Late Bluegill Addition & More

A few taps of my jig and a snap of my wrist connected me with a solid bluegill, which had a bit of a surprise element. Catching a bluegill is seldom a surprise because they inhabit so many types of waterways and are quick to bite. Neither was catching it on a finesse bass bait.

The surprise was that it was April 1, and I was just catching my first bluegill of the year. I’m not consistent enough with keeping annual fish lists to quantify how rare that is, but I can say with confidence that I seldom catch 10 other species before adding bluegill to the list.

It was a pleasant surprise that came courtesy of a Rebel Ultra-Finesse Jig and that bit at the end of a presentation, when I was about to lift the jig out of the water and make another cast. Unfortunately, it was alone — or if it had buddies, they weren’t buying what I was selling.

Other Species Added

A little later the same morning, at a different river, I added two more species to this year’s tally: a shadow bass and a Coosa redeye bass. Both are regional species that are found in some North Georgia rivers.

The shadow bass looks and acts like a rock bass. In fact, when I caught it, I was thinking it was a rock bass. Only later did I remember that shadow bass are native to the Coosa River drainage, where I was fishing, and rock bass don’t actually live there. 

When I went back and looked at shadow bass photos online, I could see dark splotches that match my fish and that aren’t on true rock bass. Maybe they are the namesake. I’m not sure.

The Coosa redeye (also called just Coosa bass or redeye bass) is one of a handful of native upland river black bass species found in North Georgia. It’s one of the species that is part of the Georgia Bass Slam, but mine was tiny — well below then 8-inch minimum for qualifying fish. Hopefully, I’ll catch a bigger one some time this year! For now, those fish were species 12 and 13 on this year’s catch list.

A Few More Species Added to 2026 Catch List

My most recent post focused on others’ reports of fish biting because I hadn’t been out, and I ended it with me saying I hoped my next post would be a positive fishing report of my own. I’m glad to say that is indeed the case.

I can’t report a bunch of fish or a red hot bite. In fact, I only caught three fish in a couple of short afternoon outings. That said, all three were different species, and all were species I’d not yet caught this year. Bartrams bass, redbreast sunfish and shoal bass bring the 2026 species total to nine.

All were caught on Rebel Ultra-Finesse Jigs, which I was taking photos of as my primary objective both afternoons. They are brand new from Rebel. In fact, they were just released on Lurenet today! Because they are so new, I’m pretty confident I caught the first-ever Bartrams and Shoal bass on them. 

To check out the catches, hop on over to Fishing on Foot on YouTube.

As a bonus, the Bartrams bass gets me started on this year’s Georgia Bass Slam. 

Shoal bass are a qualifying species also, but the minimum size for keeping a shoal bass is 15 inches, so that’s also the minimum for a Slam qualifying fish, and mine was only 11 inches. Good chance I can find a bigger one eventually this year.

All three were fun to catch!

Fish Species Tally?

 

I’m have trouble settling in my mind whether threadfin shad should count in my 2026 fish species tally.

I caught two in back-to-back casts while fishing a causeway at Lake Guntersville last month. Both were snagged on the rear hook of my jerkbait but both fully unintentionally.

I’m not sure why I struggle to count them.

I definitely would count a shad or other baitfish hooked in the mouth, and in truth the smaller and more minnow-like it was the more proud I’d probably be of the novelty of the catch. And I typically would count a foul hooked gamefish, since the snagging would never be intentional.

I suppose with most snagged fish I’m inclined to assume they swiped at my bait and missed but I got them sideways when I set the hook. With a jerkbait fished through a big school of shad, it seems more like they just got in the way. That makes them seem less like accomplishments, but I guess not less of “catches.”

As I’ve put my thoughts in written words and looked at it, I seem to have convinced myself that the shad should indeed qualify as a fish species I’ve caught this year. 

2026 Fish Species List to Date

• brown trout
• rainbow trout 
• spotted bass
• smallmouth bass 
• threadfin shad
• largemouth bass

A Few More Fish Species Tallied

 

I mentioned over the weekend that I was Alabama bound to do some fishing and photo work from my job. I also mentioned hope that something worth reporting would come from the trip. From my perspective, it did.

Fishing was challenging overall. No doubt. A hard cold front had the water temperature at Lake Guntersville down 5 degrees from a few days prior, and extensive rain from the same weather system muddied up Weiss Lake and pretty much knocked out the crappie fishing. 

At Guntersville we didn’t catch many bass, but the fish we caught were good ones, and we caught just enough to make for a great photo shoot, which was the main objective. In the process I tallied my first largemouth bass of 2026. Weiss was even tougher. We accomplished what we needed to from a content standpoint, but black and white crappie both remain uncaught by me this year.

Along the way to Alabama I bank fished a bit near Chattanooga and discovered some excellent fishing access that I’m eager to explore more. For details on that, check out my latest post at fishingonfoot.com.

I also caught my first spotted bass and smallmouth bass of the year while bank fishing, so the species tally is now at five. It could be considered six, because I snagged two small threadfin shad while bank fishing with a jerkbait at Guntersville. I’m not convinced I want to count those, though!

First Fish of 2026

 

Something just doesn’t seem right when we get well into January and I realize that I have not yet caught a fish in the new year. Not wanting to risk that and having no other plans on New Year’s morning, I decided to make a river run.

Temps were in the 20s, and the river was extremely low and clear — not ideal catching conditions — but it’s a heavily stocked section with a catch and release requirement this time of year, so I knew there would be plenty of fish available.

Interestingly, despite ice forming on my line guides every few casts, I found a few fish rising on something too small to see in one of the first pools I fished. Trout were swiping at my lures but wouldn’t quite commit, despite me changing my offering a couple of times. 

I decided to move along to see what else I could find. A couple hours later, having found nothing else, I began wondering if I’d moved from that spot too quickly. And with more anglers arriving, I was even questioning whether I would end up getting my first fish of the year.

Thankfully, my concerns were overplayed. I eventually found the right cast and presentation and caught a couple of brown trout with essentially the same cast. Landing - Lindy Quiver Spoon in a current line across the river, letting tumble in the current, and the snapping it upward, near the bottom was the ticket.

A little farther upstream, I found a rainbow that took a Bobby Garland Mayfly. Then, on the way out, I stopped back by the pool where I saw morning activity and was able to coax one of those fish — a pretty rainbow— into grabbing my Mayfly. 

I only fished the morning, and can’t claim I just tore ‘em up. However, it was a fun New Year’s morning, and I was happy to tally my first two species of 2025: brown trout and rainbow trout.

Still No 'Gill

With no late-winter ice trips or spring headstart trips to the coast having occurred through March, my fish species catch list for this year has been slow to develop. With April only a few days away, the tally is seven species.

In my mind, the most noteworthy missing piece a quarter of the way into the year is a bluegill. In fact, I haven't caught a bluegill or any of a bluegill's nearest kin (redear, redbreast, green sunfish, etc.) so far. The closest thing to one, I suppose, would be a white bass, and that really isn't very close.

That'll get fixed. I have zero doubt about that. I might need to be intentional about fixing it very soon, though!

Bass on the Fish List

With two months having already passed, my 2018 fish species list remains sadly sparse. I did add a two bass species a couple of weeks ago, though. Largemouth bass and spotted bass doubled my tally, and the list now includes two species of trout and two species of bass.

The bass came from Lake Eufaula, an impoundment of the Chattahoochee River along the Georgia/Alabama border, and the first of each came from creeks that come in on opposite sides of the river, so I actually caught my first largemouth of the year from Alabama and my first spot from Georgia. The day actually produced a handful of bass and I caught a few more during the days that followed while traveling. However, I only tally the first of any given species on my list.

Certainly March will bring spring fishing opportunities, and I can get this catch list cranking a little better!

2017 Species List Ailing

I've kept an annual species list for the past several years, tracking species of fish caught. This year's list is ailing. It's not the catch that's the problem. Instead, it's the list an my lack of attention to it. This summer, my old laptop decided it had done it's job long enough, so I had to buy a new computer. I did salvage my files, for which I'm thankful, but the 2017 species list file has just sat there on a portable hard drive, untouched since June.

This list was pretty solid for half a year, with 33 species, including a good mix freshwater and saltwater species from various regions. It even included a few oddballs, like the mullet pictured above, which hit a Rebel Crawfish. Less likely catches like that, of course, are good for the tally.

The way I keep the list is that I record the first fish of any given species that I catch during a year, noting the species, location, state and month. I'll look back at my calendar and then pour through some photo files and should be able to update list to some degree. I'm almost certain I'll forget some, though. Nevertheless, I'll post an update of where I think I ended up at the end of the year, which is approaching very quickly!

'Gill Needed

Two species on the catch list two days from the end of January is just plain pitiful and means that I haven't been fishing nearly enough. I enjoyed great trout fishing at the White River a couple of weeks back and caught a bunch of rainbows and browns, and I'm thank for that trip. That's it, though. No ice adventures or trips to the coast, both of which are types of outings that commonly get the fishing year off to a quick start.

Beyond the bigger trips, though, I haven't even done any afternoon pond fishing this month and therefore don't even have a largemouth bass or a bluegill on my list. That's the part that must be fixed soon. I need to grab one or more of the little people who live in this house and head for a local pond so we can at least catch a few bluegills.

Five New Species Catches

Looking back at my 2016 fish species list (which ended at a tally of 38), something noteworthy to me is that I caught five species that I had never caught before. I always like catching new species, and to me five seems like quite a few in a year, considering how much as I have always fished and all the places I've gotten to fish over the years.

I've actually mentioned a few of the species and posted photos of them in my most recent couple of blogs. Two were part of my back bass crawdad slam (Guadalupe bass and Suwannee bass), and another was my first snook, which I caught just last month while fishing in Jacksonville.

The other two were a butterfly peacock bass, which I caught in South Florida, and the lizard fish pictured above, which came from North Carolina. I had caught peacock bass before on two different trips to Brazil, but not butterfly peacocks. I'd never even seen a lizard fish and didn't know such a thing existed. The guys I was with told me the one I caught was a big one. I just know it was delightfully ugly and I really enjoyed catching it and adding it to my all-time species list.

A Somewhat Surprising First

I've shared in a couple of places that I caught the first snook of my life last week. Actually, I caught of a couple of snook while fishing with Chris Holleman, and I believe he caught three during the same afternoon. Both that I caught were brutally strong and a load of fun, matching everything I've always heard.

The fact that I had never caught a snook before seems at least a little odd because I grew up in the Tampa Bay area, which is in the heart of snook country, and I've traveled to Florida to fish many times over the years. I'd hooked a couple of other snook that I know about and maybe a coupe of others, but for whatever reason, I really haven't been in situations where I've seriously fished for them very often over the years. Other folks used to fish for snook and occasionally catch one off Big Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach while I was growing up, but I normally was locked in on the trout that I could catch all night instead of thinking about the one or two big snook that lurked in just a couple of pier lights.

If I've remembered to tally all, the snook brings me to 38 species for 2016, and it's seeming unlikely at this point that I'll add more before the year is over. That's the highest number since I began counting, definitely aided by the fact that I did more saltwater fishing this year than I had done in many years.

Year's First White Bass?

When Eric Porterfield and I caught several white bass between largemouth catches in Oklahoma last month, I didn't even consider that I might be adding to my year's species list. White bass are such common catches in my travels that I normally log my first of the year by the end of spring. While updating the list the other day, though, I started looking up and down the list and found no listing of white bass, and as I think back, I can't specifically remember catching others this year. I could have caught others and forgotten to record them, but for now anyway, white bass is a November listing, my most recent, and species number 37 for 2017. I'm headed to the coast, where any cast is apt to produce a host of different species, later this month, so maybe the final tally will find the forties.

Species 30, I Think

I've been somewhat slack in recording species as I've caught them this year (and even slacker about recording interesting catches), but if my 2016 tally is complete, the fallfish pictured above is species No. 30 for the year. As I understand it fallfish, which are basically giant minnows, are fairly commonly caught by stream fishermen seeking other species in the Northeast. However, I think they much more commonly grab fly-fishing nymphs drifted close to the bottom than crankbaits. This one came from the Penobscot River in Maine while Asher and I were smallmouth fishing with Doug Teel of Northridge Outfitters.

Looking down the list my "firsts" of any give species for the year, which are the only fish I record, they have come from eight states. Arkansas has added the most species, with seven that all came from a single trip during April. Georgia and Florida are close, though, so with one third of the year remaining, one of those two could take the lead. Looking down the list, my favorite inclusions would have to be the Guadalupe bass from Texas and the Suwannee bass from Florida, both of which were all-time first catches for me.

I'm fishing in Georgia and Alabama next week. I wonder whether the list will grow.

Guadalupe Bass

Although I certainly caught larger fish on the recent Texas trip with Nathaniel, I'd have to say that my single favorite catch from the trip was a Guadalupe bass that hit a Rebel Wee-Crawfish. The catch came from the namesake Guadalupe River in a stretch that cuts through Guadalupe River State Park.

The setting was part of the reason. High bluffs bound a clear tumbling stream that almost looks like it should be in the Ozarks, except for the very Texasish looking vegetation. We only fished one short section and for a couple of hours, but I could have easily spent a day walking along the edges or wading these waters.

The big thing that made this one No. 1 in my mind, though, was simply that the Guadalupe is a unique Texas black bass species that is the Texas state fish, and I had never caught or even seen one before. Catching one was a definite trip goal, and one I'm glad to have achieved.

Interestingly, in just a little more than a month I'll be in Florida and will spend a day trying to catch Suwanee bass, which, like the Guadalupe, would be a first-time catch for me.

31 Species in 2015

I may be getting ahead of myself. After all, nearly two weeks remain in 2015, and who knows what kind of fishing I might end up doing. I don't really think I'll likely tally any new species in that time, though, and if I were to, I could always post an update, so here we go:

As of now, my 2015 species list is at 31. That's my largest tally in the few years I've been keeping a list, and a pretty fair number, I think, considering that I didn't do any coastal fishing this year. Next year's fishing plans look like they'll include a decent amount of saltwater, so the list could be longer and look a lot different.

The way I keep my list, which has no purpose beyond my own journaling, is to record the first fish of any given kind I catch in a year and list the species, water body, state and month.

The top contributing state this year was a tie between my home state of Georgia and neighboring Alabama, with six listings apiece. A dozen states accounted produced at least one.

Top month, quite easily, was January, with nine. That doesn't mean I catch the most fish during January. It gets first crack, though, so it easily grabs the first pond bluegill and bass and stuff like that. Plus, I did an Arkansas trout trip and a Pennsylvania ice trip in January this year, and both offered completely different species. Nine months yielded at least one listing (all except March, August and December).

The most geographically distant species this year was a whitefish, which came from a little stream in Olympic National Park in Washington. Closest to home were bluegill and largemouth bass, which came from the same pond, which is about 4 miles form my house.

Banged Out a Drum

 

Most bass fishermen grumble when the fish at the other end of the line turns out to be a drum. Not me. But then again, I'm not necessarily a bass fisherman. I'm just a fisherman, and I like catching fish if all shapes and colors.

 

Freshwater drum, much like their saltwater cousins, are hard fighters that I really believe many anglers would like to catch if it weren't for the often random seeming designation of "trash fish." My guess is that many fish that get looked at in that sort of way originally got that label based on eating qualities, which is ironic if you're releasing bass anyway.

 

Oh well. I think they are fun, and yesterday's drum was species number 29 for this years fish species list.

Chub Tales

Asher and I each caught a chub while we were flyfishing in the Chattahoochee River a couple of days ago, and each was noteworthy in its own way.

Asher's was just kind of funny. He was trying to make a cast and his fly line was coming out of the water as it should have. Although Asher is brand new to flycasting and his mechanics are far from perfect, our guide Jake couldn't figure out what Asher was doing wrong that was preventing his cast from working, so he took the rod from Asher for a moment, only to figure out that there was a 4-inch fish at the end of the line. He gave the rod back to Asher and let him land his prize.

My chub, which came from the same run a little later, had no good story, and it was about the same size. It was noteworthy only in the fact that I hadn't caught a chub yet in 2015, and it was species No. 20 on this year's list.

Month of the Carp?

Landing a carp, which hit a Rebel Bluegill. Photo by Joe Sills.

In a lifetime of fishing all over the country, I've caught four carp on artificial lures. Three of those have been in the past few weeks. As noted in a previous blog, I caught grass carp on back-to-back days from two different lakes in Alabama earlier this month. Both were hooked in the mouth, and one hit a Rebel Bluegill crankbait, while the other attacked a Pop-R.

The Rebel Bluegill did the job again last week at Lake Powell. While fishing way up the San Juan River arm of the lake and catching mostly smallish smallmouths, I about had the rod snatched out of my hand from a strike, and at first I thought I'd hooked a seriously big largemouth or smallmouth. After a few minutes, though, I got the fish close enough to see it in the clear water and realized that yet another carp had grabbed a lure. Eventually I got the powerful fish close enough to get a hand beneath it's belly and land it.

From looking at the large unusual and unevenly distributed scales on the side of the fish and comparing photos to photos online, I'm almost positive it was a mirror carp. It definitely wasn't a grass carp, like the two from Alabama, so I got to add it to my 2015 species list. Now I just need a common carp to complete a "slam" of the most common carp species for this year.

This trip's smallmouths were also the first of this year for me. With April winding down, the count for '15 is at 16.

2 Species Tallied

Today's ice adventure on Presque Isle Bay allowed me to add two new 2015 species, bringing the tally seven. I actually caught four kinds of fish today, but I'd already caught largemouth bass and bluegills this year. New additions to this year's list were pumpkinseed and yellow perch. I came within inches of adding black crappie to the list as well, but the one I nearly caught broke off about the time its nose hit the hole. It wasn't sufficiently in control for me to feel like it could be counted. I also had a break-off from something bigger and stronger that I never got a look at. I'll never know what that one was!

Species 27 & 28

The sun hadn't fully broken the horizon on morning one of my recent Rend Lake trip when my species tally for 2014 grew. My first white crappie of the morning (one in photo is probably about the sixth or seventh) was species No. 27 for this year, according to my records. Not long after, I caught the first of several yellow bass, which was No. 28.

It's odd for me to add a white crappie so late in the year. That normally occurs early in the spring. It just happens that everywhere I've crappie fished this year, black crappie have been the main attraction.

Black crappie actually made the list really early this year. I caught my first one (actually my first several) in January, through the ice in Pennsylvania. I recorded five species from that trip to start this year's list, but I'm not really sure of the first-catch order. My first fish of this year was either a black crappie or a bluegill.

My next trip is to the Tennessee River in North Alabama. If we do any tailwater drifting, I could catch a freshwater drum or a buffalo, either of which would be add to the 2014 list. I think I've already caught most of the sport fish we'd be likely to encounter, but that's a diverse fishery, so you never know. Between that an early ice trip to Minnesota, it seems at least somewhat likely that I'll be able to bump the tally to 30 before the year ends and it becomes time to begin a new list.