FishnDave

Caught this during my lunch hour. 12 1/8" Orange Comet Goldfish!

Big ones! Koi! Yes please!

Caught 3 while flyfishing yesterday:

Those black sunfish sound interesting. I've caught some very black Green Sunfish and Bluegills. I suppose melanism and albinism occur occasionally in fish most fish populations. Do you have any pictures of those?

Back to the usual yesterday evening.

That's a great question...I've wondered along those lines too. I believe they ARE fertile. I've read that 90+% of Hybrid Sunfish are of one gender. That is part of the variety I see sometimes....where it looks like a hybrid bred back with a purebred, and so the new hybrid often looks a LOT more like one of the parent species, but not quite. Punnett Squares and all that genetic stuff. Hybrids are sometimes stocked, but do occur naturally. I've caught them from almost every body of water I fish, but they are usually a very low percentage of the catch.

I caught a fair number today...to be clear, only the first 4 fish in the pictures were caught today, and only 3 of them are hybrids. Its always fun when the fish are cooperative. Catching beats not catching...and fishing beats not fishing...right? The ones I caught today were a mix of depths...some were guarding nests practically at the water's edge. But even the ones away from shore were caught "shallow"....like maybe 2.5' or less. I could see some pods of bluegills swimming just under the surface out in the middle of the small pond. They'd scatter and reform when something large seemed to chase them.

I flyfished a new-to-me public pond yesterday afternoon. Caught bass, bluegills, pumpkinseed sunfish, and at least 2 types of Hybrid Sunfish. Got me thinking about other hybrids I've caught. How different, yet consistent within their types, they look. Most of mine are Green Sunfish x Bluegill hybrids. Some are Pumpkinseed x Bluegill, one is (maybe?) Redear x Bluegill, others...who knows. Since there are so many Longear Sunfish in Missouri, have any of you caught their hybrids? I wonder what a Green Sunfish x Redear hybrid would look like....

Basically, yes. Its the most excitement I can wring out of the local pond. This is a very different year than last year, as far as my flyfishing goes. Different ponds. I haven't been fishing for bass, and haven't caught any common carp yet this year so far. And the Smallmouth Stream I like to visit hasn't gotten down to wading level yet... I've only got a few weeks left up here in Iowa before we complete our move to St. Louis. With the pandemic, my buddy and I haven't really felt like traveling to NE Iowa's trout streams this year. So, I'm making the best of what is nearby and catching catfish, bullheads, and goldfish. The goldfish are the "trophy" fish! 😂

Such variety in the Goldfish colors! This is one I caught yesterday evening:

That's a fun day when you can catch them on whatever YOU want! Gorgeous Longear, too!

I've had that job. No worries. Just wondered if it MIGHT be something other than the usual Black Bullheads I typically catch. Kind of like the Prussian Carp vs bronze Goldfish. Jury is still out on those as well.

@Johnsfolly Those are 2 different bullheads, both had mottling that none of the others in this pond have had. Like most fish, once you've definitely caught one and see what it looks like in real life, you are much better at I.D.'ing it in the future. Pictures of Brown Bullhead online vary quite a bit, from wavy vertical markings to speckles. I assume just regional variations. Since you've caught Browns, I certainly appreciate your take on them. Its possible I've caught browns many years ago, but I don't have any pictures of them to look at.

Flyfished the nearby public pond on Saturday mid-day, and Sunday late evening for a short trip. Here's some of the haul....all released. @Johnsfolly John, the ones above are Black Bullheads. The two below have some mottling on them...any chance they are Brown Bullheads?

I grew up eating channel catfish, bullheads, and carp. Its what my dad liked to catch and eat. The smaller on es had firmer meat than the big ones, as I remember it. Haven't kept any fish I've caught to eat in YEARS. Its hard to beat fresh walleyes or crappies, too. Now I'm getting hungry! 🍽️

Same pond, different day. The fish seemed to be enjoying the overcast conditions during the 45 minutes I fished during my lunch hour.6 species. 12.25" Goldfish: 12" Crappie: Black Bullhead: Channel Catfish: Plus Green Sunfish and Hybrid Sunfish. Good lunchtime outing!

Thanks for the tips, John! I'l have to look into that FishMap.org site, too.

Those are some big ones! I read they are supposed to be down in the Duck Creek CA in SE MO...anybody every caught them there? Or the chain pickerel that are also supposed to be there?

That qualifies as a "Legendary" card!

That Tautog is pretty cool!

Are Bluefish kind of like a saltwater pirhana? 😁

I realize these aren't big fish. It is what it is...I'm not fishing my preferred waters....just fishing public water nearby, and catching what is there. The cool thing is that in a couple hours of flyfishing this evening, I caught 8 species of fish. I don't know if I've ever caught that many at one place before....or even in one day! 5 species is a good day, 6 species is an amazing day from my experience. So....8? Say what?? I caught Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Hybrid Sunfish, White Crappie, Black Bullhead, Channel Catfish, and Goldfish. If the size was unsatisfying, the variety knocked it out of the park. I liked the "tiger stripes" on this little Green Sunfish: These Black Bullheads were surprisingly strong: This seemed like the largest catfish out of these ponds so far. I think I read they were just stocked in the pond in late summer of 2018. This was an interesting Bronze and White Comet Goldfish with some small spots of orange. Catching these things has me learning a little more about goldfish than I knew before...Comet Goldfish have the longer tail fins, and the other fins tend to be longer than normal as well. This one was long enough, then, to become my new PB Goldfish at 13.5".

Striped Mullet? Saltwater might have to be a separate card deck. 😁 You get bonus points..mullet are HARD to catch! Flathead I've got. Might trade one for a Bowfin and Alligator Gar combo...