June/July so far Fishing Out East

[Johnsfolly]

Work has been a grind and I haven't had the energy to put into lengthy posts. So this will be brief and photo heavy (for @snagged in outlet 3 @tjm) . Most trips were for potential lifers.

Watt's creek - in search of silverjaw minnows

No silverjaws 😒. Pretty suburban creek.

Smallest largemouth that I recall ever catching (ca. 1.5 to 2")

Did catch my first central stoneroller in Maryland 😁.

Tuscarora Creek

Trying again to catch a potomac sculpin - missed one and spooked one 😒.

Livie caught a bluehead chub (first in MD) in this hole.

Then I had to catch one - also my first in MD.

Potomac River - Swain's Lock

Trying to catch our first longear sunfish in Maryland. Only caught lots of redbreast sunfish and one green sunfish.

Monocacy River

Again trying for longear sunfish. Saw lots of greenside darters but no takers.

Only a couple of sunfish caught. I caught one redbreast.

Livie caught this female sunfish and I never saw it until I downloaded the photos off of her phone. Let me know if you guys think that this is a female longear (I'm on fence between pumpkinseed and longear).

Salty Characters

Hooper's Island - Honga River MD

So we were scheduled to go out for black sea bass but the captain canceled the trip due to weather. Had my BIL with us and he landed his first atlantic stingray.

Chincoteague Island VA

Was hoping to catch a feather blennie or seaboard goby. Neither were spotted. My wife hooked up with a cownose ray that she fought for and thought that she might break her rod. Lost the fish as we were landing it and no photos. Had plenty of others though.

Sue with Croaker (ate this one and others baked whole with spicy asian sauce 😉)

We all caught pigfish.

And spot croakers

Livie and I microfished some and we both caught oyster toadfish from the rocks. Livie had to move a rock from the hole that I caught this gjuy just so that I could get it's head out and land it.

We also both caught nice male striped blennies (this is Livie's mine is posted on my microfishing thread).

Belmar and Atlantic City NJ

Last weekend we booked a trip for fluke out of Belmar NJ. We were not prepared for the speed of the drift and spent most of the time with baits well off of the bottom. Did have a couple of spots where we made contact and Sue caught some black sea bass and we both caught a number of northern searobins. did not get Sue her first flounder 😒

the next day we hit a couple of piers and jetties in Atlantic City trying for a northern kingfish (again no luck - seems like a trend).

We caught a few tautogs and small black seabass before calling it a day and heading home.

We've been hard at it but just not getting our target species, but more to come.

 

[Quillback]

You folks are getting around!

[Johnsfolly]

7 hours ago, Quillback said:

You folks are getting around!

Trying to get those lifers within Sue's tolerance for tank fill-ups. She is willing for one fill-up which puts us around a 3 hour round trip (edit should be a 6 hour round trip). Working hard on those lifers, but have not been getting that done so far.

[Johnsfolly]

Well third times a charm, but not for cownose rays. We went back down to Chincoteague island on the hope of trying for a few different species. One was the cownose rays. But we didn't even see one near the boat ramp where Sue caught hers. Livie was hoping to catch some sheepshead like we did last year at this spot. Nope that didn't happen. We did catch a few of the ususal suspects, more pigfish, spot croaker, and small sea bass. Livie caught her first pinfish of the year.

I caught my first atlantic croaker. He was lucky that we didn't have ice or he may have become a steamed fish with spicy asian sauce 😉

Livie did see some micros and she caught a naked goby from the oysters and rocks.

I still haven't found a similar species, the seaboard goby that I thought might be in this area. Still more time to explore.

I caught the only blenny and it was not what I thought it might be. I knew that it was a new lifer and thought that it might have been a feather blenny which I knew were likely in this area. I was actually hoping to catch one after a couple failed attempts up around Ocean City. The head shape and the cirri above the eyes of this fish did not look like those of the feather blenny. I sent a few photos to a guy that works at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. He has helped me id some fish before. He suggested a freckled blenny. I never heard of that species and did some more research and the weight of evidence is that it is a female freckled blenny. So the characters that I looked at were: whether the upper lip was or was not attached at the front with a piece of skin which is a character of the other species, the upper lip of this fish is not attached, the abundance of spots or “freckles” on the head and overall coloration, the profile of the head is much flatter than other local species, and the small flattened cirri (the projections above the eyes) with what seems like a single branch at the base is much different from the local species.

This location might be the northernmost observation for this species that ranges from NC to Texas.

We had a tough rest of the day. Livie could not get any of the few needlefish that we found to bite her baits. They would rush it but stop a few to several inches from the bait and turn away. We paid to get out onto the Assateague wildlife refuge and the spot that I wanted to fish was closed for the nesting birds. So I am so happy to have caught a new lifer on a tough day.

 

 

 

[Johnsfolly]

It's not as hot out here as in the midwest, but it was a hot one yesterday. We fished a brackish water pond targetting rainwater killifish in a nature area about 35 mins from us. Been trying to make the time to fish this location, but they close the gates at 5 pm making it tough to get there after work. 

Since I had heard that the killifish may be fewer and shy, Livie was fishing a larger hook and bait set-up and was trying to run interference with the larger and more active fish. She was seeing a lot of fish. When I got there I saw a lot of sheepshead minnows and a few that I assumed were the killies. So as luck would have it my first caught fish was a rainwater killifish 😁. Getting the target on the first cast doesn't happen very often but not looking that gift horse in the mouth.

Livie caught a nice female sheepshead minnow.

We saw a male rainwater and he bit the bait once then lost interest. Livie did catch her lifer rainwater female not long after 😁.

Sue was fishing on the other bank and landed her first documented mummichog 😉.

We fished until Livie caught a nice male sheepshead or we collapsed from the heat. Fortunately it was the sheepshead minnow😉.

We also found a rod and reel combo that was in good condition. I have reached out to the guy that told us about this pond to see if he lost anything on his last trip.

[Quillback]

Sheepshead minnow - never heard of them until now, congrats on the catches!

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

Sheepshead minnow - never heard of them until now, congrats on the catches!

We actually use them in our testing. I still need to catch a fathead minnow, which is another common test species for us. I have a spot or two in KS and MO to try when we are out there next week.