operculum_ben

Unido: 18.sep.2020 Última actividad: 28.mar.2024 iNaturalist Patrocinador mensual desde noviembre 2022

About
I've always been interested in multispecies fishing but I started lifelist fishing in 2021. I upload most of my catches to iNaturalist, generally posting 1 representative species from each spot I fish. I like to use iNaturalist to scope out potential microfishing spots, and therefore I keep all my coordinates public so others can do the same. I also like to identify fish in North America, with an emphasis on Salmonines and fish in regions I've lived. Feel free to contact me with ID questions or comments; I will try to correct any ID mistakes I've made. I have occasionally changed my username and display name and I apologize if this causes confusion. I prefer to minimize my online presence, especially because iNaturalist relies on location-based data.


How do I find fishing spots for new species?
Many traditional fishery surveys (1, 2) report non-game or microfish, but they are not the best source of information for these fishes. Aside from using iNaturalist, there are many resources for finding new fish species to catch.

Literature - many states have some sort of "fish bible" that contains well-documented information for all established fish species in a state. Books like these are fairly useful for tracking down waterbodies or watersheds with a specific fish. If you can track down the original sources of the surveys used for these publications, that can help as well. Most physical copies of these books are quite expensive and are sometimes challenging to find.

FishNet2 - this site contains archived museum specimens that were collected during ichthyological studies. It is very useful for finding areas with certain fish, albeit some areas lack data. The search engine also allows you to draw a polygon and extract files (.kml) for viewing in Google Earth Pro, which is also quite useful. One way I like to use this site is to draw polygons around roads I'm traveling down and then seeing if there's anything I'd like to catch on that path.

FishMap - I don't use this site as much as others, but it contains some records / observations of fish and a watershed level search engine. It compiles observations from a variety of sources, including iNaturalist and FishNet2.

USGS NAS - by querying a state of interest, some weird nonnative fish hotspots can be found using this site. I sometimes examine records of fish in a state to see if there's a species that was recorded in the state but not in iNaturalist or field guides. Note that some of the records are old or questionable; I always look for the "established" populations, as those have a higher chance of being "fish-able".


Custom queries I use
Great Lakes States fishes ID | Great Lakes Basin fishes map | Great Basin fishes map | Custom Salmoninae ID | Species Finder - credit to @hydrophilus


Random projects I like
Sugar Robbers | East Palestine Ohio Fish Kill | Camera Traps | Animal Architecture | Squirrels Eating Stuff

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