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Strange fish identification, please.?
I caught a strange fish while fishing at the spillway in Carlyle, IL, for the bighead carp that gulp big gizzard shad caught in the turbulance on a 1/2oz rattlin rapala. It was about 10 inches long, silvery like a shad, and it had a long rectangular body almost like a ladyfish or tiny tarpon's, and not the rounded keel typical of shad. It had a blunt nose and forked tail like the gizzard shad's. It also had what appeared to be either a serrated tongue or a second row of teeth on it's lower jaw. I'm guessing it's some other kind of shad, but not sure. It attacked my crankbait when it's mouth was no where near large enough to swallow it.
Any idea what it was?
I'm afraid I couldn't get a picture. I managed to get a couple friends who don't fish often to go with me, and one of them was snagged at the time, so I hurried up to get them back to fishing. It was also getting dark so the photo my smart phone would have taken probably would have just been a blurry reflection off it's scales.
Pike minnow and smelt are good guesses, but the head doesn't look right to me. Doing my own research the closest I could find are Skipjack shad. This illustration pretty much nails it:
Further research found that the image is of a fish called a "goldeye" (Hiodon alosoides), not a skipjack. If that isn't what I caught, it's close enough lol.
2 Answers
- Dan BLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
Goldeye (or goldeneye) and Mooneye are two very similar fish commonly found in the river waters of Iowa and Illinois. They are not commonly caught by sport fishermen because, with their small mouth, they have a preference for flies and small aquatic prey. I have only caught three mooneye in my life and never a goldeneye. That was a rare catch, to be sure. The three I caught were actually caught on small worm-tipped jigs beneath floats while we were fishing for crappie and walleye in the Little Sioux River in Northwestern Iowa. Pretty fish, but almost impossible to do a skin mount with because the scales come loose VERY easily and they are difficult to skin out intact. As a result, it is extremely RARE to find one mounted in a collection anywhere. If you try for more of them, (they're great smoked like whitefish) try using a very small silver spoon or Swedish Pimple. A chrome headed 1/32 ounce jig tipped with a small portion of a worm works well too. Good luck!
Source(s): Been there ~ Done that! - AndrewLv 68 years ago
Pike minnow? If you got a pic I can tell you. Though as for now thats hard to go off.
Source(s): Smelt?