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.