Maryland New Species

[Johnsfolly]

After the fiasco with our travel, I have been trying to catch some white perch for a meal. I went out on Sat to a spot that I caught several 10 to 12 inch whites. I caught a decent striper (>18") but lost it pulling it up onto the dock. I hooked an atlantic silverside and one small perch. I am always amazed how they know when you are planning on keeping some and just don't bite. Last night I headed up to a creek where Livie and I caught a bunch back in March. I started fishing at a public boat ramp and didn't get a bite, but the tide was starting to come in. I did notice some topminnow near the grass by the bank. However, I headed to a spot upstream. Again I hooked into a couple of stripers that threw the hooks and got my most love from small yellow perch that I did not intend to take home. I was also getting hits on the paddle tail when my bait was right below me. I switched to a smaller jig and caught a couple decent redbreast sunfish. I was still getting small taps and I put on a microjig with just a tiny chartreuse plastic piece. I caught several more redbreasts. I then headed back to the boat ramp to try for those topminnows. The grass was pretty flooded by the incoming tide. I got several small fish to bite at the bait, but none that could actually get hooked. I finally got the interest of a larger fish and I landed this sunfish.

At first I thought it might have been a juvenile pumpkinseed, but the coloration and patterning was more like one of the spotted sunfish species. Since I just moved into our rental house in Maryland, I don't have internet service and I get poor coverage. So I sent the photo onto Ham and asked him to look into the id of this fish. We both decided that this was a bluespotted sunfish. I'm excited about catching this myself (a new life list fish - and a Maryland list fish ) and more so because Livie should be her by Sat and I know where we will try to get her to catch one as well.

Now I just have to go back after those topminnows. Oh and try again for dinner.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

After the fiasco with our travel, I have been trying to catch some white perch for a meal. I went out on Sat to a spot that I caught several 10 to 12 inch whites. I caught a decent striper (>18") but lost it pulling it up onto the dock. I hooked an atlantic silverside and one small perch. I am always amazed how they know when you are planning on keeping some and just don't bite. Last night I headed up to a creek where Livie and I caught a bunch back in March. I started fishing at a public boat ramp and didn't get a bite, but the tide was starting to come in. I did notice some topminnow near the grass by the bank. However, I headed to a spot upstream. Again I hooked into a couple of stripers that threw the hooks and got my most love from small yellow perch that I did not intend to take home. I was also getting hits on the paddle tail when my bait was right below me. I switched to a smaller jig and caught a couple decent redbreast sunfish. I was still getting small taps and I put on a microjig with just a tiny chartreuse plastic piece. I caught several more redbreasts. I then headed back to the boat ramp to try for those topminnows. The grass was pretty flooded by the incoming tide. I got several small fish to bite at the bait, but none that could actually get hooked. I finally got the interest of a larger fish and I landed this sunfish.

At first I thought it might have been a juvenile pumpkinseed, but the coloration and patterning was more like one of the spotted sunfish species. Since I just moved into our rental house in Maryland, I don't have internet service and I get poor coverage. So I sent the photo onto Ham and asked him to look into the id of this fish. We both decided that this was a bluespotted sunfish. I'm excited about catching this myself (a new life list fish - and a Maryland list fish ) and more so because Livie should be her by Sat and I know where we will try to get her to catch one as well.

Now I just have to go back after those topminnows. Oh and try again for dinner.

              Congrads John,

  Good looking fish you have there. I bet in person those spots are iridescent . 

  BilletHead

[Quillback]

That is a neat fish.  Didn't know they existed.  

[Johnsfolly]

12 hours ago, BilletHead said:

              Congrads John,

  Good looking fish you have there. I bet in person those spots are iridescent . 

  BilletHead

They were more vibrant that the photo shows.

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

That is a neat fish.  Didn't know they existed.  

Definitely a neat little sunfish. There are several species of these little sunfish, like the black-banded, banded, banded pygmy, bluebarred pygmy, dollar sunfish, fliers, etc. Unfortunately many are either threatened or endangered due to habitat loss or over collection by aquarium enthusiasts.

Here's a black-banded

A bluebarred pygmy sunfish

Here's an orangespotted sunfish. I have been trying to catch one of these in Missouri.

[Ham]

Lots of beautiful fish we overlook in our pursuit of larger fish. Oh well, to each his own. I ❤️ Then all. 

[Johnsfolly]

6 minutes ago, Ham said:

Lots of beautiful fish we overlook in our pursuit of larger fish. Oh well, to each his own. I ❤️ Then all. 

You know that I want to catch them all if I can. I did see that New Jersey seems to have a stable population of the black-banded sunfish whereas Maryland has only three to six locations that still may have these fish. May have to start doing the research to find them in the Pine Barrens.

[JestersHK]

Nice job buddy!  Beautiful fish.  Heaven forbid you or Ham ever take up Pokemon lol

 

[Ham]

Man, I need to travel more. 

[Johnsfolly]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 10:05 PM, Ham said:

Man, I need to travel more. 

Just don't forget that you have friends that want to take on some of those multispecies trips as well.