species-hunting a couple of days ago

[the pyromaniac]

This past Wednesday I headed out to the Powell River with Bearded Alex, with the stated goal of adding to the list of species he's caught since taking up fishing in April of this year. Up to that point, he'd caught bluegill, redbreast sunfish, redear sunfish (shellcracker), green sunfish, common shiner, steelcolor shiner, river chub, largemouth bass, and smallmouth bass.

We got to the river and the fish were biting but the current was making it difficult to set the hook. Within about 15 minutes I hear the voice of Bearded Alex yelling "Hey Scott, I have species #10 here, what the heck is it? I've learned a lot watching you fish these 8 months but we haven't covered this little dude." It was a shorthead redhorse, which I have been trying to figure out how to catch for nearly 30 years. We threw it back and then he proceeded to catch a striped shiner for species #11 on his list.

At that point, the Bearded One put down his gear and watched me take my shot at a shortie. After about 10 minutes, I got one, for species #57 on my lifelist! I'm pissed at myself, as we both forgot to snap a pic of either of the redhorses or the shiner.

Here's a link to each of those species:

http://cnre.vt.edu/efish/families/shorthead.html

http://cnre.vt.edu/efish/families/stripedshiner.html