For me, the habits and habitat of these overlooked bass make them fish of dreams. How can there be a bass on this list? Everyone knows bass, right? It’s true that largemouth and smallmouth bass are the most popular sport fish in the United States. Redeye Bass © Mike Cline / Wikimedia Commons However, several lakes and rivers in California and surrounding states have stable or even thriving Sacramento perch populations. They have been introduced to Colorado, Nebraska and other states, but most of these introductions have fared poorly. Most sources state that it has been extirpated from its native range.īut just as people moved bass into the Sacramento perch’s habitat, they transported the Sacramento perch to other waterways. Unfortunately, the combination of water diversions, water quality issues and introduced species (including non-native sunfishes) has spelled doom for the Sacramento perch. It bears some similarity to the rock bass, a familiar species in the East and Midwest, with white and black barring. The Sacramento perch is actually the only centrarchid found west of the Rockies. But even among the sunfishes, a number of species are poorly known. Many of these species have been introduced widely around the globe. Their family, Centrarchidae, includes such angling crowd pleasers as the bluegill, redear sunfish, black crappie and largemouth and smallmouth bass. The sunfish include some of the most recognized fishes in North America. Sacramento Perch © HL Todd / Wikimedia Commons And all of us need to speak up for the buffalo. Agencies need to manage all species, not just gamefish. Anglers need to learn to identify native fish. On a recent episode of the popular fishing show Das Boat, buffalo biologist Alec Lackmann says “Calling a buffalo a carp is like calling a human a lemur,” an implied reference to the evolutionary distance between the two groups. And they might do so erroneously believing they’re controlling invasive species. Unfortunately, most populations of bigmouth buffalo are essentially unmanaged – people can shoot them with bows in many states without limit. This makes them potentially vulnerable to overharvest, particularly if mature females (the largest fish) are killed. They breed intermittently rather than annually. Recent research has found that bigmouth buffalo can live more than 100 years. And there’s more than mistaken identity at stake. Many believe this fish resembles a carp, a non-native species. Here’s another fish with an (angler) identity crisis. I hope you enjoy these native fish, and please share your own favorites in the comments.īigmouth Buffalo A bigmouth buffalo held by Trevor Starks. 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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