What is this thing???

I think I found it. http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/species/?uid=80&ds=241

Nice find KaHuNaz.

Sacramento blackfish~ Orthodon microlepidotus

Sacramento pike minnow (squawfish)~ Ptychocheilus grandis

I never realized there was a difference.
This was taken from the Kern County fish checklist  http://www.natureali.org/kernfishchecklist.htm

Nice work!

Keep this in mind; they are a native fish to this region (the Russian River has native pikeminnow as well), sort of why they used to call it the Sacramento squawfish.  Pikeminnow spawn in the spring releasing thousands of small inch long prodigy providing food for other fish fisherman like, like salmonids and striped bass.  Farther north, the Eel and Columbia have non-native populations of these.

The ultimate striper bait!

-Brian G