California angler Steve Wozniak would be the world’s greatest player of our little Name that Fish Game. “Woz” has fished in 61 different countries across the globe in pursuit of catching and documenting 1,000 different species of fish. And he’s getting close. A few exotics on a trip to Hawaii in June got him to 990 and he figures that he should achieve his goal sometime in the not-so-distant future.
“A couple of trips should put me in shouting distance,” said Wozniak. “I’m hoping to get to Norway, Egypt and to the Andaman Islands near India in the Indian Ocean in the next several months, so I have a pretty good shot in 2010. If not, 2011 is the year. It’s getting close.”
In addition to being perhaps the world’s most prolific catcher of different species, Woz is also looking at several of his latest catches maybe getting considered as new IGFA World Records.
To see some of the strange and unusual fish he’s been catching lately, read on…
In the South, White Bass are extremely common — and popular sportfish. Here on the West Coast, however, they only exist in a couple lakes…Having never fished these exotics in their native lands, Reilly and I decided to see what all the hype was about, so we put the super secret, under-the-radar FishWithJD skiff in the water and went on a little fact-finding mission. Bottom line: while not huge, these little critters that look like mutant striper x crappie hybrids are a blast to catch…
Okay, so here’s yet another reason I need that time machine jet sled: So I can go back to the late Miocene epoch, (about 20 plus million years ago) and fish for oncorhynchus rastrosus, otherwise known as the “Sabertooth Salmon.”
This big boy was up to 10 feet long and weighed 300 to 400 pounds. As if that weren’t bad ass enough, ol’ rastrosus rocked some huge 4-inch fangs that extended down from the top of his jaw (bust out the wire leaders and titanium Kwikfish!). [click to continue…]
Curtis “Exotic Species” Wilson seems to have a habit of stumbling onto some rare fish in Northern California’s waters. This time, the man they call “Turkey” was prospecting for kings on the Mad River near Arcata, when this wayward pink “hit.” Pinks of course, are extremely rare south of Washington State and it’s the first one anybody can remember on the Mad.
If you recall, Wilson was also the proud angler who caught a sockeye in the Trinity River last year. See the pic HERE
The GLoomis rod company’s slogan is “Fear no Fish,” which is fine when you’re dealing with species like salmon, trout, steelhead and bass. But, there are truly some fish out there you should fear. Some will eat you; others will sting or bite you to death. And one will even swim up inside your very sensitive body parts!
Look what turned up on Lake Shasta the other day…200+ pounds of dinosaur! Dan Frost was fishing in a bass tournament when he stumbled across this big ol’ slab of white meat. The crazy thing is, this fish probably lived in the Sacramento River before Shasta Dam was built!
Too bad it didn’t count in the tourney…now that’s a kicker fish!!
Okay, so several of you guys properly identified this species as the long nose lancet fish when it appeared in our Name that Fish Contest. I kinda thought I’d stump ya a little longer that I did, but impress me, you did, Grasshoppers!
Anyway, I received several emails from folks who have seen these things — including one from Ben Rasmussen who was nice enough to pass along some photos of one he found that was still alive near Dillon Beach (about 1.5 hours north of San Francisco).
Not two casts into the day on the American River, side-drifting for steelhead, one of my clients (name withheld by request) hooked and landed this nice…er…hen near Rossmoor Bar.
Now, we’ve hooked some strange things on the American River over the years, but ladies undergarments may just take the cake.
After the photo session, a discussion regarding the regulations governing sport-caught lingerie ensued. While the DFG regs booklet had no entries on the subject, we opted to do the right thing — release the bra so that maybe another angler might someday also have the pleasure…
Okay, so several of you guys properly identified this species as the long nose lancet fish when it appeared in our Name that Fish Contest. I kinda thought I’d stump ya a little longer that I did, but impress me, you did, Grasshoppers! 
