Species Profile: Striped Killifish

As most of you hopefully already know, I am a life-list angler. I target, document, and count the number of species, hybrids, and subspecies I catch, specifically on fly tackle. Because of that I spend a lot of time learning about and fishing for many different species of fish. This means I'm more adept at identifying and fishing for an extremely broad range of species than the average fly angler. This series will attempt to outline species identification, some life history, and methods for targeting with fly tackle. Maybe I'll get to every fish on my life list, but considering it is ever growing... it would take a while. Mostly, I hope this will get a few of you interested in going out and learning about or catching something new. 

If you've ever walked around a sand flat or through a salt marsh at low tide on the Atlantic coastline, you've probably seen hoards of small fish schooled it surprisingly shallow water, sometimes just in shallow puddles cut off from the sea by the tide. In most cases, these fish are some species of killifish. Here in CT most people simply use the name mummichog, which is a killifish species, but not always the one being called by that name. There are actually more than 1000 species of killifish in numerous different families. From the northern portions of the east central Florida to New Hampshire though, if you are looking at killifish in salt water one of the likely species candidates is the striped killifish.

Fundulus majalis

Striped killifish are the largest killifish in most of the places they are found, growing to 6 or 7 inches. The largest striped killifish I've personally caught was a monster at 7 1/2 inches long. Specimens as large as 8 inches are possible. Striped killifsh are slender with a pointed mouth and upturned snout. Their belly is white in color, their sides silvery grading into an on live back. The distinct black stripes that give the species its name also serves to distinguish between males and females. Males have vertical stripes, females have mostly horizontal stripes and usually some vertical ones, a clear example of sexual dimorphism. Females also get a bit larger than males. 

The fish in the first photo is a male, this one is a female

It should be noticed that most killifish from the same areas have vertical barring patterns, however the distinct dark black bands of the striped killifish set it apart from the other species it could be mistaken with. 

NOT a striped killifish. Do you know what species it actually is?

Striped killifish have a high salinity tolerance and a high temperature tolerance. They can often be found in extremely shallow, hot, salty water. At low tide at night it is actually pretty easy to catch them by hand, walking around with a headlamp on. They spawn in the shallows from early spring through early fall, and individuals can spawn repeatedly in one season. Eggs may hatch in as little as 12 days in very warm water. Striped killies live three to five years on average, and feed on a variety of macroinvertebrates and microorganisms.

Catching striped killifish on the fly isn't a complex affair. Walk the edges of a bay or tidal creek between April and November and look for schools of killifish, then drop a tiny nymph into their midst. A size 18 is small enough in many circumstances, but I routinely go down to 20's or smaller and sometimes use tenago hooks when targeting killifish. Sometimes they can be a little picky towards an artificial fly, carrying a bottle of anise extract might not be a bad idea but isn't necessary most of the time. If killies are spooked though, it is hard to get them to eat anything at all.

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Everything Else in Deboullie (PT. 1)

Though blueback trout were the main reason Noah and I had gone to Deboullie, they weren't the only species in the area we hadn't caught before. Lake trout, burbot, longnose sucker, threespine stickleback, lake chub, northern pearl dace, northern redbelly dace, and fathead minnows all existed in close proximity. Even if we didn't get an Arctic char, we were very unlikely to leave empty handed. 

Right by our camp was the outlet of Pushineer, and it was loaded with micros. I had no doubt that some of them were new species. Of course, as is so often the case, we had to dig through things we've caught plenty of to get something new. In this case it was creek chubs and common shiners. 

Creek chub, Semotilus atromaculatus

The first new species Noah and I got was a dace. They kind of threw us for a loop. I knew there were, as of 2001, only Northern redbelly dace and pearl dace in this lake. These clearly were not pearl dace, but they didn't really look like the classic redbelly dace either. Mainly the ones that appeared to be males lacked the classic red belly altogether. They had the double lateral line and the spotted lines on the back though. Eventually we both caught a female in classic yellow coloration and I was confident to call the rest Northern redbellies too.

Lifelist fish #135, Northern redbelly dace, Phoxinus eos. Rank: species

Sanity had long sine been left behind.

Below is the picture perfect female Northern redbelly dace. Isn't she a beauty?

The next lifer came through luck. I happened to look at the dorsal of one fish I'd have just as soon assumed was a creek chub and noticed it lacked the spot that creek chubs have I immediately put it in the photo tank and got as many shots of it as I could in the waning light. It had a more pointed snout than creek chubs. It didn't fit the profile of a fathead minnow. The best candidate seems to be pearl dace. Some of the taxonomic drawings and photos I've found of the species match it almost perfectly, some look significantly different. But really there is little else there that it could have been.

Lifer #136: pearl dace, Margariscus margarita.  Rank: species

Throughout the first two days, I was occasionally seeing schools of maybe 3-30 fish that looked like some sort of killifish. Being that nothing of the sort had been documented in these ponds, at least to my knowledge, I had to catch one. Unfortunately they turned out to be something I'd already caught many of. banded killifish.

banded killifish, Fundulus diaphanus

Within the first three days we'd each knocked out some new species right by camp and handled plenty of fish we'd already caught hundreds of. Days of microfishing, paddling around windy lakes, and long portages can build an appetite. Catch some yellow perch though, fry them up, and those stomach pains go away. There is nothing more satisfying than obtaining your own food. Thank you perch, for being so easy and so damn delicious. 

Until next time.
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.

 If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, and Christopher, for supporting this blog.

Maine *Not* Striped Bass on the Fly

While fishing our way up the coast on our first day, Noah and I didn't just target striped bass. We came to Maine for new species and we were going to seek new species. In each spot we fished for stripers we devoted some time to seeking other things. Since it didn't really blend well into the previous post but all occurred at the same time, this post with a somewhat stupid title exists. Unfortunately, this didn't yield new species. But it did yield some colorful fish. In our first spot, it was spotlighting micros at night. The targets were rock gunnels and grubbies. Noah and I both caught some very colored up mummichogs, but nothing new. We did see both targets, but not while we had the right gear. Isn't that how it always goes?

Fundulus heteroclitus

On our second day we hit a specific dock spot where we'd found a ton of bergalls last year. They were there again, and I suspect some other species were as well as I had a handful of very distinctly not-bergall-like pickups. This was unique structure compared to what I typically fish bergalls in southern New England. It was this interesting sparse grass-like weed I don't know the name of, reaching from the bottom to five or more feet up the water column. It was a cunner pasture. What the attraction of the spot was I do not know. There was similar structure all over that just didn't have fish on it.

Tautogolabrus adspersus

Maine had already given us a handful of beautiful species, but nothing we hadn't tangled with before. As we headed further and further north, though, things could only get more interesting.
Until next time.
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live,
Fish for you.

 If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, and Christopher, for supporting this blog.

Of Swamps and Tidal Pools

If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, and Christopher, for supporting this blog.

It happens to everybody. Noah and I went out yesterday. We searched for hours in a variety of likely places, hunting for new fish species. Basically the whole day was spent traipsing across Eastern CT and RI, looking for banded sunfish, swamp darters, and rock gunnels. The first two specie remained entirely elusive except for a few maybe glimpses. And Noah saw one rock gunnel. But other than that, the whole outing was a n abject failure. We may have narrowed down our search area for gunnels, and we've both pretty much accepted that we're going to need to go in the exact opposite direction to find good numbers of banded sunfish. But It was really frustrating.

Fundulus diaphanus, banded killifish

Clemmys guttata, spotted turtle

Blackwater swamp. perfect for banded sunfish and swamp darters, we thought. But we found none.

Don't get me wrong. It wasn't a bad day. We were exploring swamps and tide pools, two of my favorite habitats on the planet to fish. So there was plenty of cool wildlife, plant life, and geology to keep me entertained. But I really had high hopes for catching the three main species we were targeting this day and that just didn't happen. 

Tide pool habitats fascinate me especially. They are harsh places to live, and it takes a tough animal to make to work. Rock gunnels are air breathing, they can live in the wet spaces between rocks in the inter-tidal zone. Lumpfish, though much less abundant in the inter-tidal zone on the North American coastline than in Europe, hide within the weeds and often leave their egg masses in places where they are exposed at low tide. These fish fascinate me, and I hope to catch as many tide pool species as I can this year.

Tautogolabrus adspersus, bergall

Local lifers are becoming harder and harder to come by. But Noah and I aren't giving up. Till next time....