I took the week of may 20th (my birthday) off. I am debating a trip up north to the androscoggin or nothernmost connecticut river waters to search for northern species such as finescale dace, northern redbelly dace, lake chub, and longnose sucker. and Possibly going into Maine to find pearl dace. My little car is a mess and not likely to hold much in terms of people and fishing gear, but if anyone is interested in joining me I can take you with me. (I haven't decided on a day or time yet).

ive been getting lucky down here. i now have spots for banded sunfishes...beautiful killifish....and central mudminnows....ive just about caught every species in massachusetts...well close..

ive been getting lucky down here. i now have spots for banded sunfishes...beautiful killifish....and central mudminnows....ive just about caught every species in massachusetts...well close..

I have been debating trying for banded sunnies here. I was going to try today but it rained today.

The list of new hampshire freshwater fish I have yet to catch (in NH) by any means is

alewife
yellow bullhead
burbot
carp
creek chub
lake chub
creek chubsucker
finescale dace
northern redbelly dace
swamp darter
american eel
goldfish
blueback herring
banded killifish
american brook lamprey
sea lamprey
marginated madtom
tadpole madtom
redfin pickeral
northern pike
chinook salmon
coho salmon
american shad
blacknose shiner
bridle shiner
rainbow smelt
longnose sucker
banded sunfish
lake trout
lake whitefish
round whitefish


I have caught some of these elsewhere (creek chub in new york, banded killies, american eel, and swamp darter fry in mass).

Some of these species I do not care to catch. (goldfish you can buy so why bother, I do not want endangered bridle shiners and brook lamprey, no sea lamprey either).

the list of all NH species I got these from is here

http://www.wildlife....pecies_list.htm

If you go to Maine, it pays to check bait shops. Maine does not allow bait fish to be imported so all live bait is local. It's not uncommon for various dace to turn up mixed in the bait tanks.

I am having major second thoughts on if I should attempt the trip, it'd be a 4-5 hour drive to get to where the finescale dace are depending on where I go and my dipnetting success is mainly limited to riffle rish (witha few exception). Would it be a waste of a drive trying it?

Sorry I can't help. My Maine experience is all Casco Bay coastal/marine. No clue on finescale natural history or numbers.

All I know is we buy ice fishing bait in Bath and one year there were numbers of plain silvery white dace, obviously not blacknose, stouter stockier shape. Shaped like mummichugs, the bait guys called them "chubs" but they were definately dace. They were so washed out in the white bait bucket that you couldn't see markings. Finescales?

Hey for all I know, finescale dace are like blacknose, you just pull over to the first brook you see and net a bunch.
I don't know if anyone here knows that species. Maybe you should be the pioneer. Let us know how it goes.

All I know is we buy ice fishing bait in Bath and one year there were numbers of plain silvery white dace, obviously not blacknose, stouter stockier shape. Shaped like mummichugs, the bait guys called them "chubs" but they were definately dace. They were so washed out in the white bait bucket that you couldn't see markings. Finescales?

Hey for all I know, finescale dace are like blacknose, you just pull over to the first brook you see and net a bunch.
I don't know if anyone here knows that species. Maybe you should be the pioneer. Let us know how it goes.

I was going to go today but woke up too late (i set my alarm but it didn't ring), apparently the next two days will rain so I will have to try friday unless the weather changes.

It makes me nervous to travel 5 hours away to an unknown area on a route I never traveled before, a stretch of the road goes along the border of another country (if the online maps are right), to a place with a strange ecosystem (spruce trees existing as something other than suburban lawn ornaments, different jays, chickadees, and grouse) to try my chances at fish catching when I have a very very few species I can catch with any regularity in a net here.

Apparently from what I read finescale dace look ALOT like northern redbellies but with a different head shape, then again they are in the same genus.

Those dace in maine could have been pearl dace too. (they are found in northern maine).

Edited by FirstChAoS, 18 May 2010 - 04:48 PM.