Going Into a Florida Trip With 96

A few nights ago Noah and I went out at night, fishing some small streams, looking for redd raiders. A lot of things like to eat trout eggs, and including a bunch of different fish species. Some of those species, like creek chubsuckers, longnose dace, slimy sculpins, tessellated darters, central mudminnow, and others that either both or one of us had not yet caught. With flashlights and careful, slow wading, we searched the stream bed in the dark hoping to find something we hadn't caught. And we did, in one run that had a couple redds in the tailout we found sculpins.

Life list #96 (species): slimy sculpin, Cottus cognatus. 

This species is listed as "of special concern" in CT, and as such should care should be taken if one is caught, be it on hook and line in a minnow trap. Handle carefully and release quickly. In some states sculpins are a popular fish to use as live bait. Under no circumstances should this be done here! Nor should nighttime spotlighting micros if you don't have an intimate understanding of the fish species, the stream, and how to identify and avoid redds or cyprinid mounds.  After quick photo sessions both Noah and I watched our beautiful, charismatic little sculpins return to their nocturnal routine. We left that stream shortly afterwards to look for a darter for Noah, no such luck. At least not finding one big enough to catch without a tenago hook.

So, I'm going into a Florida trip with 96 species and hybrids. Catching four new species in four days in Florida should be about as easy as catching one new species in a year here in CT. But I don't want to shoot myself in the foot before I even get there. Next time I report, it will be from the land of the exotic invasives, hopefully with some crazy new fly caught species.

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Thanks for joining the adventure, and tight lines.