Lovely new fish for my life list

[jjohnwm]

No, not my aquarium fish life list...I don't even keep one...but rather my life list of species caught while angling. Yesterday, a friend and I were targeting large channel catfish; after a couple of very successful trips in recent days, we blanked yesterday on cats. But...we were getting lots of delicate hits from smaller fish that stripped the large baits we were using off the hook, one small nibble at a time. Switched gears, went to small hooks and small pieces of shrimp for bait, and caught several Redhorse Suckers. This was a lifer for me, and thus very satisfying.

I was going to post in the Angling forum but...the similarity of these fish to some monster fish staples really struck me. Lots of MFK members get excited about the Asian mahseer species, or perhaps the many large Asian barbs or similar species...most of which are pretty much big silver sardines to my eye. By comparison, the beauty of these redhorse blew me away. My poor pics don't show them to proper advantage, but they are a lovely golden metallic brass colour, highly irridescent, with bright orange-red fins and tail. A very clean, crisp fish to both the hand and the eye.

They are very delicate biters, not much fight in them once hooked, easily brought to hand. I was using barbless circle hooks, which work just as well on small fish as they do on large ones. Every one was hooked right in the corner of the mouth and was very simple to remove from the hook. Each one took off when released, never showing a hint of distress.

Had it been legal, I would have brought a few home for my 360 cool-water tank. They would have made a magnificent display.

 

[esoxlucius]

I've never heard of them, but as soon as I looked it up i could see a startling resemblance to our Barbel.

Barbel top, redhorse sucker below.

 

[jjohnwm]

Ours is nicer...



Not sure why the pic didn't pop up in the first post.

Seriously, as soon as I had the first one in hand, I was thinking about some of the Euro game fish but couldn't remember which was which. The sleek athletic shape, clean cut pointed fins and tail, all reminded me of...one of your fish, I guess it was the barbel.

Esox, the pic you posted shows the fish somewhat hunched over, looking very carp-ish and imparting a sort of awkward shape. The real fish were terrific speedsters; they didn't pull real hard, they certainly didn't jump, but their speed when hooked reminded me more of marine Bonefish than anything else. When swimming, they didn't display that flat-bottomed, arched-back look at all.

 

[esoxlucius]

Esox, the pic you posted shows the fish somewhat hunched over, looking very carp-ish and imparting a sort of awkward shape.

Maybe it's because it's on the bank that it's lost it sleek and slender torpedo like lines? A fish out of water and all that.

In the UK the barbel is predominantly a river fish. They fight like stink, aided even more so by the current of the water. They are a much sought after fish by anglers.

Some say that pound for pound they are on a par with carp regarding their fighting ability. Due to this some commercial stillwater fisheries stock them, including one that I used to fish regularly.

Thanks to this I can now boast that i've also caught barbel, without going anywhere near one of the big well stocked UK barbel rivers. And they do indeed put up a good show.

They are a beautiful fish, and without getting into an argument in a which fish is nicer competition, I can safely say that OUR barbel is nicer, lol.

 

[latapy10]

Ours is nicer...

View attachment 1525359

Not sure why the pic didn't pop up in the first post.

Seriously, as soon as I had the first one in hand, I was thinking about some of the Euro game fish but couldn't remember which was which. The sleek athletic shape, clean cut pointed fins and tail, all reminded me of...one of your fish, I guess it was the barbel.

Esox, the pic you posted shows the fish somewhat hunched over, looking very carp-ish and imparting a sort of awkward shape. The real fish were terrific speedsters; they didn't pull real hard, they certainly didn't jump, but their speed when hooked reminded me more of marine Bonefish than anything else. When swimming, they didn't display that flat-bottomed, arched-back look at all.

I would compare your fish to a European fish named nase.In our rivers nase can reach similar size like barbel.

 

[jjohnwm]

Never heard of nase before; it does indeed look very similar to the redhorse, right down to a markedly subterminal mouth. The redhorse's mouth had a sort of "pad" of rough, tubercle-studded skin surrounding it; looked like some specialized feeding structure? No teeth in the mouth were detectable, but the fish were doing an efficient job of whittling large shrimp down one bite at a time, so maybe the tubercles function as a set of external teeth?

But the colouration suggested that the fish were in breeding mode, so maybe the tubercles only appear at that time of year? Sort of like the similar tubercles on the head of fathead minnows, which become more pronounced during spawning?

A bit more research indicates that there are four distinct redhorse species in my area (and several more in other parts of NA); two of them are quite similar in appearance and match the fish I caught very closely. Fortunately, I took a number of shots and one of them displays the shape of the mouth which distinguishes the two. That together with dorsal ray count seems to conclusively ID my fish as Shorthead Redhorse, the smallest of the four species and the one with the widest range in Manitoba.

Esoc, I'm thinking that the pic you posted may be one of those numerous other redhorses, which might account for the slightly different shape.

It's the first Manitoba fish I've caught (aside from the artificial hybrid Tiger Trout) that is a totally new species to me. Very exciting, if you're into that kind of thing. If you aren't...it was still a pretty fish.