7 replies to this topic

[Moontanman]

I did a little bit of collecting today, I missed the target fish refin pickerel, but I did get a fat sleeper, several pirate perch, gambusia, least killifish, tiny eels, and a mudpuppy or more likely a young salamander, several banded sunfish and a blue spotted sunfish an green sunfish...

 

I also caught an odd little catfish, about 1/2" long and jet black, even his belly and whiskers were jet black. He vanished between the stream and home so I can't examine him any more his head was larger than you would think in a catfish. making up almost half his length. great day to be collecting... 

[zooxanthellae]

I did a little bit of collecting today, I missed the target fish refin pickerel, but I did get a fat sleeper, several pirate perch, gambusia, least killifish, tiny eels, and a mudpuppy or more likely a young salamander, several banded sunfish and a blue spotted sunfish an green sunfish...

 

I also caught an odd little catfish, about 1/2" long and jet black, even his belly and whiskers were jet black. He vanished between the stream and home so I can't examine him any more his head was larger than you would think in a catfish. making up almost half his length. great day to be collecting... 

You are in the Wilmington area right? Where did you find the least killifish?

[Moontanman]

You are in the Wilmington area right? Where did you find the least killifish?

 

 

I went back today to retrieve my minnow trap, would anyone believe in a creek around here I would catch nothing? Not even a crayfish! I can catch crayfish hand over fist in the storm drain in front of my house! I caught some more blue spotted sunfish, lots of tiny ones I threw back, lots of pirate perch and another fat sleeper. Lots of tiny eels and gambusia but the numbers of gambusia seem much lower than in past years. 

 

I did catch another tiny catfish, looks like he might be a tadpole madtom... 

 

I did a little bit of fishing and caught a half dozen or so Large mouth bass and several very large blue gills. The actually fought over the lure i was using! 

 

 

But again no redfin pickerels, just a couple years ago that little creek was full of redfin pickerels but no bass and blue gills...

 

It was a little creek in marquis hills, hard to get to to, the land owner doesn't like people in his yard. Took me a while to talk him into letting me collect there. 

 

The creek is highly polluted from people running waste water into the stream and lawn run offs, I wonder if that could be why no redfins... 

[Moontanman]

You are in the Wilmington area right? Where did you find the least killifish?

 

 

Greenfield Lake is the best place to get least killie fish.

[lilyea]

I also caught an odd little catfish, about 1/2" long and jet black, even his belly and whiskers were jet black. He vanished between the stream and home so I can't examine him any more his head was larger than you would think in a catfish. making up almost half his length. great day to be collecting... 

From my experience, small and juvenile catfish don't always look exactly like their adult counterparts.  I have bred Florida brown bullheads on multiple occasions and they are completely black as fry up until about an inch or so when they start getting their speckling and lighter bellies.  Additionally, at times when I have caught the same species in the wild at one inch they have been a completely different shape (especially when food is abundant) and have been far more round.  To be clear, I'm not suggesting that this is the species that you caught.

[zooxanthellae]

 

 

Greenfield Lake is the best place to get least killie fish.

 

Fritz says the same thing, but I have never seen them there! I've sampled the main lake, and the overflow, and caught lots of fat sleepers, macrobrachium, spinycheek sleepers, mosquito fish etc, but never a least kilile! A few of those gators aren't too fond of collectors either...

 

Where on the lake do you normally encounter them? 

[Moontanman]

 

Fritz says the same thing, but I have never seen them there! I've sampled the main lake, and the overflow, and caught lots of fat sleepers, macrobrachium, spinycheek sleepers, mosquito fish etc, but never a least kilile! A few of those gators aren't too fond of collectors either...

 

Where on the lake do you normally encounter them? 

 

 

The little side ponds that are across the street from the lake. The best one coming around the lake from 17th street would just be past the house with the stone wall... 

[Moontanman]

From my experience, small and juvenile catfish don't always look exactly like their adult counterparts.  I have bred Florida brown bullheads on multiple occasions and they are completely black as fry up until about an inch or so when they start getting their speckling and lighter bellies.  Additionally, at times when I have caught the same species in the wild at one inch they have been a completely different shape (especially when food is abundant) and have been far more round.  To be clear, I'm not suggesting that this is the species that you caught.

 

Taking a closer look this one is a madtom...