Among them are some of the most endangered fish on the continent. There are 78 suckers native to North America. Suckers are unfairly maligned, the subject of myth and misinformation. And how can you not love a fish called a hardhead? It’s one of my favorite catches, a distinct fish well worth seeking. I caught a hardhead in the last hour of the last day of a recent trip to northern California. There are even “derbies” that encourage people to kill hardheads and other native fishes. In fact, hardheads are unfairly blamed for declines in salmon. You would think all this would make hardhead fishing a bucket list trip for the intrepid angler. It is found in deep river pools, where it will aggressively nab lures and baits. This is one of several interesting fishes endemic to California. It can reach 2 feet in length, and while it will eat zooplankton and even algae, it also hunts down crayfish and small fish. But the hardhead is not what springs to mind when you imagine a minnow. Hardheads are members of Cyprinidae, the fish family commonly known as minnows. Despite all this, the chiselmouth is little known and rarely studied.
And, despite their seemingly specialized feeding habits, they can be caught on small baits and flies. They then ingest what they have scraped off.Ĭhiselmouths are found in streams and rivers in Pacific drainages of the Northwest United States and British Columbia. The book Fishes of Idaho notes that the fish scrape their lower jaw over rocks and other hard surfaces in “short, quick movements” of about 1-inch. The chiselmouth’s lower jaw has a distinctive line of cartilage that it used to scrape algae and zooplankton off rocks. Chiselmouth, however, is a wonderfully descriptive common name this fish really does have a chisel mouth.
Some freshwater fish have downright strange and unfortunate names. I hope you enjoy these native fish, and please share your own favorites in the comments. Even when it comes to trout and bass, most don’t the diversity that exists – an imperiled diversity, at that. I also purposefully chose some lesser-known species and subspecies of familiar game fish. But I chose these species to show that we don’t even know many of the larger fish swimming around local waters. There are so many spectacular freshwater species globally, and a host of colorful and cool smaller species in the U.S. In this blog, I’ve focused on larger U.S. We assume that the oceans are where the fish diversity is.Ĭonsider this: Freshwater encompasses only 0.01 percent of the world’s water, yet accounts for nearly half of all fish species. Most of us know that coral reefs are teeming with colorful species. Even many well-rounded naturalists are hard pressed to identify most fish found in local streams and rivers. The truth is, most people can only name a short list of freshwater fish species, if they think about freshwater fish at all. And this seems to happen wherever I travel and fish I encounter a predictable assortment of popular game species that have been stocked far and wide, with little regard to native fish diversity. Instead, I encountered a “game” fish far from its native range. But I was visiting a northern California river with several fascinating native species. I felt a little deflated.ĭon’t get me wrong. I felt my usual surge of excitement as the fish leaped into the air. I reeled in my lure along the river’s bank when a fish struck.
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