Finally identified, Takifugu niphobles (grass puffer)

I got bored at work today and decided to figure out what species of puffer I caught last August in Japan, or die trying. It actually wasn't that difficult, even though I had spent considerable time trying to identify it when I first got back to the states.

Image from fishbase.



Picture of me holding two of the puffers from Shiraishi Island, Japan.

Goals for 2009

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

Maybe I should start fishing in my aquarium

The pumpkinseed and the sucker (under the rock).



The two smallies, aka the eating and pooping machines.

A new season for fishing

It's cold now!

Chuck and I went out to the Yahara yesterday. Unfortunately, the sun was going down almost as soon as we got out there, so we weren't able to fish that much. It finally started to get cold this week, and it has had a big affect on the river. The water level has continued to drop, and the weeds are all dying off - leaving the water much clearer than we've been used to. The first thing we noticed is the sunfish are gone; they must have moved down into the lake. There were plenty of minnows though, and we could hear the white bass feeding on them against the sides beneath the bridge, so that's what we went after. Chuck caught 2 of them on his first few casts, one of them pretty big. I didn't have as much luck on my side. He was using a small plain silver spoon, something I don't have in my tackle box. Next time I go shopping I'll have to pick up a few so that I have more choices for white bass besides small spinners.



Jeff inspired me to try out buzzbaits and spinnerbaits, so I gave both of them a try. I used the orange and yellow one with silver blade (below), and the spinnerbait on the far left. The spinnerbait was too heavy for the river, but the buzzbait worked well right up on the surface or a few inches below. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything moving in the river. With the clear water I could see the bottom almost half way across the river, but no fish.

Well... this is the first time in 2008 that I got skunked! Chuck gave me the smaller white bass (12") though, so I still got to eat fish for dinner. Delicious! Edit: I just realized... yesterday I didn't eat any storebought meat. I had a duck for lunch that my friend Terry gave me, and I had white bass for dinner. I'm a man of the land!

Pics from 9/27

Chuck, catcher of 8 inch bluegill... as well as every other fish in the entire river.



Ben, who tried to display his 7 3/4 inch pumpkinseed but it kept flopping around. Dangit!



Cleaning up the catch, I think the white bass fillets are already in the bowl.