How Far would you Go?

[Johnsfolly]

Every year I set a number of short term, long term, and stretch fishing goals. I know it's kind of a sickness, but this is my hobby😅. Every year my wife allows and goes along with my planning for every weekend or spare time to try and achieve one of those goals. Usually her interest wanes after I am about 80% of the way. Here it is now the middle of November and I am still working towards those goals. I had a tough year for a few of them, but got a big boost with my trip to NC. That rejuvenated me and put some lifers into the win column. We have been having a very warm fall this year. With the warmer temps I have not put much time into trying to hunt. That left more time to fish. 

I focused back on a fish that I have tried to catch previously this year. In fact, I have fished for this one fish in three different creeks/rivers. I have already made two trips to one creek and saw but could not get a hook set on the target on both trips. I made a trip to another creek and never saw it. The third creek was the farthest from my house, but I have been there three times before and saw or almost caught this fish on each trip. Livie my daughter has caught more than a few on those previous trips. The hope would be whether a fourth time would be the charm. 

It so happens that the Fifteenmile creek resides in the Green Ridge State forest and is one of the public areas open to the single week fall turkey season in Maryland. I had brought my hunting gear and was prepared for small game and/or turkeys if I were fortunate to score on the target fish. Everything was dry and the creek was very low. There was only a minor perception of water flow. 

The water was clear and I was fishing a #26 hook with a tiny piece of redworm and a single split shot. I was looking for sculpin and was placing my bait in front of every crack or opening that looked like it could hold a fish and just to be sure many that seemed like they may not 😉. I caught a couple of bluntnose minnows. I also hooked up a brightly colored male rainbow darter (which would have been the first caught here in MD) but lost it trying to get it into the photo bag 🙄. I saw what could have been very small sculpin or maybe a fantail darter try for but not commit to my baits. Under a large flat rock there was a crevice that held promise. I dropped the bait and gave it a bounce or two to entice any dwellers and a sculpin grabbed the bait and it stayed hooked. I quickly got it into the bag and filled with some water. After four long trips I had finally caught a Potomac sculpin. This would be the third lifer sculpin that I would catch this year. 

Key characters:

Notched dark band on both sides of the caudal peduncle (or base of the tail 😉)

Mottled coloration around the pores of the chin and a single median pore.

The location that I caught this fish puts this one well within the range of the Potomac and outside of the range of the Blue ridge sculpin or mottled sculpin. I had persisted and got it done!

I spent about another hour fishing, but did not catch any other lifer species. More bluntnose minnows and creek chubs.

I also never heard any animals besides birds and not turkeys. I hunted a bit, but got no responses to my calls. I saw no mast on the ground around any of the oaks nor any scratched up areas where turkeys or squirrels were looking for acorns. That was a bit of a disappointment. 

As I was headed home, I thought about how far would I go to get a target species. I ask you the same question.. How far would you Go?!?

[tjm]

That would depend on the day. Not very far as a general rule, because I hate to drive past one fishing hole to get to another. But then I don't target a particular species as much as I take a piece of water and try to find what's in it that I can get to eat feathers. And I don't mind catching the same fish over and over. But if you count all the coming and going to the same areas, I've no doubt that some years my mileage was up in the thousands, maybe 2-4000 miles to and from  more or less local fishing. A man's got do what a man's got to do, if that's 500 miles to add a life species, it just is.

[FishnDave]

I also hate traveling to fish...driving past perfectly good fishing spots!

But I do like fish variety, so...

As long as the travel costs weren't prohibitive (and I had plenty of vacation days available, or was retired), there aren't many places I wouldn't go, for certain species.  Such as:

Alaska for salmon,  char, lake trout, grayling, etc.

Texas for Rio Grand Cichlid

Louisiana for Black Drum, Sheepshead, Alligator Gar.

Florida for snakehead, the other bowfin species, barramundi, spotted sunfish, tarpon, florida gar, mud sunfish, redfin pickerel, etc.

Indian Ocean destinations for Napolean (Humphead) Wrasse, milkfish...

Australia for Murray Cod.

Brazil for Arapaima, Arrowana, and lots of other jungle fish.

New Mexico for Tiger Musky.

California for Sacramento Perch.

and the list goes on...

 

[Johnsfolly]

4 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

I also hate traveling to fish...driving past perfectly good fishing spots!

I usually don't pass up a potential spot if I am just out to catch fish. In fact, when I got into microfishing that opened up all of the small and tiny creeks and ditches that I used to drive over. This lifelisting deal means that much more travel would be in the works. I do find that once I get beyond 2 to 3 hours drive that more new species are likely to be encountered. That does assume that there are different habitats to explore and fish. I also never know when I may find out that I have been missing out on a lifer that is close to home, but that is a different story and more to come on that deal 😉.

I have caught a few of those fish on your list Dave. Several others are targets of mine as well. 

[Terrierman]

1 hour ago, FishnDave said:

I also hate traveling to fish...driving past perfectly good fishing spots!

But I do like fish variety, so...

As long as the travel costs weren't prohibitive (and I had plenty of vacation days available, or was retired), there aren't many places I wouldn't go, for certain species.  Such as:

Alaska for salmon,  char, lake trout, grayling, etc.

Texas for Rio Grand Cichlid

Louisiana for Black Drum, Sheepshead, Alligator Gar.

Florida for snakehead, the other bowfin species, barramundi, spotted sunfish, tarpon, florida gar, mud sunfish, redfin pickerel, etc.

Indian Ocean destinations for Napolean (Humphead) Wrasse, milkfish...

Australia for Murray Cod.

Brazil for Arapaima, Arrowana, and lots of other jungle fish.

New Mexico for Tiger Musky.

California for Sacramento Perch.

and the list goes on...

 

Wow.  I'm a piker.

[fshndoug]

I would say travel costs are still high. I just finished driving 685 miles pulling a boat  and never left Missouri. I used 47 gallons of gas and spent $158.

[FishnDave]

Its bucketlist stuff.   I'm not planning to do it all in one year.  Unless I find out that's all I got left. 😅

Y'know... "Going out with a bang"-type situation.

 

 

[Ham]

3 hours ago, FishnDave said:

I also hate traveling to fish...driving past perfectly good fishing spots!

But I do like fish variety, so...

Texas for Rio Grand Cichlid

Louisiana for Black Drum, Sheepshead, Alligator Gar.

Florida for snakehead, the other bowfin species, barramundi, spotted sunfish, tarpon, florida gar, mud sunfish, redfin pickerel, etc.

and the list goes on...

 

Rio Grande Cichlids are invasive in southern Louisiana  especially in the New Orleans area sooooooooooo 

[Ham]

I drove to Nebraska for Northern Pike soooooooo

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Ham said:

I drove to Nebraska for Northern Pike soooooooo

I have spots identified on the Platte River to target northern plains killifish for when I am back out that way 😉.