Common Fishes of Lake, River and Stream

Some memories are so deep they are like a "bottomless lake." Here in Florida, perhaps those bottomless lakes are just really deep sink holes that are filled with water. They are urban legends of sorts, with periodic tales and news stories of car accidents where they can't locate the car that had the misfortune to take a dive in them.

Such are my own memories of lakes, rivers, and streams as a child on many fishing trips -- I am lucky to have a bottomless lake of remembrances of the fish I've met along the way. From the eyes of innocence and the fear of deep water combined with a fascination of water -- my days of fishing have all been filled with the circle of life found in their waters. However, I'm just a mere observer and visitor, who can come and go at whim.

The lake, river, and stream all have their teaming life in many forms and there they reside for their entire lifespans. They have their stay-at-home citizens who covet no more than one straight little run of reedy water.

Some must stay where they are before they can go down toward the river's mouth lest salt water should kill them. Some live in water in the estuaries, which is neither fresh, nor salt -- but brackish.

The river has its explorers which go forth from their homes never to return. Others, as the salmon and trout, change their method of living and swim from placid streams out into the ocean, and come back in due season to their nursery grounds in fresh water.

Battle and death are normal sequence of events that lead fish to their dinners in our inland waters. The big fish eat lesser fish, lesser fish eat smaller fish, the smallest eat the water fleas and other insects, and their comrades eat the green vegetable life of the stream.

Among the giants of the fresh-water fish are the sturgeons. The greatest of them may be as long as eighteen feet long. However, the majority are from seven to twelve feet in length. They may even weigh up to several hundred pounds.

The Pacific Sturgeon has been known to reach a length of thirteen feet and to weigh a thousand pounds. The Lake Sturgeon is much smaller and so are the Short-nosed Sturgeon and the Shovel-nosed Sturgeon.

Possibly many larger ones fall to the fishermen who yearly line the banks of Russian rivers as the fishes swarm in hundred of thousands, from the sea to lay their eggs in the fresh water.

It is not so much the flesh of the sturgeon the fishermen seek as the roe, which is a solid mass of eggs, three million and more to a single sturgeon. This rose, prepared and salted, is preserved and sold all over the world as a costly luxury -- caviar. Of those caviar species of sturgeon, many today are listed as endangered or critically endangered.

In appearance the sturgeon is as terrifying an object as a swimmer is likely to meet in the water, for its long body is covered with a heavy mail of bony plates, like a suit of armor.

Yet, the sturgeon is a harmless fish, toothless, a mere grubber in the sand and ooze of sea and river bed after worms, little fish, and small life in shells.

There is nothing so impressive in the workmanship and build of a perch, yet the perch is a thriving lusty fellow, abundant in the lakes and clean streams of the eastern parts of North America. Instead of a coat of armor for defense, this fish has invisibility or something real near it.

The yellow perch, with its stripes, is a beautiful example of camouflage in the water. The keen-sighted angler may detect the presence of a salmon without actually seeing it. He discerns the shadow cast on the gravel as the gliding salmon swims above it. However, the perch is more likely to swim over vegetation which such a shadow cannot be seen easily, and the stripes break up his outline and render him still less visible.

Then, there is the walleyed pike or pike perch which is found in the Great Lakes and in many other lakes and streams in the eastern half of the continent. It may grow to be as much as three feet long and weigh as much as twenty-five pounds, but most specimens are much smaller.

A near relative, the sand pike (aka sauger) is found much farther west.

Thanks to their great spiny fins, the perch are audacious fish. The sunfishes, of which there are many species are common in many American rivers. They can be regarded as modified perch, with the same spiny fins.

If the sunfishes were a little larger, they would be an important food fish, but only a few of the species grow to be more than six or eight inches long. The common sunfish fights as hard as a much larger fish when caught.

The fresh water basses also belong to the perch family. The rock bass is common in most of our lakes and rivers except in the extreme West. It grows to be as much as twelve inches long, and loves to dwell in deep water near rocks. It is a voracious feeder and eats many minnows.

The Black bass, both small-mouthed and large-mouthed are found in many of our rivers and lakes. They have been introduced into European waters, where they do well. Both are excelled food, and fishermen like them because of their gameness. Some fishermen say that they are harder to land than either salmon or trout.

The White bass, belongs to an entirely different family. It is common in the region of the Great Lakes.

The Striped bass spends most of its time in salt water and enters the rivers only to spawn. It is common on the Atlantic coast and has been introduced into the Pacific. Striped bass weigh over over a hundred pounds have been taken years ago, but such large specimens are rare today.

Mention fish to someone with my Cajun family background, and you are only talking about catfish and you most likely caught them "noodling."

The Catfish family family is a very large one and is found in the warmer waters of the world. South America and Africa have most of the species, some of which live in salt water. North America has more than thirty fresh-water species, but none is native to the Pacific waters.

The Blue cat is common in the Mississippi and elsewhere and attains a great size. It is a good food fish. There are Catfish in the Great Lakes and in certain Canadian lakes that some scientists think is the same fish, but it does not grow to be so large. Several other species are caught for food.

Belonging to the same family are the Bullheads. The common Bullhead catfish (aka Horned Pout) is found in most of our inland waters. It loves the muddy bottoms of streams and lakes. It has been introduced into some of the streams of the Pacific coast and thrives there.

It is greedy and usually swallows the hook, no matter what bait. Every fisherman who has ever caught a bullhead has been pricked by the spines behind its head. We are told that the old bullheads look after the young as an old hen would care for her chickens.

In Europe, the name is applied to another fish, which is also known as the Miller's Thumb.

Around from pre-historic times, the Stickleback is another interesting fish. A spiny fish is the stickleback, found in all the colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. There are about twenty species, none over seven inches long. On their backs and their gleaming bellies are spines as sharp as needles which cause most other fishes to avoid them.

Even these weapons are not an invariable safeguard against the pike. It is on record that a Stickleback in an aquarium dined by nibbling at a Pike's tail. However, hunger-drive pike will banquet on sticklebacks. Still the spiny defense is usually strong enough and sticklebacks thrive in the millions in many places.

The male makes a beautiful nest in the water and leads a female to it. Sometimes several females lay their eggs in one nest. Then, the male takes charge and watches over the eggs with furious affection until they are hatched, chagrin at any trespasser.