Inspiration...

First before I begin, let me tell you I think my computer is fixed. If I can pick it up today or Friday, I will quickly put up pictures of Jeff's first carp and the scup we caught a couple weeks ago.

I haven't done much fishing lately. I've been working kind of late. After work, I've had plans for movies ( like tonight- Friends with Benefits) or been tired and just watched the Red Sox and National Geographic Wild ( channel 232 on my cable service). The times I have gone out I have been targeting fish I normally don't target.

Partially because of my new friends at Catch-M-all and partially because I got lucky this spring catching 2 new species, I thought I'd try to see how many species I could catch this year. This is definitely not a "quest" like Clay and Dave. I do not plan on driving all over the state to catch fish. If I ever attempted to catch all the species in Massachusetts I'd need to spend a lot of time at the Connecticut River and Quabbin. Time I do not have. However their quest did get me thinking.

I caught brown trout and tiger trout this spring. Both of those were firsts for me. I thought a fun goal would be to see if I could catch more types of fish than any other year I have been fishing. As I have pointed out several times on this blog over the last few years I have fished primarily for stripers and carp. This year I really have been expanding my angling adventures and fishing for other species. Last year I had a goal of seeing more species than I previously had ( mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish combined). I broke my previous record by July 1.

This year I am not going to add up how many species of fish I've caught until the winter. I may have already broke my record. I'm not going to check, that way I will keep myself motivated.

Here are some highlights over the last month or so:

When I went to Wachusetts I caught rock bass for the first time ( new species #3) and got my first of the year smallmouth

DJ and I went fishing on the Charles River specifically targeting yellow bullhead and eels. We were successful

I dragged poor DJ to Lake Tiogue in the rain and we caught brown bullhead and we each caught a white catfish.

Dave told me where he caught some big scup last month. While fishing for scup we also landed fluke.

So far so good. I have only ever targeted/caught scup two other years of my life. Fluke were accidental but I'm always glad to catch them. The Charles is loaded with yellow bulls and eels, but sitting on a mosquito infested bank after dark can be tough. Of the above fish the toughest to catch were the white catfish. We had to sit in the rain one night and the other night we went to Tiogue I caught a 17 inch bullhead, but no whites.

Other fish that should not be to hard to catch if I put in the time are hickory shad, tatoug, red breasted sunfish. If I spend time at Wachusetts this fall I could catch a lake trout. Lastly I really, really ,really want to catch a salmon.