Well well well I have a week off from work so last night I said where do I wanna go. Now I am on a sunfish kick so I said let's go for some bluespotted sunfish. At first I just wanted to catch them and film them. Just so I could say I caught them. So last night I went on google maps and found every spot that hat access to Bashakill and surrounding creeks. So I headed to Bashakill in SE NY at 3am. 3 and a half hours later I arrived.





What a beautiful place. WOW. First few scoops nothing. Then boom this guy.


I'm still new at IDing fish but I thought right away Redfin pickerel. Which I have yet to catch here in MA. Very pretty fish. Let him go after taking some pics. I caught about 10 smaller ones altogether. Then I grabbed a nice big scoop of duckweed and mud. BOOM a bluespotted sunfish. This thing was black with very blue dots.

Prior to going I was like wonder if ill be able to I'd one right away. Make no mistake I knew right away. I feel in love instantly. I mean I am a darter man but this fish was stunning. Snapped my picture and released him. I caught 9 in total in that one spot. I read that they were protected on this site. But when I looked them up I couldn't find them being "protected" I did see special concern though. Either way I left them to be on the safe side. I caught this salamander prior to leaving.

I still needed to catch a shield darter before my day was over. So ioff I went to check my other streets. Stopped at a creek just down the road. All I caught there were huge suckers. I'm guessing white suckers. They were a good 5-6" which i guess isnt that huge compared to how big they get. After about 10 min I moved on. Went to another creek


I caught a HUGE sculpin here. I've only prior to today caught 1-2 inch sculpins. This guy was 6-7". Nice orange coloration. Here is a pic...sorry for the quality. it was so bright and i just fell down the bank and was not happy.

is this a mottled sculpin?

Edited by bumpylemon, 10 May 2010 - 07:37 PM.

So off I went. Found the bashakill further down. Parked on the side of the road and hopped in. I see what are like logs in the water. I was thinking nice wood for a tank.....WRONG. Monster LAMPREYs. I'm guessing Sea Lamprey based on a quick google search. There were 10 of them all lined up. I caught 2 with my dipnet for picture purposes. Josh your nightmares could have came true. These things would have taken ahold of your leg easily!





Soon after the property owner came down (it wasn't posted) we talked about the lampreys and he said you can fish here whenever I wanted. I was thinking did you see what I just caught? Next spot. A nice big river.


Lots of riffles and runs. First I tried dipnetting. Only caught some blacknose dace. I got back in the car and started to leave. Then thought try again. Grabbed the seine. I caught 2 shield darters. A good size one and a lil guy. After not catching anymore I decided to go. I was fatigued. And of course I feel on my face and lost the darters. Not happy. So I seined for another 30 min. No darters. And you know I love darters. I did catch what I think is a margined madtom. is it?


sorry for the bad pics.
So my wife started nagging at me on the phone about how I'm addicted to fishing and blah blah blah. At this point I started thinking about those bluespots and how I lost my darters. Then I said go to PA. So off I went to the Scranton area. Hour and 30 min later and a stop to get a license. (She wasn't happy about buying 2 licenses) I headed to some water ways I found on my blackberry. First place I stopped I caught 5 bluespotted sunfish. Then I went to another swampy pond and caught 15 more. I ended up taking 7 home. So I went out today wanting to catch bluespotted, shield darters, redfins, and a margined madtom. I went 4 for 4 only bringing 2 of 4 home. LOTS of driving. Since I didn't research PA spots I hope I didn't miss out on other species that I could have caught. I wasn't going for shiners or dace. Just sunfish and darters. Tomorrow I'm off to try and catch some mudminnows locally.

awesome pics and awesome fish. The lamprey looked very non threatening in a net. Very different from the face sucking aliens i see on the fish ladder windows.

Congrats on the pickeral, i knew you were looking for one.

Sounds like you had a productive week, my weekend was blah (saturday was rainy, sunday cold and windy) so I didn't sample this weekend. A pitty as I had plans to check pearly pond and a marshy pond in peterborough, then if I had time hop to the contoocook and souhegan rivers and follow them downstream to the merrimack. maybe next weekend, or on my week off before or after my north trip assuming i am up for it and the weather is good.

Can people viewing this please ID the fish please? Thanks

beautiful fish! (even the lamprey are awesome!) I would love to be in your area, to get banded and bluespotted sunfish. Do you have any pictures of them in tank?


BTW, do you go out alone? how do you seine when your by yourself..

Edited by NVCichlids, 11 May 2010 - 10:19 AM.

Oh man, I want that pickerel!! Nice!!

Dean

Oh man, I want that pickerel!! Nice!!

Dean

is it a redfin or a chain pickerel?

Your amphibian is the red-spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) and your madtom is the margined madtom (Noturus insignis). Your sculpin is likely the mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdii); however, I can't tell from the photo. The pickerel is Esox americanus and the lamprey I am still looking at.

Nice photos, keep em' coming!

Blake

Edited by blakemarkwell, 11 May 2010 - 03:21 PM.

I am really regretting not taking the redfin. so pretty. although he would of only had a 20 gallon long tank to live in...so i suppose it was for the better. such a beautiful fish.....

Awesome pictures and description!! I especially like the third picture! How beautiful! Sorry I can't help with the IDs. The only fish that we have here that you caught are the Mottled Sculpin and the Sea Lamprey. I can't tell the sculpin from your picture and I haven't seen a lamprey in years. Your lamprey does look weird, though. It looks like it has an eye on top of its head! Strange!

Thanks for the pictures and descrip, though! Wonderful!

Brian

Good work tracking down those bluespots. That big boy was a beauty. Love to see how he'd look in a well planted tank.

A bit of friendly advice about mad obsessive expensive fishing trips which annoy your wife; nagging is like noises from your car or pains in your chest - ignore it and pay the price.

Good work tracking down those bluespots. That big boy was a beauty. Love to see how he'd look in a well planted tank.

A bit of friendly advice about mad obsessive expensive fishing trips which annoy your wife; nagging is like noises from your car or pains in your chest - ignore it and pay the price.

You are very correct. I did come home with some hard to find beer that she likes. So that made up for it. Now tomorrow I am off to find redfins and bandeds again down in the franklin,bellingham area and over in the northbor, berlin area. Still have yet to find the redfins in mass

at least you know what habitat to look around for the redfins

Ah yes, if she accepts beer as peace offering, you're in good shape. Just don't abuse it.
Remember, the only thing worse than a wife that complains about overnight fishing trips - is a wife who suddenly starts encouraging overnight fishing trips.

You will find that banded sunfish and redfin pickeral are almost always found together. Stay with the smaller waters, old mill ponds on slow meandering tannin stained streams are ideal. Beaver swamps on the same dark slow streams are prime. The smaller, shallower and weedier the better. Bigger more open ponds will have too many chain pickeral and bass. Your target species if present at all will be exhiled to the weedy shallow backwaters.
Think edges - don't be afraid to drag the net in two inches of water if it's right at the edge of the pond. Even better is the rising edge of a new or refilled beaver swamp. Both species colonize flooded terrestrial habitat as quick as it's flooded, riding the very edge of the rising water, juvies especially.
Drag the net through weeds, sticks, sunken leaves, against rocks and under logs. Keep the net right on bottom and check through the muck carefully. There's a very good chance of adding swamp darters to the mix giving you the trio of species found naturally together in that habitat and the only ones known to the Natives of our area.

Ah yes, if she accepts beer as peace offering, you're in good shape. Just don't abuse it.
Remember, the only thing worse than a wife that complains about overnight fishing trips - is a wife who suddenly starts encouraging overnight fishing trips.

You will find that banded sunfish and redfin pickeral are almost always found together. Stay with the smaller waters, old mill ponds on slow meandering tannin stained streams are ideal. Beaver swamps on the same dark slow streams are prime. The smaller, shallower and weedier the better. Bigger more open ponds will have too many chain pickeral and bass. Your target species if present at all will be exhiled to the weedy shallow backwaters.
Think edges - don't be afraid to drag the net in two inches of water if it's right at the edge of the pond. Even better is the rising edge of a new or refilled beaver swamp. Both species colonize flooded terrestrial habitat as quick as it's flooded, riding the very edge of the rising water, juvies especially.
Drag the net through weeds, sticks, sunken leaves, against rocks and under logs. Keep the net right on bottom and check through the muck carefully. There's a very good chance of adding swamp darters to the mix giving you the trio of species found naturally together in that habitat and the only ones known to the Natives of our area.

great post with alot of good info. thank you!