Fish Identification

Florida Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides ﬂoridanus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:37:00 +0000

The Florida largemouth bass, also known as the Florida bass, is a subspecies of the largemouth bass, which in turn is often called a northern largemouth. This fish occurs naturally in Florida. Mixtures of it and northern largemouth are called intergrades, as they are neither pure Florida nor pure northern strains. These fish occur from northern Florida to Maryland.

Florida bass grow to trophy size more readily than do northern largemouth bass. They have been stocked in many states, including California, which has produced near–world record 22-pounders from transplanted stocks, and in Texas, which has completely transformed its big-bass potential by stocking this fish.

Guadalupe Bass (Micropterus punctulatus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:35:00 +0000

The Guadalupe bass is a member of the Centrarchidae family and is similar to the spotted bass (see: Bass, Spotted) in appearance. It has 10 to 12 dark bars along its sides, which are less distinct in older fish; it usually has 16 pectoral rays and 26 to 27 scales around the caudal peduncle. It can grow to almost 16 inches and usually weighs less than a pound. The all-tackle world record is a 3-pound, 11-ounce Texas ﬁsh taken in 1983.

In North America, Guadalupe bass are restricted to the Edwards Plateau in the Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe, San Antonio, and upper Nueces (where introduced) River drainages in southern Texas. They occur in gravel riffles, runs, and ﬂowing pools of creeks, as well as in small to medium rivers.

Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:33:00 +0000

The largemouth bass is the biggest and most renowned member of the Centrarchidae family of sunfish and its subgroup known as black bass. It is sometimes confused with the smallmouth in places where both species occur, and also with the spotted bass (see: Bass, Spotted). One subspecies, the Florida largemouth bass (see: Bass, Florida Largemouth), M. salmoides floridanus, is capable of attaining large sizes in appropriate waters but is otherwise similar.

Identification

The largemouth bass has an elongated and robust shape compared to other members of the sunfish family. It has a distinctively large mouth, as the end of its maxillary (jaw) falls below or beyond the rear margin of the eye; the dorsal fin has a deep notch separating the spiny and soft rays; and the tail is broad and slightly forked.

Although coloration varies greatly and is especially dependent on biological factors and host environments, the largemouth bass generally has a light green to light brown hue on the back and upper sides, white lower sides and belly, and a broad stripe of diamond-shaped blotches along the midline of the body.

This stripe particularly distinguishes it from its close relative the smallmouth bass, as does the upper jaw, which in the smallmouth does not extend past the eye. The largemouth lacks a tooth patch on the tongue, which helps distinguish it from the spotted bass.

Size/Age

Bass Fishing Exposed

Although the largemouth bass can live up to 15 years, the average life span varies; these fish seldom live more than 10 years. Throughout their range, largemouth bass encountered by anglers average 1 to 1.5 pounds (10 to 13 inches) but are commonly caught up to 5 pounds and less commonly from 7 to 10 pounds.

The maximum size attainable may be 25 pounds, but this has not been proven, and only about a dozen bass in the 20-pound class are known to have been caught. The largest specimen is the all-tackle world record of 22 pounds, 4 ounces, caught from Montgomery Lake, Georgia, in 1932.

Life history/Behavior

Largemouth bass spawn from late winter to late spring; the timing depends on latitude and temperature. Southern populations spawn earliest, and most northern populations latest. They begin to spawn about the time the water temperature reaches 60°F. Fish of about 10 to 12 inches are mature enough to reproduce for the first time.

The male selects and prepares the nest site, a circular bed usually in 1 to 4 feet of water, often positioned near or including some type of object along the shoreline. The female is nudged to the nest site by the male, deposits her eggs, and leaves; the male guards the eggs, which hatch in a few days, and then guards the young fry for a short period.

Growth rates for largemouth bass are extremely variable, inﬂuenced as they are by broad geographical location (north versus south), the specific body of water they inhabit within a particular region, and individual differences even within the same population. Despite these influences, bass are capable of growing quickly under the right circumstances.

Food and feeding habits Adult bass predominantly eat other fish, including gizzard shad, threadfin shad, golden shiners, bluegills and other sunfish, small catfish, and many other small species, plus crayfish. They are extremely opportunistic, however, and they may consume snakes, frogs, salamanders, mice, and other creatures.

As aggressive predators, bass primarily are ambush feeders, but they may pursue fish in open water, where there are no ambush opportunities. In normally warm waters, digestion occurs fairly quickly; however, at extremely warm or cold temperatures digestion actually slows, causing the bass to feed less frequently and making them less susceptible to anglers.

Bass are well known for their ability to locate prey in turbid water and at night. Although they are primarily sight feeders when water clarity permits, they otherwise use their highly developed lateral line to detect vibrations and locate prey. They can also detect odors, but their senses of smell and taste are poorly understood by scientists and evidently used less for feeding than are their senses of sight or hearing.

Other Names

black bass, largemouth, bigmouth, linesides, Oswego bass, green bass, green trout, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, southern largemouth, northern largemouth; French: achigan à grande bouche; German: forellenbarsch; Italian: persico trota; Japanese: okuchibasu; Portuguese: achiga.

Distribution

The largemouth bass is endemic only to North America, and its native range was generally the eastern half of the United States and southern-most Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Since the late 1800s, its range has been expanded to include major or minor portions of every state in the United States, except Alaska, and most of the southern fringes of Canada, as well as numerous countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Habitat

The largemouth bass is typically described as a fish that frequents the weedy sections of ponds and lakes. In reality, the largemouth is highly adaptable to many environments and to many places within various types of water.

These bass inhabit creeks, ditches, sloughs, canals, and many little potholes that have the right cover and forage, but they live principally in reservoirs, lakes, ponds, and medium to large rivers, and not always in the weedy sections.

More specifically, however, they orient toward cover and find most of their food in or near some form of cover. Favored haunts include logs, stumps, lily pads, brush, weed and grassbeds, bushes, docks, fencerows, standing timber, bridge pilings, rocky shores, boulders, points, weedline edges, stone walls, creekbeds, roadbeds, ledgelike dropoffs, humps, shoals, and islands. Although much bass cover is nearshore, some bass do spend time away from shore, especially in unvegetated lakes.

Largemouth bass are most active in waters ranging from 65° to 85°F; the lower 70s is likely optimum. Yet they do well in temperatures much higher and lower, including waters that touch the 90°F mark, as well as frozen lakes that dip to the mid-30s.

Peacock Bass

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:04:00 +0000

Peacock bass are among the world’s hardest-ﬁghting freshwater ﬁsh. They willingly take lures, strike hard, and provide a strong and exciting battle.

The term “peacock bass” is a misnomer, but it is a name that has good marketing value and one that has stuck in the English-speaking world. Species that are called peacock bass in English are formally known as pavón in Spanish-speaking countries and as tucunaré in Brazil.

Like many other ﬁsh that are called bass, peacock bass are not true bass but are members of the Cichlidae family. Their body shape is generally basslike, however. All known species of peacock bass have a prominent black eyespot, surrounded by a gold ring (ocellus), on their tail ﬁn.

Butterfly peacock bass (Cichla ocellaris)

The butterfly peacock bass is also known as peacock cichlid, tucunare, tuc; in Spanish as pavón mariposa, pavón amarillo, pavón tres estrellas, marichapa; in Portuguese as tucunaré-acu; and in Hawaiian as lukanani. It was introduced in Hawaii (where it is primarily known as tucunare) from British Guyana in 1957, and in Florida in 1984 and 1986; it has also been stocked in Puerto Rico, Panama, Guam, and the Dominican Republic.

Butterﬂy peacock bass possess great variation in color. They are generally yellowish green overall, with three dark, yellow-tinged blotches along the lateral midsection; these blotches intersect with faint bars, which typically fade in ﬁsh weighing more than 3 to 4 pounds.

The iris of the eye is frequently deep red. A conspicuous hump exists on top of the head in breeding males, and spawning ﬁsh have an intensiﬁed yellow coloration. They are distinguished by the absence of black markings on the opercula and are believed to attain a maximum size of 11 to 12 pounds; the all-tackle world record is a 12-pound, 9-ounce individual from Venezuela.

Speckled peacock bass (Cichla temensis)

The speckled peacock bass is also known as speckled pavon, painted pavon, striped tucunare; in Spanish as pavón cinchado, pavón pintado, pavón trucha, and pavón venado; in Portuguese as tucunaré-pacu. It was introduced to Florida in 1985.

Speckled peacock bass have dark blotches on the opercula and three distinctive vertical black bars on their bodies; these may become more pronounced with age, although this does not appear to be absolute. There are light or faint spots on the dorsal and caudal fins, and a conspicuous hump exists on top of the head in a breeding male.

Some individuals (described as another color phase) may have four to six horizontal rows of light-colored dashes or spots along the sides and speckling over the rest of their bodies and ﬁns; these ﬁsh are called “spotted peacock bass” by many anglers and were previously thought to be a distinct species.

The speckled peacock bass is the only peacock bass that has broken longitudinal lines and spots on the head, opercula, and caudal and dorsal ﬁn regions, resulting in a speckled appearance. Many speckled peacock bass, however, especially the largest specimens, do not exhibit this speckling along their ﬂanks.

Speckled peacock bass exhibit many color variations, the adults being lighter than the juveniles. Generally, they are dark green to black along the back, golden to yellow or light green along the ﬂanks, and lighter on the belly.

The pelvic, the anal, and the lower half of the caudal ﬁns are often reddish in color, sometimes yellowish green. These colors are general conformities, however, and signiﬁcant variations exist, especially in intensity (some have an orange or a bronze tinge), which may or may not be due to season or habitat.

This species attains the greatest size of all the peacock bass. The current all-tackle world record is a 27-pound speckled peacock bass from Brazil.

Distribution

Though native to South American jungle or rain forest rivers and reservoirs, peacock bass have been introduced in appropriate North American waters through stocking efforts, most notably in small lakes and canal systems in southern Florida and warmwater reservoirs in Texas.

Redeye Bass (Micropterus coosae)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:11:00 +0000

There are two widely recognized forms of this member of the black bass group of the Centrarchidae family: the Apalachicola, which is called a shoal bass, and the Alabama, which is generally referred to as the redeye bass or the true redeye.

The shoal bass has yet to be described fully or given a distinct scientific name, and there is some confusion over the two. A scrappy fighter, the redeye bass often jumps when hooked and is hard to catch. Its white, flaky meat is of good table quality, similar to that of other black bass.

Identification

As its name indicates, the redeye bass is characterized by the considerable amount of red in its eyes. It is bronze olive above, with brownish to greenish sides, and yellow-white to blue below, usually with dark vertical bars on the ﬂanks. The bars on the caudal peduncle are diamond shaped with light centers.

bass fishing exposed

It has a prominent dark spot on the gill cover and rows of dark spots on the lower sides, as well as white upper and lower outer edges on the orange-tinged tail. The upper jaw of its large mouth extends to the rear portion of the eye but not beyond, and there is usually a patch of teeth on the tongue.

The redeye has redder ﬁns than do other black bass; the first and the second dorsal ﬁns are connected, and the second dorsal and the caudal fins and the front of the anal fin are brick red on young ﬁsh. There is a dusky spot on the base of the tail, which is also darkest on a young ﬁsh. There are 12 dorsal rays and 10 anal rays.

The shoal bass can normally be distinguished from the redeye bass by a prominent spot immediately before the tail and another on the edge of the gill cover, which is generally indistinct on the redeye. The shoal bass also lacks white outer edges on the tail, has smaller scales, and lacks the patch of teeth on the tongue. It has 12 to 13 dorsal rays and 10 to 11 anal rays.

Size/Age

The redeye bass grows to 18.5 inches and about 3 pounds, although some reach more than 8 pounds and live as long as 10 years. The shoal form grows faster, although it generally reaches about 15 inches in length. The all-tackle world record is an 8-pound, 12-ounce ﬁsh taken in Florida in 1995.

Spawning

Spawning occurs in spring, when water temperatures are between 60° and 70°F, usually over coarse gravel at the head of a pool. Males build the nest and guard the eggs and fry.

Food

Redeye feed primarily on terrestrial and larval insects, crayﬁsh, and small ﬁsh.

Other Names

black bass, Coosa bass, shoal bass, Flint River smallmouth.

Distribution

Redeye bass are found in the Alabama, the Savannah, the Coosa, the Chattahoochee, and the Warrior River systems in Georgia and Alabama, and in southeastern Tennessee (Conasauga drainage). They have been introduced to a limited degree in California, Puerto Rico, and Kentucky’s upper Cumberland River drainage.

Shoal bass occur in the Apalachicola River system in Florida and in the Chattahoochee, the Chestatee, and the Flint Rivers in Georgia.

Habitat

Inhabiting the rocky runs and pools of creeks and small to medium rivers, redeye bass prefer the cold headwaters of small streams. They seldom exist in natural lakes, ponds, or reservoirs, and they prefer water temperatures in the mid-60s. Shoal bass are most likely to thrive in main-channel habitats.

Roanoke Bass (Ambloplites cavifrons)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:02:00 +0000

The Roanoke bass is a sunfish and a member of the Centrarchidae family, similar in body shape to a rock bass (see: Bass, Rock) or warmouth (see). It can be identiﬁed by its unscaled or partly scaled cheek and the several iridescent gold to white spots on its upper side and head. It is olive to tan above, has a dark and light marbling on the sides, and often sports rows of black spots and a white to bronze breast and belly.

It is also distinguished by the 39 to 49 lateral scales, 11 anal rays, and 27 to 35 scale rows across its breast between the pectoral fins. The all-tackle world record is a 1-pound, 5-ounce ﬁsh taken in Virginia in 1991. Growing to a maximum of 14.5 inches, the Roanoke

Bass fishing exposed

Bass occurs in North America in the Chowan, the Roanoke, the Tar, and the Neuse River drainages in Virginia and North Carolina. It inhabits the rocky and sandy pools of creeks and small to medium clear rivers.

Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:57:00 +0000

The rock bass is actually a member of the sunfish family and is not a true bass. Rock bass are fun to catch because they can be caught on many types of baits and lures, and they put up a decent fight on ultralight tackle. Rock bass are known to overpopulate small lakes, making population control measures necessary.

Identification

Although it looks like a cross between a bluegill and a black bass, the rock bass is actually a large and robust sunfish with a deep body; it is less compressed than most sunﬁsh and is more similar to a black bass in shape. The back is raised, and the large head is narrow, rounded, and deep.

The mouth of the rock bass is large in comparison to other sunﬁsh; the upper jaw reaches beyond the beginning of the eye but not to the back of the eye. It has two connected dorsal fins, five to six anal ﬁn spines, and large eyes.

The rock bass is olive brown or bronze on the back and sides, with faint lines of tiny dark marks; the centers of the scales below the lateral line also have dark markings that form 11 or more rows and give the ﬁsh a striped appearance. In some rock bass, the coloring is lighter but consistent underneath, whereas others are silver, gray, or white on the bellies.

bass fishing exposed

The ventral fins have pale circular spots, and all fins are usually darker at their margins, although the edges of the anal spines are white, the tips of the pectoral fins are clear, and the pelvic ﬁns sometimes have a white edge. A distinguishing characteristic is the bluish-black blotch found on the tips of the gill covers.

Rock bass are frequently confused with the warmouth (Lepomis gulosus; see: warmouth). Warmouth have teeth on their tongue, whereas rock bass do not. There are also six spines in front of the anal ﬁn of a rock bass, as opposed to the three spines in the warmouth. Rock bass may resemble the mud sunﬁsh as well (see: Sunﬁsh, Mud); rock bass have forked tails and rough scales, whereas mud sunﬁsh have rounded tails and smooth scales.

Size/Age

The most common size for rock bass is about 8 ounces, although they have been known to reach 3 pounds. Often, rock bass in a particular lake will weigh around a pound, with a few ﬁsh exceeding 2 pounds. As with most sunfish, however, size is extremely variable, and rock bass living in streams are often stunted. The all-tackle record is a 3-pound Canadian fish.

Rock bass can reach a length of 12 to 14 inches but are usually less than 8 inches long. Although aquarium fish have lived for 18 years, those in the wild live 10 to 12 years on average.

Life history/Behavior

Rock bass are able to reproduce once they are 2 years old or 3 to 5 inches long; spawning occurs from midspring to early summer, when water temperatures range from 60° to 70°F. Males move into the shallows 3 to 4 days prior to the females’ arrival, to establish territories. They begin building round nests in gravelly or sandy areas near weedbeds or other protection, such as submerged tree trunks, using their pectoral, anal, and caudal ﬁns to fan the gravel for the nests.

Spawning occurs during the day, usually in the morning. The females spawn at least twice, moving from nest to nest and laying from 3,000 to 11,000 eggs in total. The males guard the nests until the eggs hatch and the young swim away, and many males nest a second or even a third time.

Rock bass are a schooling fish and often cluster with other sunﬁsh and smallmouth bass.

Food and feeding habits

Young rock bass feed on minute aquatic life when young, then on insects and crustaceans as they grow. Adults eat mostly crayfish, as well as minnows, insects, mollusks, and small fish. This diet varies with season and location. They can consume relatively large specimens because of their large mouths. Rock bass generally feed on the bottom but may occasionally feed near the surface.

Other Names

black perch, goggle-eye, red eye, rock sunﬁsh, goggle-eye perch; French: crapet de roche.

Distribution

Native to the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, rock bass range from southern Manitoba east to Ontario and Quebec, and southward through the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of Mexico and as far east as northern Alabama and northern Georgia. They have been introduced into other states, including some in the western United States.

Habitat

Rock bass prefer small to moderate streams with cool and clear water, abundant shelter, and considerable current; they are plentiful in shallow, weedy lakes and the outer edges of larger lakes, as well as in thousands of smaller lakes and ponds. Rock bass almost always hold over rocky bottoms (resulting in the name “rock” bass) where there is no silt. Young rock bass are frequently found in vegetation. Rock bass tend to frequent the same habitats as do smallmouth bass.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieui)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:42:00 +0000

The smallmouth bass is the second largest member of the Centrarchidae family of sunfish and a North American original. To anglers, it is one of the most impressive of all freshwater fish and is coveted for its fighting ability.

The smallmouth is not actually a bass but a sunfish, and its mouth is only small in comparison to that of some relatives. It is naturally a fish of both clear rivers and lakes and has been widely introduced to other waters outside its original range.

Smallmouth bass that reside in small to intermediate streams do not grow as large, on average, as those from lakes or reservoirs, although fish from big rivers, and especially those with tailwater fisheries, can attain large sizes. River smallmouth bass are even spunkier than their lake-dwelling brethren, however, and tend to be more streamlined and to lack drooping bellies.

The smallmouth bass is occasionally confused with the largemouth where they both occur, and also with the spotted bass and the redeye bass. They have been known to hybridize with spotted bass. Two subspecies are often recognized: the northern smallmouth, Micropterus dolomieui dolomieui, and the Neosho smallmouth, M. d. velox.

Identification

bass fishing exposed

The smallmouth bass has a robust, slightly laterally compressed and elongate body; a protruding lower jaw; red eyes; and a broad and slightly forked tail. Its pelvic fins sit forward on the body below the pectoral fins; a single spine is found on each pelvic fin and on the front of the anal fin.

The two dorsal fins are joined or notched; the front one is spiny and the second one has one spine followed by soft rays. Its color varies from brown, golden brown, and olive to green on the back, becoming lighter to golden on the sides and white on the belly. Young fish have more distinct vertical bars or rows of spots on their sides, and the caudal, or tail, fins are orange at the base, followed by black and then white outer edges.

The smallmouth is easily distinguished from the largemouth by its clearly connected dorsal fins, the scales on the base portion of the soft-rayed second dorsal fin, and the upper jawbone, which extends only to about the middle of the eye. The coloration is also distinctive, being usually more brownish in the smallmouth and more greenish in the largemouth.

Size/Age

The average life span of the smallmouth bass is 5 to 6 years, although it can live for 15 years. Most smallmouth bass encountered by anglers weigh between 1 and 1.5 pounds and are from 9 to 13 inches long; fish exceeding 3 pounds are considered fairly large but not uncommon. The largest smallmouth known is the Tennessee state record, a fish that weighed 11 pounds, 15 ounces, when caught from Dale Hollow Lake in 1955.

The Neosho subspecies, which is more slender than the smallmouth, occurs in the Neosho River and tributaries of the Arkansas River in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

Life history/Behavior

Smallmouth bass spawn in the spring (or the early summer in most northern waters), when the water temperature is between 60° and 65°F. The male builds a nest in water that ranges from 1 to 12 feet deep, depending on the environment. The nest site is often over a gravel or rock bottom but may be over a sandy bottom in lakes, and it is usually near the protection of a log or a boulder.

Older bass prefer rocky, shallow areas of lakes and rivers and retreat to deeper areas when water temperatures are high. They tend to seek cover and avoid the light and generally do not inhabit the same types of dense, weedy, or wooded cover that largemouth bass prefer. They hide in deep water, behind rocks and boulders, and around underwater debris and crevices, preferring water temperatures between 66° and 72°F.

Food

These highly carnivorous and predatory fish will eat whatever is available, but they have a clear preference for crayfish and small fish. In lakes, this includes small bass, panfish, perch, and assorted fingerling-size minnows in lakes. In rivers, it includes minnows, crayfish, hellgrammites, nymph larvae, and leeches.

Other Names

black bass, smallmouth, bronzeback, brown bass, brownie, smallie, redeye; French: achigan à petite bouche; German: schwarzbarsch; Japanese: kokuchibasu.

Distribution

The smallmouth bass is endemic only to North America, and its original range was from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River drainages in Canada south to northern Georgia, west to eastern Oklahoma, and north to Minnesota.

It has since been widely spread within and beyond that range, across southern Canada west to British Columbia and east to the Maritimes, west to the Pacific coast states, and into the south-western United States. It has also been introduced to Hawaii, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Habitat

Smallmouth bass prefer clear, quiet waters with gravel, rubble, or rocky bottoms. They live in midsize, gentle streams that have deep pools and abundant shade or in fairly deep, clear lakes and reservoirs with rocky shoals. Although they are fairly adaptable, they are seldom found in murky water and avoid swift current.

In the typical river, smallmouth bass predominate in the cool middle section where there are large pools between rifﬂes, whereas trout occupy the swifter and colder upper section. In stillwaters, smallmouth bass may occupy lakes, reservoirs, or ponds if these waters are large and deep enough to have thermal stratification, and they are usually located deeper than largemouth bass once the surface layer warms in the spring or early summer.

Spotted Bass (Micropterus punctulatus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:16:00 +0000

Often mistaken by anglers for the largemouth bass, the spotted bass is a lesser-known member of the black bass group of the Centrarchidae family than either the largemouth or the smallmouth, but this is a spunky and distinguished-looking species that no angler is unhappy about catching, even if most are encountered by accident.

The general term “spotted bass” really incorporates three recognized subspecies: the northern spotted bass (M. p. punctulatus), the Alabama spotted bass (M. p. henshalli), and the Wichita spotted bass (M. p. wichitae); the last was previously thought to be extinct and is still rarely encountered.

Spotted bass are scrappy fish whose fight is often compared to that of the smallmouth, although they jump less frequently. Their average and maximum sizes are smaller than those of the largemouth, and they are more likely to utilize and suspend in deep water, even moving about in deep water in loose groups, rather than in schools.

Identification

bass fishing exposed

The spotted bass has a moderately compressed, elongate body, with coloration and markings that are similar to those of the largemouth bass; both have a light green to light brown hue on the backs and the upper sides, white lower sides and bellies, and a broad stripe of diamond-shaped blotches along the midlines of their bodies.

Like all black bass except the largemouth, the spotted bass has scales on the base portion of the second dorsal fin, its first and second dorsal fin are clearly connected, and its upper jawbone does not extend back to or beyond the rear edge of the eyes. The spotted bass has a distinct patch of teeth on the tongue, which the largemouth does not, and there is a large spot on the point of the gill cover.

The spotted bass differs from the smallmouth bass in that it lacks the vertical bars that are present on the sides of the body in the smallmouth. It also has small black spots in alternate rows below the lateral line (the rear edges of certain scales are black), unlike either the largemouth or the smallmouth. Reportedly, spotted bass and smallmouth bass have hybridized in nature, which could make identification of some specimens where both species are known to occur even more difficult.

The Alabama spotted bass has a dark spot at the base of the tail and on the rear of the gill cover and 68 to 75 scales along the lateral line. The northern spotted bass also has a spot on the tail, but the spot on the gill cover is not as distinct, and there are only 60 to 68 scales along the lateral line.

Size/Age

Spotted bass seldom exceed 4 to 5 pounds and are rarely encountered up to 8 pounds. The all-tackle world record is a 10-pound, 4-ounce fish taken in California in 2001. Because of the difficulty in recognizing the species, it is probable that larger record-size specimens of spotted bass have gone unnoticed. The life span of about 7 years is much shorter than that of the smallmouth or the largemouth, and the growth rate is intermediate between the two.

Life history/Behavior

Spotted bass spawn in the spring at water temperatures of about 63° to 68°F. Males sweepaway silt from a gravel or rock bottom to make the nests, generally near brush, logs, or other heavy cover. The males guard the eggs and then guard the fry after they leave the nests. Fry are extremely active, much more than those of either the largemouth or the smallmouth.

These fish tend to school more than does any other member of the black bass family and are often encountered chasing shad in open water.

Food and feeding habits

Juveniles feed on small crustaceans and midge larvae, whereas adults eat insects, larger crustaceans, minnows, frogs, worms, grubs, and small fish. Crayfish are usually the most important item in the diet, followed by small fish and larval and adult insects.

Other Names

Alabama spotted bass, black bass, Kentucky bass, Kentucky spotted bass, lineside, northern spotted bass, redeye, spot, Wichita spotted bass.

Distribution

Spotted bass were once primarily found in the lower to central Mississippi River drainages of North America, but their range has expanded greatly. They are now found throughout the central and lower Mississippi basin, from southern Ohio and West Virginia to southeastern Kansas and south to the Gulf of Mexico (from Texas to the Florida Panhandle), including the Chattahoochee drainage in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and other nearby states, where they occur naturally or have been introduced.

Spotted bass have been introduced as far west as California, where some of the larger specimens are now found, and outside North America, including South Africa, where the species has become established in several bodies of water.

The infrequently encountered Wichita spotted bass appears to be limited to West Cache Creek, Oklahoma. The Alabama spotted bass is native to Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.

Habitat

The natural habitats of spotted bass are clear, gravelly, ﬂowing pools and runs of creeks and small to medium rivers, and they also tolerate the slower, warmer, and more turbid sections that are unlikely to host smallmouth bass. They are seldom found in natural lakes but have adapted well to deep impoundments, which were created by damming some of their natural rivers and streams.

In reservoirs they prefer water temperatures in the mid-70s Fahrenheit. The typical habitat is similar to that of the largemouth bass, although the spotted bass prefers rocky areas and is much more likely to inhabit and suspend in open waters; it may hold in great depths (between 60 and more than 100 feet) in some waters. Rocky bluffs, deep rockpiles, and submerged humps are among its haunts.

Suwannee Bass (Micropterus notius)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:04:00 +0000

The Suwannee bass is similar in bodily appearance to the smallmouth bass and in markings to the redeye bass, except that it is generally brown overall, and the cheeks, breasts, and bellies of large males are bright turquoise.

It, too, has a large mouth, with the upper jaw extending under the eye, and possesses a patch of teeth on the tongue, a spot at the base of the tail, and blotches on the sides. It is further identiﬁed by its 59 to 64 lateral scales, 16 pectoral ﬁn rays, 12 to 13 dorsal fin rays, and 10 to 11 anal ﬁn rays.

bass fishing exposed

Growing to just over 14 inches and weighing generally less than a pound, the Suwannee bass is a small species. The all-tackle world record is a 3-pound, 14-ounce fish taken in Florida in 1985.

A member of the Centrarchidae family, it has the smallest range of any black bass, occurring in North America, commonly in the Suwannee River drainage in Florida and less commonly in the Ochlockonee River drainage in northern Florida and Georgia. Limited range and small size make this species of minor angling interest, but it is an aggressive species found in rocky riffles, runs, and pools and is typically caught around rocky structures and along steep banks.

White Bass (Morone chrysops)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:39:00 +0000

A member of the temperate bass family, the white bass is a freshwater ﬁsh known for its spunky ﬁghting ability, as well as its merits as an excellent eating ﬁsh. Because of its small size, it is often considered a panﬁsh. White bass usually travel in schools and can provide a lot of action, making them highly desirable among light-tackle enthusiasts and for ﬁshing with family and youths.

Identification

The white bass has a moderately deep and compressed body that is raised behind the small head and the large mouth, deepest between the two dorsal ﬁns. It also has 11 to 13 rays on the anal ﬁn and one to two patches of teeth at the back of the tongue. The coloration is mostly silvery with a dark grayish green on the back and anywhere from 4 to 10 dark horizontal stripes running along the sides. It also has yellow eyes, clear to dusky dorsal and caudal ﬁns, and clear to white pectoral and pelvic ﬁns.

The white bass is sometimes confused with other members of the temperate bass family. It resembles the striped bass (M. saxatilis) by possessing the same silver sides and black stripes; it is shorter, though, than the striped bass and has a smaller head, a deeper body, a humped back, and dorsal ﬁns that are closer together.

bass fishing exposed

The white bass is also similar in appearance to the yellow bass (M. mississippiensis) but is more silvery in color and has unbroken stripes, as well as a projecting lower jaw (in yellow bass, the jaws are about even); the white bass has separate spiny and soft portions of the dorsal ﬁns, whereas those of the yellow bass are joined at the base.

The white bass also thrives in some waters inhabited by white perch (M. americana), particularly in the Great Lakes and their tributaries. The white bass can be distinguished from the white perch by the lack of distinct stripes on the sides of the body of the white perch, although stripes are occasionally found on the young of that species.

Size/Age

White bass average between 1⁄2 pound and 2 pounds but may weigh as much as 3 to 4 pounds; the all-tackle world record is 6 pounds, 13 ounces. They can grow up to 17.75 inches long, averaging 10 to 12 inches, and can live at least 10 years, but few make it past age 4. Females grow faster and probably live longer than males. Cold water and a lack of shad in the north, and warm water and abundant gizzard and threadﬁn shad populations in the south, account for regional growth differences.

Life history/Behavior

White bass migrate within freshwater rivers to spawn, speciﬁcally 40 miles or less. Two year old sexually mature males reach the spawning grounds about a month before the females do, moving into the same spawning grounds every year; they arrive sometime between February and June, depending on when the water temperature rises above 45°F.

Several white bass males gather around a female in 6 to 7 feet of water and push her to the surface, where she releases eggs that are quickly fertilized. Settling on rocks and vegetation in shallow water, the tiny, adhesive eggs hatch in 45 hours at 60°F. The adult fish do not protect the eggs or the young, and as a result, very few ﬁsh survive their first year. Adults move to deeper water once they have spawned, where they swim in compact schools, often close to the surface.

Food and feeding habits

White bass feed on shad, silversides, crustaceans, yellow perch, sunﬁsh, insects, crayﬁsh, and their own young. Although they stay mostly in deep waters, they usually come to the surface to feed on schools of small shad or other minnows and often make a great commotion; this normally occurs early or late in the day or on overcast days.

Other Names

white lightning, barfish, striped bass, silver bass, striper, stripe, sandbass, and sandy; French: bar blanc.

Distribution

White bass have a wide distribution extending throughout river systems in the Mississippi Valley (including Texas, northwest Florida, and Louisiana), the Ohio Valley, and the Great Lakes. Native in the east from the St. Lawrence River, in the north from Lake Winnipeg, and in the west from the Río Grande, white bass are found from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. They have been stocked within and outside their natural range and transplanted into various states, including California.

Habitat

The white bass is most abundant in clear, cool lakes; reservoirs; ponds; and pools of small to large rivers. White bass prefer lakes exceeding 300 acres and with considerable stretches of water at least 10 feet deep.

Whiterock Bass (Morone saxatilis x Morone chrysops)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:30:00 +0000

Hybrid striped bass have become one of the most popular introduced ﬁsh in freshwater. Hybrid stripers are the progeny of one pure-strain striped bass parent and one purestrain white bass parent. When the cross is between the female striper and the male white bass, the result is primarily known as a whiterock bass; in some places it is referred to as a wiper and in some simply as a hybrid striped bass. When the cross is between the male striper and the female white bass, it is called a sunshine bass (primarily in Florida) or simply a hybrid striped bass.

These fish, which usually look like stockier versions of pure-strain stripers, are aggressive and hard-fighting fish that provide great sport. The fact that they are so strong and grow fairly large rather quickly endears them to anglers, not to mention that they can be a more ambitious lure and bait consumer than pure stripers.

Hybrid stripers do not occur in saltwater; they are strictly a freshwater phenomenon. In freshwater, whiterock or sunshine bass may crossbreed naturally in the wild, although this is not the norm. Most hybrid stripers existing in freshwater lakes and rivers are the result of state ﬁsh-stocking programs.

Like both of its parents, the whiterock or the sunshine bass is good table fare, and its ﬂesh is virtually indistinguishable from that of the parent fish.

Identification

bass fishing exposed

This fish looks like a stockier version of the striped bass, usually having a shorter length and greater girth but with very similar coloration. The primary means of distinguishing the whiterock or the sunshine bass is by the less distinct and interrupted or broken lines along its sides.

The lateral lines of the parent ﬁsh are unbroken. Hybrid stripers (and pure-strain stripers) can be distinguished from white bass by the tooth patterns on their tongues. The white bass has a single broad U-pattern, while the striper has two distinctive elongated tooth patches.

The accompanying illustration shows the distinguishing characteristics. It is important to learn the differences between these ﬁsh when angling in waters that may contain all three species, as regulations regarding them may differ.

Size/Age

Whiterock and sunshine bass have an extremely fast growth rate in their early stages. Specimens that have been stocked as inch-long ﬁsh have grown to 4 inches in just 1 month, and 15 inches by their second summer, so they quickly attain sizes of angling interest. When 18 inches long, a hybrid striper will weigh at least 3 pounds and possibly as much as 5 pounds.

Their maximum attainable size is uncertain, although they grow much larger than a white bass and are much smaller than a pure-strain striped bass. The all-tackle world-record hybrid striped bass is a 25-pound, 15-ounce Alabama fish.

Life history/Behavior

These elements are essentially the same as for the parent species, including spring spawning runs, open-water migrations, schooling, and baitfish-pillaging tendencies. One difference with whiterock and sunshine bass is that when planted in lakes with no other related species with which to interbreed, they can be controlled entirely through stocking programs.

Unlike many hybrid fish, which are sterile, these specimens are fertile ﬁsh; however, they can reproduce only if they cross with a pure-strain parent. But in lakes where neither pure-strain stripers nor white bass are present (usually in northern states), fisheries managers have stocked hybrid striped bass with the comfort of knowing that the fish wouldn’t expand beyond the numbers stocked. Thus, if the fish proved detrimental to baitfish or other game species, they could be eradicated by discontinuing stocking.

Food and feeding habits

The food preferences and the feeding habits of these ﬁsh are similar to those of freshwater striped bass and white bass.

Distribution

Hybrid striped bass distribution is limited to freshwater and to places with a good population of baitfish, principally members of the herring family. Nevertheless, stocking programs have resulted in plantings of these fish in lakes and reservoirs in more than 30 states, from California to New York and from Nebraska to Florida. The greatest concentration is throughout the southern half of the country, and the most ﬁshing opportunities are in the Southeast.

Habitat

Whiterock and sunshine bass inhabit the same freshwater habitats as their parents, primarily large lakes and reservoirs, but they also thrive in midsize to large rivers and occasionally in small lakes or ponds.

They are largely nomadic in those environments and are found in the same places as their parents, sometimes commingling with them, mostly in open-water environs or in the tailrace below dams. They are seldom found near shore or docks or piers, except when chasing schools of baitfish.

Yellow Bass (Morone mississippiensis)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:24:00 +0000

A popular light-tackle quarry and usually lumped into the category of panﬁsh, the yellow bass is a scrappy ﬁghter and provides good sport on light tackle. With white, ﬂaky ﬂesh, it is also a good food ﬁsh, on a par with or exceeding white bass and compared by some to the yellow perch.

Many anglers are unfamiliar with this member of the temperate bass family because it is largely restricted to the middle portion of the United States and is smaller than its relatives; a true bass, the yellow is related to the striped bass, the white bass, and the white perch.

Those fishing with larger lures and bait for largemouth bass or stripers are likely to encounter only the occasional, and larger, yellow bass specimen, although they can be caught with great frequency where they are abundant and by anglers using light tackle.

Identification

bass fishing exposed

The body shape of the yellow bass is very similar to that of the white bass: moderately long and stocky, with the deepest part between the dorsal fins, as opposed to round and compressed. It has a small head, a large mouth, and connected dorsal fins.

Its coloration is a brassy, silvery, or bright yellow, sometimes with a grayish olive on the back, and it has clear to blue-gray ﬁns that are particularly blue when the ﬁsh is in water. Five to eight distinctively dark horizontal stripes line the sides, and the lower stripes may be irregularly interrupted and offset above the anal ﬁn; these markings are different on either side of the ﬁsh.

The yellow bass can be distinguished from the white bass by its golden coloring and broken stripes. Also, the second spine of the anal ﬁn is longer and thicker than the third on the yellow bass; in the white bass it is noticeably shorter. The yellow bass has even jaws, whereas the white bass has a projecting lower jaw.

Size/Age

Yellow bass are smaller than the largest bluegills, and the usual size caught by anglers ranges from 4 to 12 ounces. They can grow to 2 pounds and 18 inches, although few are seen over a pound; the all-tackle world record is a 2-pound, 4-ounce Indiana fish caught in 1977.

These ﬁsh grow slowly after becoming juveniles and rarely achieve the size of white bass, perhaps because they are extremely prolific and often become stunted. In some places, their small size and bait-stealing tendency brand them a nuisance. They have a short life expectancy of about 4 years on average and may live to age 7.

Spawning

Yellow bass spawn in the spring and move into tributary streams when the water temperature reaches the upper 50s. They spawn on shoals and abandon their nesting sites without protecting the young.

Food and feeding habits

Yellow bass feed on insects, minnows, small shad, and small sunﬁsh. Insects and insect larvae constitute a good portion of their diet, especially in smaller sizes. Similar to white bass, they will maraud baitﬁsh in schools, although with less of a tendency to do so on or near the surface. Yellow bass are more active in shallow and nearshore environs early and late in the day and roam deeper open-water expanses during the day.

Other Names

barﬁsh, brassy bass, stripe, striped bass, streaker, yellowjack, jack, streaks, gold bass.

Distribution

Yellow bass inhabit the Lake Michigan and Mississippi River basins from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan south to the Pearl River drainage in Louisiana, the Galveston Bay drainage in Texas, the lower Coosa and Mobile Bay drainages, east to western Indiana and eastern Tennessee, and west to western Iowa and eastern Oklahoma.

Found mostly in the central Mississippi Valley area, they have been stocked only within their native range and transplanted to nearby states and have been generally unsuccessful elsewhere. They are scattered within this range and vary in abundance from lake to lake.

Habitat

Yellow bass thrive in quiet pools, ponds, back-waters of large streams, small to large rivers, large lakes, clear to turbid waters below lakes, and reservoirs; they are somewhat tolerant of weedbeds, more so than are white bass, and are fond of warm water.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:13:00 +0000

At times easily caught by novice and experienced anglers alike, bluegills are among the most popular panﬁsh species in North America. This notoriety is the result of their vast distribution, spunky ﬁght, and excellent taste.

Commonly referred to as “bream,” bluegills are the most widely distributed panﬁsh and are found with, or in similar places as, such companion and related species as redbreast sunﬁsh, green sunfish, pumpkinseeds, shellcrackers, and longear sunﬁsh, all of which are similar in conﬁguration but different in appearance.

Despite their abundance and popularity, bluegills are not heavily targeted in some waters and are thus underutilized. Bluegills are so prolific that their populations can grow beyond the carrying capacity of the water, and as a result many become stunted; these stunted ﬁsh are regarded as pests, and waters containing them must often be drained and restocked. There are three subspecies of bluegills in existence, although stocking has intermingled populations and subspecies.

Identification

The bluegill has a signiﬁcantly compressed oval or roundish body, a small mouth, and a small head, qualities typical of members of the sunﬁsh family. The pectoral ﬁns are pointed.

Its coloring varies greatly from lake to lake, ranging from olive, dark blue, or bluish purple to dappled yellow and green on the sides with an overall blue cast; some ﬁsh, particularly those found in quarry holes, may actually be clear and colorless. Ordinarily, there are six to eight vertical bars on the sides, and these may or may not be prominent.

The gill cover extends to create a wide black ﬂap, faint in color on the young, which is not surrounded by a lighter border as in other sunﬁsh. Dark blue streaks are found on the lower cheeks between the chin and the gill cover, and often there is a dark mark at the bottom of the anal ﬁn. The breeding male is more vividly colored, possessing a blue head and back, a bright orange breast and belly, and black pelvic ﬁns.

Size/Age

These ﬁsh range from 4 to 12 inches in length, averaging 8 inches and reaching a maximum length of 16.25 inches. The largest bluegill ever caught was a 4-pound, 12-ounce specimen taken in 1950. The growth of the bluegill varies so much that estimates of age as it relates to size are at best inexact. Bluegills are estimated to live for 10 years.

Life history/Behavior

The age of sexual maturity varies with environment and locale, although most bluegills reach spawning age when 2 or 3 years old. Spawning occurs between April and September, starting when water temperatures are around 70°F.

The males build shallow, round nests in water up to 6 feet deep over sandy or muddy bottoms. These nests occur in colonies of up to 500 along the shoreline, densely concentrated and easily spotted by anglers. Females may lay between 2,000 and 63,000 eggs, which hatch 30 to 35 hours after fertilization.

It is common for ﬁsh to spawn many times, with a particular ﬁsh laying eggs in several nests and a single nest containing eggs from more than one female. Males guard the eggs throughout the incubation period and stay to protect the hatched young. Having reached lengths of 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 inch, the young leave their nests for deeper waters. Bluegills travel in small schools, typically made up of similar-size individuals.

Food and feeding habits

A variety of small organisms serves as food for bluegills, including insects, crayﬁsh, ﬁsh eggs, small minnows, snails, worms, and sometimes even plant material. The young feed mostly on crustaceans, insects, and worms. Adults will feed at different depths, depending on temperature, so they obtain food on the bottom, as well as on the surface. Active mostly at dusk and dawn, the larger bluegills move inshore in the morning and the evening to feed, staying in deeper water during the day.

Other Names

bream, brim, sun perch, blue perch, blue sunﬁsh, copperbelly, blue bream, copperhead bream, redbreasted bream, bluegill sunﬁsh, roach.

Distribution

Native to approximately the eastern half of the United States, the bluegill’s range extends southward from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin, eastward from New York to Minnesota and draining south from the Cape Fear River in Virginia to the Río Grande in Texas, including states as far east as Florida and as far west as New Mexico. Also found in a small portion of northeastern Mexico, the bluegill has been widely introduced elsewhere in North America, as well as in Europe, South Africa, Asia, South America, and Oceania.

Habitat

Although mainly lake ﬁsh, bluegills inhabit sluggish streams and rivers, vegetated lakes and ponds, swamps, and pools of creeks. They prefer quiet waters and may hold in extremely shallow areas, especially early in the season and during spawning time, although when the surface and shallow water temperature is warm in the summer, they may go as deep as 30 or more feet. They occupy the same habitat as their larger relative the largemouth bass.

Bowfin (Amia calva)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:28:00 +0000

Described as a living fossil, the bowﬁn is the only existing member of the Amiidae family, a group of ﬁsh that originated in the Cretaceous period more than 100 million years ago. Of little commercial value because of their poor-tasting flesh, bowfin are excellent fighters and are caught by anglers wherever they are abundant, although mostly unintentionally.

When not abundant, they are a rare catch, and many anglers are unfamiliar with them. Although they are sometimes considered pests or nuisances by anglers seeking other quarry, bowﬁn are helpful in constraining otherwise large, stunted populations of smaller ﬁsh.

Identification

An ancient ﬁsh in design and described by some as looking more like a serpent than a ﬁsh, the bowﬁn has a rounded tail and a considerable amount of cartilage in its skeletal system. Underneath its head is a large, bony gular plate, with several other bony plates protecting the skull.

Distinctive qualities include a large flattened head with tubelike nostrils and long, sharp teeth, as well as a long, spineless dorsal ﬁn that extends almost the entire length of the body. Another interesting feature of the bowfin’s anatomy is a modiﬁed, lunglike air bladder, in addition to gills; as in the gar, which possesses a similar organ, the bowﬁn is able to breathe surface air and, consequently, live in water too polluted or stagnant for most ﬁsh.

Its long, thick, cylindrical body is covered with large olive-colored scales, although it occasionally has a brownish or gray cast that fades to white or cream underneath. The male has a dark spot on the upper tail with a yellowish orange rim around it, and the female has a less conspicuous spot without a rim.

Size/Age

The bowfin can grow to up to 43 inches in length but averages 2 feet. The world-record bowfin weighed 21 pounds, 8 ounces, although the average weight is in the 2- to 5-pound range. The male is smaller than the female, and they survive up to 12 years in the wild and 30 years in captivity.

Life history/Behavior

When bowﬁn are 3 to 5 years old, they reach sexual maturity. They spawn between early April and June, when water temperatures are between 60° and 66°F. Males move into the weedy shallows after dark, before the females, and build bowl-shaped nests of plant material among tree roots or under fallen logs. A single male may try to mate with more than one female, and sometimes several pairs of bowﬁn will use the same nest.

The male is left to protect the eggs, which hatch in 8 to 10 days. The newly hatched bowﬁn use adhesive organs on their snouts to attach themselves to the bottom of the nest as they grow to about 1⁄2 inch long.

Once they reach this length, the fry school and follow the male, which guards them for several weeks against potential predators. Adult coloration appears when they are about 1.5 inches long, and the young begin to protect themselves at this stage. They stop schooling entirely when they reach 4 inches in length.

Bowﬁn swim slowly along the bottom, although they can move very quickly if disturbed or when in pursuit of prey.

Food and feeding habits

Bowﬁn can be extremely ravenous and eat a large variety of food, including crayﬁsh, shrimp, adult insects and larvae, small ﬁsh, frogs, and large amounts of vegetation. Scent is as important as sight in obtaining food, and bowﬁn have the habit of gulping water to capture their prey. Although bowﬁn are always ready to feed, they are most active in the evening.

Other Names

dogﬁsh, freshwater dogﬁsh, blackﬁsh, mudﬁsh, western mudﬁsh, mud pike, cabbage pike, shoepike, griddle, grindle, spottail grindle, grinnel, lawyer, scaled ling, speckled cat, cypress trout, cypress bass, cottonﬁsh, John A. Grindle; French: choupiquel, poisson de marais.

Distribution

Bowﬁn occur only in North America, from the St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain drainage of Quebec and Vermont west across southern Ontario to the Mississippi drainage, from Minnesota south to Texas and Florida.

Habitat

Bowﬁn are generally a big-water ﬁsh and inhabit warm and swampy lakes with vegetation, as well as weedy rivers and streams. With a signiﬁcant tolerance for high temperatures and a modiﬁed air bladder, the bowﬁn is able to live in stagnant areas by taking in surface air.

Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:22:00 +0000

A member of the Catostomidae family of suckers, the bigmouth buffalo is so called because of its humped back.

Identification

The robust and deep-bodied bigmouth buffalo has a large head with a big, distinctively oblique, and toothless mouth. This terminal, thin-lipped cavity angles downward when closed, although the edge of the upper lip is practically on a level with the eyes.

The sickle-shaped dorsal ﬁn is characterized by a taller lobe at the middle of the back that tapers off into a shorter lobe; the whole ﬁn extends to the caudal peduncle. It is the only member of the sucker family with its mouth directly in the front of the head.

The color of the bigmouth buffalo may be gray, coppery olive brown, or slate blue on the back, and the sides are yellowish olive, fading to a white belly; all the ﬁns are blackish in tint.

Size/Age

The largest of all the suckers, the bigmouth buffalo is said to grow to 80 pounds, although the all-tackle rod-and-reel record is a 70-pound, 5-ounce ﬁsh. It typically weighs between 3 and 12 pounds, and it has been known to grow as long as 40 inches. Most ﬁsh will live only 6 to 8 years and grow to 20 pounds.

Life history/Behavior

Adults spawn at about 3 years of age, in April or May, when water temperatures reach the 60° to 65°F range. Adults seek weedy areas in 2 to 3 feet of water to lay their eggs, which hatch in 10 to 14 days. They travel in schools throughout their lives and are capable of tolerating temperatures of up to 90°F in waters with little dissolved oxygen.

Food and feeding habits

Roughly 90 percent of the food a bigmouth buffalo eats consists of small crustaceans.

Other Names

buffaloﬁsh, common buffalo, lake buffalo, slough buffalo, blue buffalo, baldpate, bull-nosed buffalo, brown buffalo, stubnose, pug.

Distribution

Found only in North America, bigmouth buffalo occur in the Nelson River drainage of Hudson Bay, the lower Great Lakes, and the drainages of Lake Erie and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, from Ontario to Saskatchewan and Montana south to Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. They have also been introduced in Arizona, California, and Cuba with success.

Habitat

Bigmouth buffalo have a preference for pools and backwaters of small to large rivers and are found in lakes and impoundments.

Smallmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:03:00 +0000

The smallmouth buffalo is second only to the bigmouth in the sucker family in terms of size and commercial importance, although it has a better reputation as a food ﬁsh than does its larger relative. The smallmouth buffalo, however, is less abundant and subsequently less commercially important.

Identification

A deep-bodied and compressed ﬁsh, the smallmouth buffalo has a small conical head, a high-arched back, and a long dorsal ﬁn. It also has a small, thick-lipped mouth with distinct grooves on the upper lip; the upper jaw is considerably shorter than the snout.

Usually lighter in coloration than other buffalo, it is gray, olive, or bronze on the back; black to olive yellow on the sides; white to yellow on the belly; and it has an olive bronze sheen. The pelvic ﬁns are olive or grayish black, and the other ﬁns are indistinctly dark.

It bears a noticeable resemblance to the bigmouth buffalo, but it can be distinguished by a more compressed body and a more steeply arched back. It also possesses a smaller, subterminal mouth that lies laterally; the bigmouth buffalo’s mouth lies at a slant. Characteristic of all suckers, the mouth extends downward, a noticeable feature when the smallmouth buffalo is feeding.

Size

Growing slower than the bigmouth, a smallmouth buffalo can reach 36 inches in length. The average commercially taken fish are in the 2- to 10-pound range, although some specimens weigh 15 to 20 pounds. The all-tackle world record for a smallmouth buffalo is 82 pounds, 3 ounces.

Life history/Behavior

Spawning and schooling habits are similar or identical to those of the bigmouth buffalo.

Food and feeding habits

Smallmouth buffalo feed on shellﬁsh and algae, grinding them with the bony plates in their throats designed for that purpose; they eat more insects and bottom organisms than bigmouth buffalo do.

Other Names

razorback buffalo, roach-back, thick-lipped buffalo, channel buffalo, hump-backed buffalo, high-back buffalo, river buffalo.

Distribution

Found only in North America, the smallmouth buffalo has a range similar to that of the bigmouth buffalo. It occurs in the Lake Michigan drainage and the Mississippi River basin, from Pennsylvania and Michigan to Montana and south to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Mobile Bay, Alabama, west to the Rio Grande in Texas and New Mexico. It is also found in Mexico and was introduced in Arizona. It is most abundant in the central states.

Habitat

Smallmouth buffalo inhabit pools, backwaters, large streams, and main channels of small to large rivers, as well as warm lakes and reservoirs. They prefer slightly cleaner and deeper waters than do bigmouth buffalo, an explanation for their relatively smaller numbers.

Black Bullhead (Ameiurus melas)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:48:00 +0000

Black Bullhead (Ameiurus melas)

A smaller member of the catﬁsh family, the black bullhead is very popular due primarily to its ﬁne culinary appeal. It is often stocked in farm ponds and raised commercially.

Identification

Although the name would imply something else, the “black” bullhead may actually be yellowish green, dark green, olive, brown, or black on the back; bronze or green on the sides; and bright yellow or white on the belly. The entire body possesses a lustrous sheen. Only the young and spawning males are truly black.

Distinguishing the black bullhead from the brown or the yellow bullhead can be done by noting the rear edge of the pectoral ﬁn in the latter two, which have a spine that is serrated with numerous sharp, thorny protrusions; those found on the spine of the black bullhead’s pectoral ﬁn are much less prominent and may be absent altogether. The black bullhead has dark chin barbels that may be black-spotted, a chubby body, and a squarish tail.

Size/Age

Black bullhead reportedly grow to 24.5 inches in length, but they are most common at 6 to 7 inches and are seldom larger than 2 pounds. The maximum life span for black bullhead is approximately 10 years, although most live only 5 years. The world record is 7 pounds, 7 ounces.

Spawning behavior

Spawning takes place in May, June, and July, usually at water temperatures between 66° and 70°F. In weedy sections, the female clears away debris and silt to prepare the nest. Spawning up to ﬁve times an hour, the female releases roughly 200 eggs each time, fanning the eggs in-between spawning. Both parents fan the eggs until these hatch, and they guard the fry, which leave the nest in compact schools.

Food and feeding habits

Adults forage primarily at night, feeding on clams, snails, plant material, and ﬁsh.

Other Names

catﬁsh, black catﬁsh, yellow belly bullhead, horned pout; French: barbotte noire.

Distribution

The black bullhead is found from southern Ontario west to Saskatchewan and throughout the Great Lakes, the Hudson Bay, the St. Lawrence, and the Mississippi River basins, extending to New York in the east, the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and Montana in the west. Introduced populations exist in Arizona, California, and other states.

Habitat

Black bullhead inhabit pools, backwaters, and slow-moving sections of creeks and small to large rivers; they also inhabit impoundments, oxbows, and ponds. They have a preference for muddy water and soft mud bottoms and are able to tolerate polluted water better than other catﬁsh do. They prefer water in the 75° to 85°F range and tend to avoid cooler, clearer water.

Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:04:00 +0000

With its ﬁrm, pink ﬂesh of excellent quality, the brown bullhead is an exceedingly popular species, sometimes included in the panﬁsh category.

Identification

The head of the brown bullhead is large for its round and slender body, and the skin is smooth and entirely scaleless. The coloring of the brown bullhead is not always brown, but it may actually range from yellowish brown or chocolate brown to gray or olive with brown or black scattered spots; the belly is yellow or white.

The brown bullhead is distinguished from the yellow bullhead by having a mottled coloring and dark brown to nearly black chin barbels. There are sharp, toothlike serrations on the pectoral spine of the pectoral ﬁn, and the tail is squarish or somewhat notched.

Size/Age

The average weight of the brown bullhead is less than a pound, and although ﬁsh in the 2- to 4-pound range are occasionally caught, this species seldom exceeds 3 pounds in weight. A 6-pound, 5-ounce ﬁsh is the largest ever caught on rod and reel. Brown bullhead can grow to 21 inches in length, although they are most commonly 8 to 14 inches long. Their life span is 6 or 7 years.

Spawning behavior

Spawning takes place in April and May. Nests are made by one or both sexes by fanning out dish-shaped hollows in mud or sand. The eggs are guarded by one or both parents, although some ﬁsh have been said to eat them. Young brown bullhead are jet-black and resemble tadpoles, forming large schools that swim in surface waters. The male continues to guard the young until they reach 2 inches in length and are able to protect themselves.

Food and feeding habits

Brown bullhead feed mainly at night on immature insects, worms, minnows, mollusks, crayﬁsh, plankton, and offal.

Other Names

bullpout, horned pout, brown catﬁsh, mudcat, common bullhead, marbled bullhead, squaretail, minister; French: barbotte brune.

Distribution

Brown bullhead range from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Saskatchewan, from North Dakota to Louisiana in the west, and from Maine to Florida in the east. Native to the eastern United States and southern Canada, they have been widely introduced elsewhere.

Habitat

Brown bullhead inhabit warm and even stagnant waters, as well as sluggish runs over muddy bottoms. They occur in farm ponds, pools, creeks, small to large rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Unlike other bullhead, they are found in large and deep waters, although they are able to withstand low oxygen concentrations and are known to bury themselves in mud to survive such conditions.

Yellow Bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Although the least commercially important of the catﬁsh, the yellow bullhead can provide decent angling and is a good food ﬁsh.

Identification

A moderately slim ﬁsh, the yellow bullhead has leathery skin without scales. The coloring ranges from yellowish olive to brown or almost black on the back with yellowish olive or brown sides, yellow or white on the belly, and dusky ﬁns. Juveniles are dark brown or jet-black.

The rounded tail helps to distinguish the yellow bullhead from other bullheads, which have squarish or truncated tails. The yellow bullhead has sharp, toothlike serrations on the back edge of the spine at the top of the pectoral ﬁns. The chin barbels are white, yellow, or pale pink.

Size/Age

Yellow bullhead usually weigh less than a pound, although they sometimes reach a weight of 3 pounds. The most common length is between 7 and 11 inches, and they can be as much as 18.3 inches long. The world-record ﬁsh is a 4-pound, 4-ounce specimen. Yellow bullhead can live up to 7 years.

Spawning behavior

In May and June, sexually mature ﬁsh of 3 years and older move into shallow water at temperatures in the upper 60s or low 70s. After ﬁnding a suitable site, one or both of the parents constructs the nest, which consists of either a shallow depression in an open area or a 2-foot-deep burrow in the bank in a protected area. The male guards the eggs and the fry hatch in 5 to 10 days, after which the young continue to be protected by the male in a tight group until they are able to protect themselves.

Food and feeding habits

Yellow bullhead are nocturnal scavengers that feed by smell and taste. They eat crustaceans, immature aquatic insects, snails, small ﬁsh, dragonﬂy nymphs, crayﬁsh, mollusks, and bits of aquatic vegetation.

Other Names

yellow cat, creek cat, white-whiskered bullhead, greaser.

Distribution

Yellow bullhead inhabit most of central and eastern North America, ranging in the east from New York to Florida and in the west from southern Quebec to central North Dakota and south to the Gulf of Mexico. As with other bullhead, this ﬁsh has also been introduced outside its original range.

Habitat

With a preference for clear waters, gravel or rock bottoms, sluggish currents, and heavy vegetation, yellow bullhead are found in pools, ponds, streams, small to large rivers, and small, shallow lakes. They are common in small, weedy, and shallow bodies of water and are more tolerant of polluted water and low oxygen levels than are most other types of bullhead. They are most abundant at water temperatures between 75° and 80°F.

Burbot

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 09:18:00 +0000

The only freshwater member of the Gadidae family of codﬁsh found in North America, Europe, and Asia, the burbot is often caught accidentally by anglers fishing for other species. Although it is a popular food ﬁsh in Europe, its ugly appearance makes it unappetizing to a fussy majority of Americans. It is mainly sold in salted form for ethnic consumption in North America but is also a source of oil and is processed into ﬁshmeal; the liver is high in vitamins A and D and is sold smoked or canned in Europe.

Identification

The elongate shape of the burbot resembles an eel or a cross between an eel and a catﬁsh. It has been mistaken for a catﬁsh, and in some places it is called an eel, although it is neither. It also looks like a smaller and slimmer version of the saltwater cod.

Other distinctive features include tubular nostrils, a single chin barbel, and a rounded tail. The soft-rayed fins are also noteworthy in appearance: The pectoral ﬁns are large and rounded, the ﬁrst dorsal ﬁn is small and short, and the second dorsal and anal ﬁns start near the middle of the body and continue to the tail. It has a wide head, small eyes, and small, embedded scales that produce a slick skin.

The burbot has a mottled appearance, due to a dark brown or black pattern scattered over a yellow, light brown, or tan background; there may be regional color variations, including light brown, dark brown, dark olive, or even yellow. The anal ﬁns have a dark edge to them.

Size/Age

Full-grown ﬁsh average 15 inches in length and less than a pound in weight. Burbot that are caught by anglers usually weigh several pounds and are occasionally in the 8-pound class, although they can grow much larger. An 18-pound, 11-ounce ﬁsh holds the all-tackle world record, but Alaska has produced larger ﬁsh, at least one of which was reportedly almost 60 pounds. Some are able to live for 20 years.

Spawning behavior

By the time it is 3 years of age, the burbot is sexually mature. It is one of the few species that spawns in mid- or late winter under ice, doing so at night in shallow bays in 1 to 4 feet of water over sand or gravel; occasionally, it will spawn in rivers in 1 to 10 feet of water. A burbot may produce more than a million spherical, amber eggs at one time, although the average amount is half that number. Without a nest or parental protection, the eggs hatch in 4 to 5 weeks.

Food and feeding habitsYoung burbot feed on plankton and insects, graduating to a diet made up almost entirely of ﬁsh, especially perch, cisco, and whiteﬁsh. They will also eat mollusks, ﬁsh eggs, plankton, and crustaceans. Rocks and other indigestible items have been found in their stomachs.

Other Names

eelpout, pout, ling, cusk, lawyer, lingcod, gudgeon, freshwater ling, mud blower, lush (Alaska), maria (Canada); French: lotte, lotte de riviére; Spanish: lota.

Distribution

The burbot is common throughout the circumpolar region above 40° north, especially in Alaska, Canada, the northern United States (including the Missouri and Ohio River drainages), and parts of Europe. It is absent from Scotland, Ireland, the Kamchatka Peninsula, the west coast of Norway, extreme western British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and the Atlantic Islands.

Habitat

Occurring in large, deep, cold rivers and lakes, burbot are found in depths of up to almost 700 feet. They inhabit deep water in summer and move shallower during summer nights.

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:22:00 +0000

click image to get carp fishing secrets

One of the largest members of the minnow family and a close relative of the goldﬁsh, the common carp was also one of the ﬁrst ﬁsh whose populations were regulated to increase production. Propagated for centuries and distributed widely, common carp are both beloved and despised. In North America, they are abundant but among the least favored targets of freshwater anglers.

Three varieties of common carp exist—the scaleless leather carp, the partially scaled mirror carp, and the fully scaled common carp, which is the most abundant of the three.

Identification

The common carp has a deep body form and a heavy appearance. Distinctive features include a short head, a rounded snout, a single long dorsal ﬁn, a forked tail, and relatively large scales. The mouth is toothless and suckerlike, adapted to bottom feeding, and the upper jaw projects slightly past the lower one. It has a single serrated spine at the front of the dorsal and the anal ﬁns and two pairs of ﬂeshy barbels on either side of its mouth.

The pigmentation of the common carp ranges from gold to olive to brown, with a yellowish coloring on the lower sides and belly and a reddish tint to the lower ﬁns. Each scale on the upper sides of the ﬁsh has a concentrated dark spot at its base and a conspicuous dark rim.

Juveniles and breeding males are usually a darker green or gray, with a dark belly instead of a yellowish one, and females are lighter. Males develop tiny tubercles, which are found in a random pattern on the head and the pectoral fins. The common carp superficially resembles the bigmouth buffalo.

Size/Age

Growing quickly and to moderately large sizes, the common carp is said to reach weights in the 80-pound range, although the average ﬁsh is considerably smaller. The all-tackle rod-and-reel record is 75 pounds, 11 ounces. The maximum life span is disputed but may be a half century; the average carp seldom exceeds 15 years of age.

Life history/Behavior

By their second year, males are able to reproduce, whereas females are able to do so once they are 3 years old. Carp spawn in the spring and the summer, depending on latitude, becoming active once temperatures rise to the 60°F range.

During the day or the night, several males will accompany one or two females to shallow, vegetated waters and splash and thrash as the eggs are released and fertilized. A large female can carry millions of adhesive eggs, but the average amount is 100,000 eggs per pound of body weight.

The eggs go unattended, hatching in 3 to 10 days. Each fry is born with an adhesive organ that it immediately uses to adhere to bottom vegetation; after the ﬁrst day, fry must go to the surface and gulp air to survive.

Common carp fry are quick to grow and may reach about 9 inches in length during the ﬁrst year of their lives, if they escape the hungry jaws of their primary predators. Juvenile carp make good baitﬁsh, but their use is forbidden in some areas where trout are the main species.

Food and feeding habits

Omnivorous feeders, carp favor predominantly vegetarian diets but will feed on aquatic insects, snails, crustaceans, annelids, and mollusks. Aquatic plants and ﬁlamentous algae are the most popular food groups of common carp.

Their feeding habits are noteworthy, because they grub sediment from the bottom with their suckerlike mouths, uprooting and destroying vegetation and muddying the water. They have done severe damage to habitats by causing the loss of large quantities of plant life. This has proved detrimental to native ﬁsh populations and other animals.

Carp primarily spend their lives in small groups and are inclined to roam for food. They can gain several pounds a year in rich fertile environments but may remain smaller in those that are less fertile and where there is overcrowding.

Other Names

European carp, French carp, Italian carp, German carp, Israeli carp, leather carp, mirror carp, king carp, koi, sewer bass, buglemouth; French: carpe, carpe commune; German: karpfen; Japanese: koi; Spanish: carpa.

Distribution

The common carp was one of the ﬁrst species to be introduced into other countries. Its native range was restricted to temperate Asia and the rivers of the Black Sea and the Aegean basins in Europe, speciﬁcally the Danube. At some point, the carp found its way to England, and in the nineteenth century it was brought from Germany to the United States.

Habitat

Common carp are incredibly hardy and ﬂexible in their preferences for living conditions. Primarily bottom-dwelling ﬁsh, carp like quiet, shallow waters with a soft bottom and dense aquatic vegetation. Although they favor large turbid waters, they also thrive in small rivers and lakes. They can live in low-oxygen environments and can tolerate temperature ﬂuctuations and extremes, with the ability to survive in 96°F water for 24 hours. They tend to monopolize some of the bodies of water they inhabit.

Most of the time carp prefer to hold in quiet, shallow places with a muddy or sandy bottom, which they browse over. In some northern waters where the ﬁsh are abundant and such terrain is lacking or offers no food, carp will cruise over shallow, rocky ﬂats and shoals, browsing along the rubble bottom. They are often observed during the day in protected areas, sometimes adjacent to deep water, although they are seldom caught in deep water.

Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 05:49:00 +0000

A large member of the minnow family and an aquaculture species of worldwide importance, the grass carp is used for weed control because of its aggressive and herbivorous feeding habits. In the United States, where it was introduced in the early 1960s, it has become an extremely controversial species because of the biological damage it inﬂicts in the process of eliminating vegetation. This species is called the grass carp by critics, whereas supporters often refer to it as the white amur to avoid the negative connotations associated in North America with the name “carp.”

Identification

The grass carp has an elongate and fairly compressed body, a wide and blunt head, a very short snout without the barbels found on common carp, a short dorsal ﬁn, and a moderately forked tail. The terminal and nonprotractile mouth has thin lips and sharp pharyngeal (throat) teeth especially suited to its feeding habits.

The grass carp is covered with large scales; the ones on the upper sides of the body have a dark border and a black spot at the base and give the ﬁsh a cross-hatched appearance. It is colored gray or green on the back, shading to white or yellow on the belly, and has clear to dark ﬁns.

Size/Age

The grass carp grows quickly and to large sizes; some have been reported at 100 pounds in native waters. It can add 3 to 5 pounds a year to its weight under favorable conditions. The largest ﬁsh taken by rod and reel was a 68-pound, 12-ounce Arkansas specimen.

Life history/Behavior

Spawning takes place once a year over gravel bottoms in rivers, between April and September, according to temperature; adults will migrate upstream to ﬁnd acceptable spawning sites. The round eggs of the grass carp are semibuoyant and amber colored, hatching in 24 to 30 hours without the protection of the parents.

After they absorb the nutrients in their yolk sacs in the ﬁrst 2 to 4 days of their lives, the larvae feed on microplankton in quiet waters. The young hide in deep holes in riverbeds during the winter.

Food and feeding habits

Primarily vegetarians, grass carp have earned their name by eating aquatic plants and submerged grasses, adding the occasional insect or invertebrate. With the help of teeth on the pharynx, they tear off vegetation with jerking motions. Unlike common carp (see: Carp, Common), grass carp do not muddy the water with their browsing, but their aggressive feeding habits cause other problems. Grass carp tend to break off the upper portions of grasses, leaving the roots to grow, so they are not as useful in eradicating vegetation as they are supposed to be.

Also, grass carp cannot digest all the plant matter they take in, so instead of eliminating a vegetation problem, they make it worse by excreting plant material and distributing it to new areas. In addition, they contribute to increased water turbidity and to eutrophication. Finally, heavy browsing may stimulate faster than normal growth in certain kinds of plants.

Triploid grass carp A technique that consists of exposing fertilized eggs to heat shock was invented by researchers in 1981 to produce sterile grass carp. This method creates nonreproducing fish of both genders. They are called triploid grass carp because they have three sets of chromosomes, instead of the usual two sets (those ﬁsh are called diploid).

They are as hardy as the ordinary variety of grass carp, but they have the beneﬁt of not being able to overpopulate their habitats. They look like large creek chub, flourish in warm water, and may reach weights of 25 pounds or more. Triploid grass carp are useful in controlling unwanted aquatic plants, but the water clarity may deteriorate due to the substantial passing of plant material as fecal matter.

Other Names

white amur, amur, carp; French: carpe amour, carpe herbivore, amour blanc; German: graskarpfen; Japanese: sogyo.

Distribution

Found originally in China and eastern Siberia, speciﬁcally in the Amur River basin from which it gets its name, the grass carp has been widely introduced to more than 20 countries. Only those in certain areas have been able or allowed to reproduce naturally; these places include the Danube River in central Europe, the Mississippi River in North America, and Russia and southern Africa.

In the United States, the grass carp was ﬁrst stocked in Arkansas waters in 1963 and intentionally released in 35 states, although it has subsequently spread to other bodies of water where it was unwanted. In fact, many states have made it illegal to stock grass carp within their borders, unless a permit issued by the appropriate ﬁsheries management agency has been obtained.

Habitat

Occurring in freshwater, grass carp inhabit lakes, ponds, pools, and backwaters of large rivers, with a preference for slow-ﬂowing or standing bodies of water with vegetation. They are able to withstand temperature variation, extreme salinity, and low oxygen concentrations.

Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 03:39:00 +0000

This is a popular species within its range and prized for its ﬂesh, as well as for its sporting value. The blue catﬁsh is a strong, stubborn ﬁghter. It can grow quite large, which enhances its appeal. It is considered good table fare and is widely pursued by commercial ﬁshermen for the market. Its flesh is white, delicate, and tender, especially in smaller specimens.

Identification

Blue catﬁsh are generally blue gray or slate blue and possess no spots or other markings, although they may be almost pale blue or silvery; their ﬂanks taper in color to their bellies, which are light gray or white. They have deeply forked tails, and their anal ﬁns have straight margins. They resemble channel catﬁsh and when small are most easily confused with that relative.

A larger blue cat has a distinct humped-backed appearance, with the hump occurring at and in front of the dorsal ﬁn; its head is generally larger than that of a channel cat, and its body is less sleek. It can be distinguished from a channel cat by its longer and straight-edged anal ﬁn, which has 30 to 35 rays. In smaller specimens, a distinguishing characteristic is their lack of black body spots. Internally, the blue catfish has three chambers in the swim bladder, whereas the channel cat has two.

Like the channel catﬁsh and the little-known Yaqui catﬁsh of Mexico, the blue cat has a deeply forked tail, a characteristic that distinguishes these three from the ﬂathead catﬁsh and the bullhead, and to some degree also from the white catﬁsh, which has a moderately forked tail. As with other catﬁsh, channel cats have heavy, sharp pectoral and dorsal spines, as well as long mouth barbels.

Size/Age

Blue cats are capable of growing to gargantuan sizes but are rarely found at the upper limits of their capabilities. Most anglers catch blues in the 5- to 20-pound range. Fish in the 20- to 50-pound class are not uncommon in waters with a good population of ﬁsh, but blue catﬁsh in that range are infrequently caught and specimens exceeding that size are rare. The all-tackle world record for the species is a 116-pound, 12-ounce ﬁsh caught in the Mississippi River in Arkansas in 2001.

A 116-pounder caught on a trotline was reportedly taken at Lake Texoma, Texas, in 1985, and in 1879 a 150-pounder from the Mississippi River near St. Louis was found at a local market and shipped to the U.S. National Museum. Historical accounts describe 100-pounders at the turn of the twentieth century, and individuals between 200 and 400 pounds have been reported but undocumented, perhaps being more lore than likelihood.

There is similar haziness concerning the blue cat’s growth and longevity. Several scientiﬁc reports indicate that these fish grow up to 14 years of age, and they have been reported to live to 21 years, but greater longevity for the biggest specimens is evidently possible.

Spawning behavior

Blue catﬁsh spawn in the spring or early summer, when the water temperature is between 70° and 75°F. Nests are constructed by one or both parents, usually among crevices and holes under logs and trees and in undercut banks. Secluded and dark places are often preferred.

Food and feeding habits

Blue catﬁsh evidently eat most anything they can catch; their diet includes assorted ﬁsh, crayﬁsh, aquatic insects, and clams. Herring and gizzard shad are part of their diet, especially when the catﬁsh are larger and in places where these are abundant. Blue cats primarily feed on or near the bottom, and they are principally nocturnal foragers.

Other Names

catﬁsh, chucklehead cat, white catﬁsh, forktail cat, Mississippi cat, Fulton cat, blue Fulton cat, great blue cat, silver cat, blue channel cat, highﬁn blue cat.

Distribution

Blue cats are native to the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio River basins in the central and eastern United States, extending north into South Dakota and south into Mexico and northern Guatemala. Dams and commercial harvest are among the factors that have affected their population and perhaps their size in some parts of their native range. They have been introduced with good success into some large river systems outside of that range, most notably in the Santee Cooper waters of South Carolina. They are now most abundant in the deep, warm waters of the South.

Habitat

Blue catﬁsh inhabit rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds but are primarily a ﬁsh of big rivers and big lakes/reservoirs. They have been introduced into smaller lakes and ponds but seldom attain large sizes in such places. This species prefers the deep areas of large rivers, swift chutes, and pools with swift currents. Like the channel catﬁsh, it prefers locations with good current over bottoms of rock, gravel, or sand.

Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

noreply@blogger.com (Subejo Paijo) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 03:23:00 +0000

The most widely distributed of all freshwater catﬁsh, the channel cat is a significant component of recreational angling efforts, as well as a mainstay of commercial ﬁshing; its tender, white, and nutritious ﬂesh is highly valued as table fare. It has been stocked widely in lakes and ponds, and provides the backbone of catﬁsh farming activities.

In some states, the sporty channel cat is ranked at or near the top among all species in angling popularity. Channel catﬁsh have the potential to attain large sizes, although less gargantuan than other species, but their general willingness to strike baits, their wide distribution, and their high food esteem primarily account for their popularity.

Identification

Channel catﬁsh are often recognized at a glance, owing to their deeply forked tails and small irregular spots on the sides. The spots may not be present in all specimens but generally are obvious in smaller individuals. These pigmented spots are most noticeable on younger ﬁsh and obscure on older ones.

The blue catfish also has a forked tail but no spots, and the same is true for the Yaqui catﬁsh (Ictalurus pricei; a species in the Yaqui River drainage of Mexico). The channel cat is more slender than other catﬁsh, perhaps owing to its native riverine existence, and it has a relatively small head. It is distinguished from the white and the blue catﬁsh by its 24 to 29 anal ﬁn rays.

The body of a channel catﬁsh is pale blue to pale olive with a bit of silvery tint, but the color variation is subject to location and water conditions. Male channel cats during the spawning season may be entirely black dorsally, and other channel cats may be dark blue, with little or no spotting, or uniformly light blue or silvery, like the blue catﬁsh or the white catﬁsh. Another feature distinguishing a channel catﬁsh from a blue catﬁsh is the anal ﬁn; this is shorter and more rounded on a channel catﬁsh than on a blue catﬁsh.

Like other catﬁsh, channel cats have heavy, sharp pectoral and dorsal spines, as well as long mouth barbels.

Size/Age

The maximum age for these ﬁsh varies by latitude; some ﬁsheries sources report a maximum longevity of 15 to 20 years, although it is believed their age can exceed 20 years. Those commonly caught weigh from 1 to 7 pounds; ﬁsh exceeding 15 pounds are infrequent, and a 20-pounder would be considered extremely large. The all-tackle world-record specimen, a ﬁsh caught in 1964, weighed 58 pounds.

Spawning behavior

Channel catﬁsh spawn in the spring or the early summer, when the water temperature is between 70° and 85°F. Nests are constructed by one or both parents, sometimes over the open bottom but more likely among crevices and holes under logs and trees and in undercut banks. Secluded and dark places are often preferred.

The male guards the eggs and aerates them and has been reported to eat some of the eggs during incubation, although it guards the young until they disperse. Ten-inch females may lay only 2,000 eggs, whereas fish over 30 inches long may lay 20,000 eggs.

Food and feeding habits

Channel catﬁsh are primarily but not exclusively bottom feeders. They are omnivorous and consume insects, crayfish, clams, snails, crabs, fish eggs, and assorted small ﬁsh, including sunﬁsh, darters, shiners, and gizzard shad, plus a variety of plants.

Other Names

catﬁsh, river catﬁsh, ﬁddler, blue channel catﬁsh, Great Lakes catﬁsh, willow catﬁsh, spotted catﬁsh, forked-tail catﬁsh, lady catﬁsh.

Distribution

Channel cats exist in freshwater throughout most of the United States and parts of southern Canada and northeastern Mexico. In the United States, they are most abundant in the central region east to the Appalachian Mountains, and sparser on the West and East Coasts, where they are present mostly through introduction.

Habitat

The channel catﬁsh inhabits rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds. Of all the catﬁsh, the channel cat shows the greatest preference for clear, ﬂowing waters, although it does equally well in lakes and ponds. It prefers clean bottoms of sand, rubble, or gravel in large lakes and rivers. Although it tolerates some amount of current, it is more likely to inhabit warm, quiet, slow-moving areas.