase!)
#9
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 10:33 PM
Stumpknockers, slabs, and snot otters, Oh, my!
#10
Guest_Mike_*
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Posted 15 October 2013 - 11:31 PM
Banded Killifish were Tiger Fish
#11
mattknepley
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Posted 16 October 2013 - 05:19 AM
Pat McManus wrote a humorous essay on the differences between "creeks" and "cricks". If you aren't familiar with it, and want a chuckle, here's a link: (don't know anything more about the site than that they have this essay here...)The small flowing water in our back yard, short enough to jump across, is the crick.
Not sure why, my Dad called it that.
Every sunfish is a 'crappie' because .... it sucks compared to other fish. (sorry, not my phrase!)
http://www.finefishi...tofishcrick.htm
By McManus' definition, the flowing waters of my youth are overwhelmingly of crick status, and that is still how I refer to them.
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#12
Guest_FirstChAoS_*
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Posted 17 October 2013 - 01:56 AM
Local names in my area.
DACE: fallfish
PUMPKINSEED: any lepomis
CUSK: burbot (also a saltwater species)
HORNPOUT: bullhead
i heard one person call white perch whitefish but only heard it once so am not sure if it is a lakes region name (they were from their) or their mistake.
up here we do not have cricks and creeks, we have brooks and streams. I think streams are smaller if I remember right, but when it comes to place names both seem interchangable.
DACE: fallfish
PUMPKINSEED: any lepomis
CUSK: burbot (also a saltwater species)
HORNPOUT: bullhead
i heard one person call white perch whitefish but only heard it once so am not sure if it is a lakes region name (they were from their) or their mistake.
up here we do not have cricks and creeks, we have brooks and streams. I think streams are smaller if I remember right, but when it comes to place names both seem interchangable.
#13
Guest_velvetelvis_*
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Posted 29 October 2013 - 11:22 AM
I grew up in Florida. We called flagfish "pygmy sunfish." My dad (originally from NC) called any Fundulus spp. "Panchax." Any sunfish was a bream (pronounced "brim"). Crayfish were crawfish.
That's not even counting the colloquial names for saltwater fishes, some of which sound very politically incorrect now...!
That's not even counting the colloquial names for saltwater fishes, some of which sound very politically incorrect now...!
#14
Guest_sbtgrfan_*
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Posted 29 October 2013 - 01:15 PM
As with a lot of people it seems, any sunfish was a bream. Warmouth are Molly's. Cricks are the really small creeks that dry up in the summers, creeks are small but always have flowing water, around here. Crayfish stay crayfish. I'm sure there's more I can't think of right now.
#15
Guest_Dustin_*
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Posted 29 October 2013 - 02:48 PM
Like Stephen, all sunfish were bream. An odd one I remember was that yellow perch were called Eisenhowers.
#16
Guest_Skipjack_*
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Posted 29 October 2013 - 05:28 PM
Yellow perch=ring perch
#17
Guest_ShelleyD_*
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Posted 02 November 2013 - 02:44 AM
All sunfish are bluegills here. I don't know that I'd even be able to tell them apart 
#18
Guest_EBParks_*
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Posted 05 November 2013 - 05:58 PM
mudcats = any bullhead
chinkapin = red ear sunfish
goggle-eye = warmouth, rock bass, crappie
white perch = black and white crappie
sun perch = longear, dollar, & pumkinseed
bream = bluegill
perch = any sunfish
chinkapin = red ear sunfish
goggle-eye = warmouth, rock bass, crappie
white perch = black and white crappie
sun perch = longear, dollar, & pumkinseed
bream = bluegill
perch = any sunfish
#19
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
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Posted 05 November 2013 - 09:15 PM
Chinkapin is a Cajun name. Other cajun fishes are Choupique (familiar to everyone here), Sac-a-lait, and Gaspergou. Hope I spelled them right. One of BG's legacies.
#20
Guest_njJohn_*
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Posted 07 November 2013 - 11:34 AM
So what is a rare yellow bellied-catfish?
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