16 replies to this topic

[LaMain]

Hello every one,

 

Since the weather was nice today I decided to try to catch some pumpkin seed sunfishes, so I ride my bike for 35km to go to a canal I know is full of them but that was useless  

I know some of you ice fish them but here apart of summer it seems impossible to catch one... Even if the air temperature was above 15°C the river is filled with water from the snow melting in the Jura mountain so the river is quite cold and so is the canal (yet slightly warmer, I did spot some new born fry to small for my hook).

 

So after about 2 hours I moved from the canal to the Doubs river to see what I can there, after a few minutes I got a Carasius carasius that jump out of my hands before I took a picture...

 

I still got some photos of the (probably) most common fishes possibles here they are :

 

Gobio gobio (gudgeon) :

 

 

Alburnus alburnus (bleak) :

 

 

 

Even if the fishing was not that good it was a nice day : my first fishing action for 2 about months, the weather was really nice, I did discover a few water bodies I will have to explore when wadding will be an option and I did made a nice 70km ride by the river

 

Next step : getting or building a photo tank...

[Michael Wolfe]

Search the photo for Photo Tanks and you can find some ideas... here's one.

http://forum.nanfa.o...to +tank +build

[fritz]

Interesting.We don't get to see native fish from other continents very often

[Matt DeLaVega]

The bottom one could almost be N. photogenis or atherinoides.

[Sean Phillips]

Very cool LaMain! I rarely get to see such small fish from your part of the world! I'm more used to seeing the huge carp that people catch in Europe.

[LaMain]

Michael : thank you for the wooden tank idea, for now I have to find some polycarbonate glass to make one which will be back-pack proof, and maybe buy something that will make a nice pocket-able photo-tank for light gear days.

 

Matt : I checked some pictures and your right they look very similar, but my knowledge in taxonomy are pretty short so I can just say that they are all cyprinidae, which doesn't help at all

 

I'm glad you enjoy those very common fishes, most people here just overlook them, it's only in 2005 that some ichthyologists discovered that we have not one but 4 species in the Gobio genus... and last year an other ichthyologist discover than we have 3 species and not 1 in the genus Esox, that's just one of the most common fish and the most hunted one (at least before the introduction of others game fishes).

That's how well we know our fishes...

 

See you soon for some more fishes !

[LaMain]

Hi every one,

 

Since I was not able to 'celebrate' the opening of the trout season this week-end I decided to make a quick micro-fishing today.

I change the place, while still on the same river I get to a place where a small stream (about 500 m long, 1/3 mile) get to the river, I was trying to catch some Phoxinus phoxinus (Eurasian minnow) which I did, but I only got 5 in one hour the reason ?

Some Alburnoides bipunctatus (spirlin) did'nt let them to get to the hook , I got more than 30 of these nice guys in the same hour hopping to get some spawning eurasians minnows

I also catch a few Leucaspius delineatus (sunbleak)

 

Here are some pictures :

Phoxinus phoxinus :

Alburnoides bipunctatus :

Leucaspius delineatus :

 

The place was nice I will try it again in 2 weeks to see if the minnows start to have some spawning color, over 40 fishes for an hour of fishing : Spring is definitely knocking at the door !

[smbass]

I have always wondered what Phoxinus phoxinus look like since they used to be considered the same genus as what are now all Chrosomus sp. in North America. Do they get some red or yellow to them when spawning like all the NA Chrosomus? Looks like there is a little color to that spirlin too, how big do those get? Would they be an appropriate aquarium fish?

[Chasmodes]

Cool catches!  

[LaMain]

Thank you !

 

Yes the Phoxinus phoxinus do get some red and yellow during spawning time, but it's probably to early, next time I try to catch some I will go with a minnow trap to bring a few of them to my outdoor "tank" (it's just a 10 gallons plastic box I keep filled with water for years, I collect live food in it), so I can monitor them.

 

Yes the Alburnoides bipunctatus have some nice orange coloration at the base of all fins (they have it all year long, it's not a spawning coloration), the pectoral ones being the brightest, and I just love the look of their lateral line ! They usually grow up to 10 cm (4 inches) but I did fish some slightly longer ones, never over 13 cm (5 inches). 

I did kept some in aquarium over 10 years ago but not on a long time basis, I was putting them in during spring and freeing them in autumn because the tank was in my parents garage which is freezing in winter, it was a 8 or 9 months period.

So my guess will be : yes you can keep them in a tank as long as you do keep them well oxygenated and cool enough, for breeding them I can't say : never tried.

[smbass]

The Alburnoides bipunctatus have some resemblance to our Notropis rubellus and other similar species.

 

[Mike]

Very nice, I will have to try micro fishing in France someday.

[LaMain]

Hello every one,

 

It's been a while since I didn't post here but I keep reading the forum, since I recently (finally !) got some some fishing action, I think it's time for an update.

 

@smbass : they do look very similar indeed, they probably related in some way.

 

By the way, if someone know any kind of source for this kind of info, I will be very interested (it might exist since genetic had made it's way into ichthyology).

 

So about fishing, I've been fishing in a place I used to go more often a few years ago and got a few pictures of others natives, and in a small artificial lake full of... NA natives... well the 2 most commons, namely : cat-fish and pumpkinseed sunfish.

 

So the natives : 

Gymnocephalus cernua (Ruffe), some of you may know it since it seem to be invasive in some places of NA...

 

Tinca tinca (Tench), this little one have some really nice colors (the picture doesn't honor it).

 

Scardinius erythrophthalmus (Common rudd), another fish that had been introduced in NA

 

 

 

 

[LaMain]

The last native where caught along with the NA natives, in a quite small lake, with a very clear water (which put on my mind the idea of getting some snorkeling gear and a water proof camera , but I don't have anything that clear near to me.

I was not planning to fish but I did put my hand on some fishing gear, so they won't be really micros, but they'll be fishes

 

So the last native for this update is :

Perca fluviatilis (European perch)

 

So in the same place I found some NA natives, it was quite some fun to catch the black bullhead on lure by sight (I usually find them in muddy waters).

This little one didn't actually got hooked : it just kept the lure in it's mouth until I got him in my hand ! And he did remind me that they do have some good spines

Ameiurus melas (Black bullhead)

 

This one is just an example of how big they can get here : about 25 cm (10 inches)

 

[LaMain]

The last very common NA native we have here is pumpkinseed sunfish.

 

A small one caught in the same place :

Lepomis gibbosus (Pumpkinseed)

 

This small lake was literally invaded by pumpkinseeds and black bullheads, I spotted thousands of this sunnies (all of them under 3 inches), and hundreds of the blacks bullheads (excluding the schools of new-born fry...), among with rudds, european perchs and northern pike as the only natives I've seen...

 

Another one caught somewhere else where the water was clear but brown (a kind of peat lake), this one amazed me with its wonderful colors :

 

This third one is from the pond of a friend of mine, it was much more colorful but I took the picture too late (it was waiting in a bucket while we where cleaning the pond.

 

 

If you have any doubt about the id of the NA native let me know I'll try to get some better picture of them to check it.

 

See you soon for some other pictures, and some aquarium when I'll have moved.

[mattknepley]

I see that bullhead spines are as nasty in France as they are here- ouch! The tench picture does hint at its colors; I'd love to see one in person. Sorry about our badly mannered NA fishes over there!

[BenCantrell]

Nice catches!