Russian Gulch adventures

Well, that was fun (for me at least).  Thanks Juan.

For those keeping track of the mystery fish.. points awarded to Bluefin17 for first mentioning sablefish and to InSeine for contacting an outside expert to get an id.   Anyway, so glad that was over, I hate being stumped like that.

Brian

Thanks Jim and Brian,  not too often a fish ID stumps 3 local fish biologists, I wonder when the next time we'll see those fish around like that, probably a one time thing.  No wonder the ling was all over that live bait!

Great Ling Juan! - thanks for the report and the mystery for the guys to solve.

John

Way to go Mako, that's a beautiful lingasaur! Gotta love that, "crap, I got snagged... did that snag just do a head shake???" 

I had no idea what a sablefish looked like so looked it up. Just thought I'd share.

Z

When I posted the mystery fish I did it with you guys in mind, especially Brian. Love you bro'. So it's a sablefish? A juvenile, right? Also, a buddy who saw it remembers it having a long dorsal fin, eel-like almost. When I caught it my first thought was an east coast fish, a cobia.
I hope to do this again, with better pics, just for Brian.

Oh, now you mention a "a long dorsal fin, eel-like almost".  You're kidding right?  Because that changes everything.

For future reference, there are a few key characteristics that we go by when identifying fish.   Here they are listed from probably the most important to least important.  In this particular case, missing #2 was a real pain.

1. Body (overall shape)
2. Fins (location, size, shape, type, spines or soft, etc..)
3. Mouth (size and shape)
4. Lateral lines (shape and count)
5. Scales (type and size)
6. General color and patterning

Generally, most of the identification is done by memory using my gut feel (gestalt) for what I think the fish is.  Sometimes I have no idea and I have to probe deeper.  If the photos are really good, I'd count spines in the fins and the scales along the lateral line.  If I could have the fish dead and in front of me, I'd start counting the gill rakers.  I have books with tables of these meristic counts and can often narrow down a fish id to something I might never have seen before.

Mystery fish are a favorite game of mine.  Thanks for indulging me Juan.  Oh, and did I mention that was a nice lingcod.

Brian

I was thinking YT also...doesn't look like a jack mackerel to me.

Mako, that Ling's head is the biggest I've seen. Great job!! I can just imagine your thoughts when you first saw color......

Rich