The name of the game for 2009 will be to add more species to the list of fish I've caught. In the past 6 months I've caught 18 distinct species (see my profile) plus several hybrid sunfish that I'm not very good at identifying yet. Counting previous years, I've also caught channel catfish, as well as several fish in the Florida Keys back when I was in high school. The only one I remember for sure was mahi mahi, but I can't remember if I was the one to actually reel any of them in, so I won't count it.
http://www.wiscfish.org/fishid/wFrmWisconsinFishList.aspx
There's a huge list of fish native to Wisconsin that I've never caught. This should make my task of adding to my species count easy enough. My challenge will be to get out of my comfort zone of going to the usual spots in Madison, and also learn to fish with methods that I'm not currently familiar with.
1. Catch 2 or 3 species of catfish.
- should be in any of the local lakes, but probably go to the Wisconsin river
2. Catch at least 1 species of carp.
- seen them feeding regularly in Lake Monona, need to find a good bait
3. Catch a few minnow, sucker, and darter species.
- get some lighter tackle and find smaller streams outside of Madison
4. Catch a gar.
- Jeff says he's seen them at the warm water discharge from the power plant on Lake Monona, verify this and try to catch one!
5. Catch a musky.
- any of the lakes or channels in Madison should be ok, fish the same way as for northerns
6. Catch and identify a new kind of sunfish.
- first of all make sure I can identify a longear sunfish, warmouth, and various hybrids etc.
7. Catch a lake trout (ice fishing).
- my buddy has an ice shack on a lake about an hour north of Madison, we caught a big one last winter but I didn't have a fishing license and I didn't really help at all
8. Catch another kind of trout in a stream.
- a few people I know have experience fishing for trout in streams, ask them for suggestions
3 weeks ago
8 comments:
nice goals!
1. bullhead and channel cat should be easy enough.
2. They used to be thick in that little Wingra Creek, and they certainly are in the lakes.
3. Sounds fun, maybe a minnow trap or a seine would be worth trying.
4. Come to think of it, that's the only place I ever saw a gar in Wisconsin.
5. Maybe you can get some throwing baits from shore on Lake Wingra near opening day. Wingra used to be considered the best muskie lake in town, at least for action, if not for size.
6. Sounds fun. I wonder if Wisconsin has a book similar to The Fishes of Illinois, which includes distribution maps and information for correct identification.
7. Wow! I didn't know lakers were just an hour north of Madison.
8. Try Black Earth Creek, it's an excellent little creek for rainbows and browns just about 15 miles away.
Bravo Ben for your goals!my goal for 2009 is to catch the biggest snakehead in Labuan Island..record now 14kg using chiken liver
Jeff,
Getting a "fish of wisconsin" book is a great idea. I think I'll start dropping hints to my family for a possible Christmas present.
I looked up a distribution map for lake trout, and they shouldn't be living where I thought we caught one. Is there another kind of trout that gets real big and can be caught on minnows ice fishing? The one we caught was maybe 8-10 lbs and was a grayish color.
Mizlan,
That is quite an ambitious goal! Will you be fishing in the same area where the previous record was caught? What is the largest snakehead you've caught so far?
By any chance, were you fishing Big Green Lake?
wiki page
It has big inland Lake Trout. I thought maybe it was a cisco, which can be found in very deep lakes like Lake Mendota, but it must have been too big to be a cisco.
Yeah, Jeff, I think it was Green Lake.
Cool! Apparently you had the rare opportunity to catch a big inland lake trout. My goal next year is to catch half as many species as you. If you keep fishing in Japan, that will be hard to do.
Actually posted a few pics of some of the fish I caught over the summer, if you want to check them out :-)
i will try the new area..my largest snakehead caught by me..4.6kg toman/giant snakehead/channa micropeltes)
Ben...i think you should add no.9 to your list..catch one at least snakehead fish..just joking
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