Strange Fish - Smallmouth Buffalo

Perhaps because it is the "in between" times where not much is happening, but some of my hobbies might be getting a bit out of hand.  Several years back I picked up Geocaching.  It's harmless enough.  You follow gps coordinates and clues, you find something, you sign your name on a log.  Easy.   

But I decided it was more fun to make custom geocaches.  And series of hides.  Hence the Strange Fish series.  

The latest entry features this guy.  The Smallmouth Buffalo.  

This is actually an impressive fish.  It can get big, the Wisconsin state record is 81 pounds.  They can live a long time, perhaps a hundred years.  And while you've probably never caught one, or if you did thought it was just a carp, they are an important fish commercially and a prized target of bow fishermen.  This combination of growing big and being targeted by both commercial fishing nets and arrows has put their populations into a decline of late.....

So I needed a really good container for this geocache.  I started out with a slab of weathered, broken up railroad tie.  These are full of creosote and therefore pretty water resistant.  Here's the cache....

I think that's sneaky enough to avoid the casual eye..... But to those looking closely.....

These letters are engraved with a Dremel and highlighted with Sharpie.  A bit too evident at the moment but they will "age in" nicely in a month or two.  Oh, and if you open it up...

Hinges are straps of nylon from an old deer hunting harness.  Feet belong to me and to Hank the Dog.  Looking closer....

I've carved out a fish shaped hollow in the lower section to contain the waterproof inner container.  The latter has a laminated, hopefully waterproof picture of a Smallmouth Buffalo.  To help keep it waterproof there are various drain holes drilled into the bottom of the cavity.  The whole thing locks together with a peg that you can't see in this view.  Next time around I think I'll add some sort of locking pins making it a "gadget cache" to be figured out.

Here's the cache designation and coordinates.  Strange Fish #14.

Baby Bullhead Ballet

Immature bullheads are pretty darn cute.  Cuter than the adult version for sure.

I have not done much fishing this summer.  Lots of family stuff.  Lots of robot stuff.  But in my relentless quest to catch new species I have been out a few times.  Always in the odd places, backwaters, ditches, etc.

In one such place I came across a school of baby bullheads doing a very elaborate Bullhead Ballet.

Old Ghosts and a New Species

Sometimes I get tips, suggestions on where I might catch a new fish species.  Of course the easiest way to do this is to launch a boat and range far and wide, but I'm trying to place a geocache near each new species catch site, so we are mostly talking bank fishing here.

I had a hot tip on a species called "Mooneye".  I've been after this one for years.

On the way down to the site I passed a really old cemetery.  Said to be haunted.

Old stones.  Felled by time, but still trying to preserve memories.

And then on with the fishing.  On about the second cast up came this guy!

Yes he does have weird eyes, but this is a Sauger.  And is a new species for me.  So of course I had to work it up for a Strange Fish geocache.  This cache container is not fish shaped - this would be a tough one to do - but does contain a handy guide to help folks tell the difference between Sauger and their close cousin the Walleye.

Strange Fish #13 - Sauger

Jacob Marley's Dog

 

How to explain that picture?

Well I had a spot I wanted to fish.  It was known for a species I've been trying to add to my list for years.  But I had the dog with and would have to tie him up.  There was a busy road nearby.  In fact there was a bridge with a highway worker on it.  We had a nice chat.  

I tied Hank to a tree, affording him shade and a nice view of the river.  I was maybe 20 feet from the end of the rope.   Attending to my angling I was bothered by his plaintive yipping, but after a few minutes it stopped.  Good.

Then the kid working on the bridge said: "Sir, your dog is up here."

Sigh.  Well, the rope was old and I figured he just snapped it.  Re-tied.  He somehow did it again.  I really wanted to fish this spot and it was too sunny to put him in the car for long.  Double tied rope.  He broke free again.  I had some fresh paracord with me.  It also failed.

I left the dangling shreds attached.  I think he looks a bit like Jacob Marley's ghost, who wandered Eternity - or at least Dicken's Christmas Carol - with chains hanging off him.

In Marley's case it was a mark of his sins.  Greed and Selfishness.

Dogs don't exactly have sins.  But virtues taken too far can become negatives.  Marley started out with commendable thrift and prudence, but took things too far, out over the dark edge.

Hank has the virtues of dogs.  He is unshakably loyal and friendly.  He wants to run free and sniff things.  I understand.  But it can be a pain in the rear.

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Addendum.  On the return swing of this trip up north I had a new dog containment system.  This time a plastic coated cable thing.  While attempting to fish a different spot I gave him a bit of side eye and caught him trying to chew it.  So I don't think his previous escapism was pure Hank Power.

A One star review, and a Shot across the Bow.

Ah, Facebook.  There was a time when it was the unquestioned global information exchange.  Also of cat videos which I'm fine with.  I had little use for it until my archaeology friends encouraged me to hop on as a way to stay in touch.  I've stuck with it.  So far.....

I know many people are unhappy with the platform for reasons political.  Me, I'm tolerant of such things.  You provide a service that I find useful, respond to what your customers want, and are not total jerks.....I'll stick around.

But in the last six months Facebook has, as I see it, taken a huge nose dive in quality.

Not across the board.  I still stay in touch with those far flung friends and enjoy seeing their posts of travels, adventures.  And in some cases, cute cats.  But there's all this other "stuff" now.

I'm fine with Sponsored Posts.  FB needs to make money.  I glance at them and move on.  But there are other more intrusive ways FB shoves stuff in front of me.

For a while it was big batches of people (?) they suggested I follow.  Most of them were of no interest to me.  Every professional and semi-professional sport in the US and the UK was suggested.  As well as lots of other junk.  I only really got annoyed when the suggestions got Suggestive.  Scantily clad young ladies who, if followed into a dark alleyway, would at best rob you at knifepoint.

You can get rid of these suggestions by using the established FB system, just hitting the "no thanks" button near the top of such solicitations.  If they come back a second time you can report them for a variety of things.  Selling illegal animals was my favorite.

The Suggestive suggestions are now gone, but something worse lingers on.  Facebook Reels.

No doubt in response to Tiktok, FB launched this a year or two back.  And the subject matter is A) not relevant to me and B) often disgusting.  A majority seem to come from Asia, and I suspect more than a few are AI generated.  You can click on Show me Less of This at the upper right corner of a batch....and the same ones turn up instantly.  You can also click on individual Reels and report them as disgusting, violent, etc.  This seems harsh, but the content is in many cases precisely that.  You get people draining abscesses, both human and veterinary.  You get people collecting huge hauls of small unhappy looking fish from muddy ponds in the Philippines.  You get tattoos and tattoo removal.  You get stuff that - from the teaser photo - falls into the "Don't know, don't wanna know" category.

Reelly now.  We have the equivalent of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Library of Congress and pretty much every classic of stage, screen and page available in a hand held device....and we get this:

Facebook ignores any guidance along the lines of "For the love of Zuckerman, don't show me this".  And there is no official way to nuke the Reels feature entirely.

But there are unofficial ways.  I'm looking at a browser extension that will let me get rid of Reels and other dreck on Facebook.  FB is understandably not happy about this sort of software and the odds are fair that it would in response become poutingly become less functional overall.

So here's the deal.  I'm standing pat until after the spring archaeology jaunt.  After that I'm going to tame Facebook, and if the Algorithms strike back I will ditch it entirely.

For those reading my regular writings (Detritus of Empire) that I cross post here, well, I'm looking at Substack as an alternative.  I'd keep it free of course.  

OK Facebook, that there's your shot across the bow.  I'd like to think its close enough to splash a little water up on the bridge and leave a few muddy, unhappy fish flopping at the feet of Admiral Zuckerberg.

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Ever wonder how much the internet is keeping an eye on you?  We all have our anecdotes.  Here's another.  A few days after composing the above, and while it was still in Draft, Facebook Reels went away.  Coincidence?  Or Admiral Zuckerberg staring at the dead fish all around his bridge and telling his first mate (probably the flatulent little girl shown above) to stand down.....

Strange Fish #12 - Yellow Perch

This is sort of an accidental cache.  When I knew I had to do something about the geocache that had been incinerated in a campfire, I decided to bring my fishing gear along on the retrieval mission.  Three casts, three nice yellow perch.

Now, you might question the "strange" status of this fairly common fish.  Well now.  The reason they were biting like crazy is that it was their spawning season.  And speaking of crazy, these guys are promiscuous to a degree that I decided to give them Strange status.  Geeze, fish orgies, who knew....

Anyway, here's the new custom container.  It's not a perfect match but I do have practical limitations.  I don't for instance want people to hurt themselves on nasty dorsal spines.

It will go near the location of the previous cache, but I think I'll hide this one carefully.  Its kind of showy.

Baits and Bling - Merry Christmas 2024

Hope you had a swell Christmas and got what you wanted.  I did.  Some time with our adult kids, some hugs, high fives and "knucks" from the grands.  Material things, nah, I have enough of those.

Not that there is anything wrong with the giving or receiving of gifts.  It's another way to show you care.  Of course shopping is hard for some of us, so as a public service I offer this:

Baits and Bling, in beautiful downtown Chetek, Wisconsin.  As the sign says, "Everyone's happy!".  They are closed until Spring, but I can imagine fishermen coming in, buying minnows and night crawlers....realizing they are not being particularly attentive spouses, and buying "bling".  I think they are leaning heavily into ear rings fashioned out of lures.  Stuff like this:

The sign out front looks pretty swanky, upscale and new.  The one on the side has more of a "Bait Shop" vibe to it.  I bet it smells like minnows and night crawlers.  So do their customers, which is why the side line is probably working out pretty well for them.  Everyone's happy.

A New Sturgeon

There is good news/bad news to the Strange Fish geocache series.  Because the containers are usually in places where there are people around, they get swiped or moved by accidental finders.  And the cooler the container the more likely this is to happen.  But that's OK.  For me the fun is mostly building a good "fish" container and I don't mind replacing them with an upgraded version.

I've done various things in the series, not all of them look like the fish they commemorate.  But they do have to be waterproof and big enough for the geocache log and maybe a pencil and some "swag", things people leave behind and exchange.

This was version 1.0 of the cache container.

Not bad, but the shiny duct tape was not an ideal covering, and I got the fins wrong.  The head is removable to get at the inner ziplock with the cache log.

Strange Fish Lake Sturgeon 1.0 vanished once completely after about a year in service.  I replaced it with a 2.0 version that was tossed together quickly.  This version was based on a Rapala lure, and sat on top of a screw cap section of PVC pipe.  Alas, a screw on cap that allows grit to get into it soon becomes difficult.  So, time for version 3.0.

Here's 2.0 and 3.0 side by side.  I rather like the newest version.  The fins and tail are now flexible but sturdy bits of mouse pad material.  The head unscrews.

The exterior is wrapped with friction tape.  It is better visual camoflage especially when it picks up various bits of dirt and bark on its slightly sticky surface.

I also think I have the head and eyes much more realistic, even if the body is a bit too skinny.

The newest version of the geocache was based on this:

This is some kind of in ground sprinkler nozzle.  If you squint you can see that I got these for a buck each at the surplus store.  I had to slice off the side port, as it was a bit thick for a fin, but otherwise did not have to do much to make a nice waterproof cache container.  It is a bit long and thin for most species.  Next time I do a new container I'll have a start to finish tutorial.

White Sucker

In my ongoing campaign to put "Strange Fish" geocaches out into the world I have had to concentrate on certain species.  The nature of the project pretty much requires shore fishing, and some reasonable access by foot.  So, its a lot of fishing rivers and streams, and that limits you a bit.

One species I've been trying to add to the portfolio is shown above.  May I introduce Catostomus commersonii.  I guess most people would call this a White Sucker.  Eh, in the age of NSFW internet searches that might not be the best name.  And besides.......

Way back in the early days of what is now Wisconsin there was a tiny corner down in the southwest part that had an early mining boom.  There was a little bit of trade in lead with the natives in the 1700's, and when the land was opened up for exploitation in the 1820's a rush of miners turned up.

Some of these miners wintered over.  They just took the shallow pits they had excavated and put a roof on them.  As they were living in their burrows they came to be nicknamed "Badgers".  This moniker was extended to cover all denizens of what is still The Badger State.

Ah, but what of those faint of heart, those delicate flowers from (mostly) Illinois who ran up the river in the spring and back down in the fall?  As this replicates the behaviour of our friend Catostomus, the term "Suckers" was applied to them.  I can report that the term is no longer used here to describe residents of Illinois.  They are usually called something worse.

Anyway, I was happy to catch the little guy shown above.  And will this lead to a Strange Fish Catostomus Geocache?

Why yes indeed.  And if I may say so, the technique has continued to evolve such that the representation is more accurate.  Thank goodness I won't have to try anything really challenging like a flounder!

 

Logperch

This cute little fella is a logperch.  It's been on my "try to catch one" list for a while now.  I was out in early May trying to find places for Strange Fish geocaches.  I was actually trying to catch something else but this over achiever kept hitting a worm/hook combo that was bigger than he was.  I downsized it a bit and got him on the second cast.

It takes some work to catch logperch.  They favor fast moving streams so people out casually drowning worms to catch panfish won't encounter them.  

And yes, the catch did result in a cache. Specifically: Strange Fish #7.

Redhorse Redux

With geocaches you can either go boring or high maintenance. 

For boring you use one of several standard geocache containers.  Things like film canisters, ammo boxes, or one of several commercially available waterproof containers.  And you put them somewhere predictable and sheltered.  Roadside signs in our part of the world are often supported by wooden 4 by 4 posts.  These posts have holes to, I suppose, deal with temp related expansion and contraction.  Film canisters fit neatly, but how boring.

I like to make custom containers and hide them in odd places.  Hence the Strange Fish series.  With considerable effort I've managed to catch enough weird, unloved fish to place ten geocaches.  One of which is Strange Fish 3 - Silver Redhorse.  

If you've never caught one, Silver Redhorse are a sort of sucker.  Not much good to eat but fun to catch and an indicator of good water quality.

They are kinda dopey looking, mostly because of the vacuum cleaner mouth, but have variable degrees of red color in their fins that makes them jaunty.

I've gone through three containers now at this geocache.  The first was hidden inside a chunk of wood....which was obliterated by brush clearing.  The second was a crafty bit of bark colored tubing that was attached to a gnarly shrub of similar texture.  When this lost its waterproofing abilities (a season or two of temperature extremes can do that) it was winter and I was busy. So I threw together a more or less fish shaped container with what I had on hand.  But I never liked it much and it too started to get damp inside.  That makes the geocache log hard to sign and is generally poor form.  So, down to the workshop.  My latest iterations are made of pvc pipe with snug end caps.  But can you make it look like a fish?

Here's container three below, underneath what I consider to be a much better version 4.0.  I even figured out a way to have surface texture similar to scales!

The fins are a bit over the top, but in part they are to keep the cache off the ground and hopefully a bit drier.  Construction technique is similar to the Strange Catfish cache but I'm with some effort getting better at this.

The Flying Fish of Wisconsin?

It's been a weird non-winter.  As a result some of my spring activities are happening a bit sooner than expected.  Fishing for instance.  Geocaching for another.  And where they overlap, the Strange Fish geocache series where I pay homage to the weird and mostly unloved minor fish species of Wisconsin.  The gimmick is that I catch something strange then put a geocache at the spot.  

It's not an easy task.  I'm limited to places where you can fish from shore, and by the increasing list of fishy weirdos that have already gotten a cache.  In fact.....its getting pretty hard.

So I've taken to scanning Google Maps to try and find new locations.  And recently I spotted something tempting.  An area of DNR owned land that has both Chippewa River frontage and more interestingly, about two dozen abandoned gravel pits.

My first walk around was with Hank the Dog.  He makes it hard to sneak up on anything, so while I did see various little fishies scooting away from shore I could not make any positive IDs.  But they were small, and at least two different species.

So how do fish get into gravel pits?

Sometimes there is proximity to say, a river, and in flood conditions a possible connection.  Pretty unlikely for most of these.  Sometimes people just ignore the rules on such matters and pitch a bunch of fish into new bodies of water in an impromptu stocking scheme.  Maybe....I did see evidence of other people fishing here - old worm containers mostly - and they probably had some reason to do so.

But mostly the fish fly in.

Oh, in egg form.  Ducks and geese love these little ponds.  And hop from one to another in search of whatever it is that makes them happy.  Along the way they pick up various fish eggs that stick to their feet and feathers.  Eventually, and with the right combination of factors, they do the stocking for us.

And those conditions are?  Well for most fish it would have to be a deep enough pond that it would not freeze solid.  Also it is helpful to have some kind of organic material.  Sticks and timber in the water, various aquatic plants (see also bird transport).  Big holes dug into gravel are not ideal for the sort of nutrients that feed small fish and the even smaller bugs they feed on.  Oh, and it is helpful if the water is not so shallow and nasty that oxygen levels vanish later in the year, although even that is sometimes not a deal breaker for bullheads and such.

My first attempt to catch fish here was not a success.  I was using micro-tackle, as none of the fish I saw scooting around were more than about 2 inches long. 

Not a single bite.  I think it is just a bit too early in the year.  Water temperatures, availability of hatching bugs etc.  I'll be back periodically.  In the meantime I did put out a "gateway" cache at the parking lot.  If such things interest you....

The Flying Fish of Wisconsin???

Strange Fishing - Florida 2024

I've been fighting a nasty cold most of my time on vacation.  This is of course, Not Fair.  So fishing time has been curtailed.  On the other hand, last year's Red Tide has gone away so the fishing has actually been more productive and varied.  

There are two little critters we caught in abundance.  As in, with almost every cast.  Mangrove Snappers and White Grunts look close enough that my quickly snapped photos may have missed the latter.  Cute little guys the both of them.  Basically the equivalent of salt water bluegills.

Last year's go-to spot under a bridge was not productive this year.  We'd see other people there pretty often so the secret must have gotten out.  And when we did try it the fish had gotten very smart.  We did encounter this fine fellow which made our day....

And we encountered other reptiles.  On our way to another favored spot we walk by a place where endangered tortoises nest in a parking lot.  Their overall intellect may have something to do with their endangered status, as this is about as bad a place to dig turtle nests as you could dream up.  Anyway, we had to do a bit of traffic guard duty to help them lumber across the adjacent road.  Good luck, my scarce and scaly friends....

A fair bit of fishing success was encountered on a nearby jetty, basically a channel where boats go in and out of harbor.  Lots of people fish there and a wide variety of species are caught.  My grandson got a spiny critter called a Leatherjacket.  Several of us caught Pompano, a rather tasty snub nosed fish.

But the best picture of the trip was my son doing his best imitation of a Ladyfish he had just landed.  Weird googly eyed critter.....  The fish that is.

Teach a Man to Fish....and he'll probably skip school after that part.

 Seen on the public pier, Bayfield Wisconsin.

Strange Fish Nation

I don't do well with idleness.  So when I find myself with a few days and nothing on the agenda I  make up tasks.  I should probably learn how to play golf.

But of late I've been continuing my odd geocache series: Strange Fish.  The gimmick is that I will catch something odd then put a geocache near the site.  Catch meets Cache if you will.  The limitations of this concept are manifest.

Geocaches tend to cluster in areas of beauty and recreation.  And since you can't place them too close to an existing one that means most of the lakes and rivers nearby are already covered.  At least the public places like parks.  You can't just go either fishing or geocaching on random private property.

And the number of peculiar species of fish that both exist and can be caught by hook and line from shore is limited.  So I have to plan these campaigns.

Casting about, before actually casting about, I noticed that a community over to the east had few geocaches and some tempting places to fish.  In particular a spillway below an impoundment dam.  Some odd things either go over the dam or swim up the stream.....

It was a delightful day for fishing.  And, while this was no place to actually catch any respectable fish, there was on hand a little band of Strange Fishermen.  And women.  And children.  My kinda folks.  I'm only showing the shirtless patriarch of this extended and somewhat confusing family group.  He was having a good old time.  I of course asked him what he was catching.  "Bullheads!" he said with enthusiasm.  And he was keeping them, tossing one after another into a fish basket.  Now I've eaten bullhead and its not bad.  But hardly anybody bothers with them.  These guys were about 5 inches long and come equipped with venomous spines and a bad attitude.  But while I was there he caught 30 of them.  One of the kids named each one.  Sometimes the name would be given before the fish bit.  "Here comes ELVIS!!" he'd holler....  My kind of fishermen.  Although unlike shirtless dad I don't fish with a beer and a pack of cigs by my side.

Eventually I did catch something worthy of a Strange Fish entry.  Oh, nothing fancy, it's just a sunfish variant called Pumpkin Seed.  But interesting enough in its own way.  In a world full of voracious predators they insolently go here and there with ridiculous bright coloration.  Oh, and they are a pesky invasive species in Europe.  Thanks for the starlings and Eurasian milfoil.  Here, have a cute little fishie...

Time to fashion a special cache container.  Elongated fish are pretty easy to craft but these little flat guys defy easy container fabrication.  So I went with something a bit different.  Made of workshop stuff, waterproof and with a picture of a "Punk" on it. 

The place I'm considering for the hide involves nooks and crannies.  So having a bit of a visible "handle" in the form of a bobber might help.

Strange Fish 10 - Lonesome Sturgeon

A fine June day.  A good time for fishing.

Of course for me that means trying to catch Strange Fish as part of my geocache series of the same name.  The gimmick is that I try to "put the cache near the catch".  But as I get to make the rules I also get to make the exceptions.  Here's Duncan Creek just below the dam.  The latter was once associated with a mill, and is one of several such structures that have been approximately on this site since the 1860's.

If you have keen eyes you might have noticed a heron on the far end of the spillway.  And if you have very keen eyes indeed you might see a couple of shark like fins in mid stream...

It's actually the dorsal fin and tail of a Lake Sturgeon.  As the fin is pretty far back you don't get a full sense of just how big this thing is.  Here's another view....

Probably four to five feet long and in the neighborhood of 40 pounds.  They do get bigger...some hit seven feet and 300 pounds!  Here's what they look like out of the water.

Sturgeon are very strange fish, essentially unchanged since dinosaur times.  And you have to admire their determination here, trying so hard to swim past an obstacle they can't hope to cross in order to get upstream and spawn.  After a while a second sturgeon came along.  I imagine one side of their conversation was along the lines of "Hey baby, what's your sign?"  "Pisces?  Me too!"  "So, uh, your place er mine....."

I felt justified in making a Strange Fish geocache to place nearby.  I mean, I was actively trying to not hook these monsters and did not have the special stamp you need to purchase to keep one.  Besides, I think I had one of them on briefly and it snapped my lightweight line with ease.

Here's the commemorative geocache container.  It's made from a water bottle, some polycarbonate fins, a bit of foam rubber for the head and obviously plenty of black duct tape.

If geocaching interests you, here's the link:   

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Addendum:  I'm advised that sturgeon have already spawned for the season and that they can do so with relative success in the larger waters of the nearby Chippewa River.  What they were doing trying to swim up a creek is unclear, and they aren't talking.

Fishing - VERY Old School

When I was over in England last month one of my digging cronies gave me a couple of peculiar ceramic items he had picked up off a beach.  I guess they are common, he said he has about 600 of them.

These were found on the West Coast somewhere around Maryport.  Archaeological stuff from all eras turns up on those shores and if you work with the local authorities with regards to the remarkable things its quite legal to pick them up.

I did find some uncertainty out there on the internet.  THIS expressed uncertainty not only as to the age of the artifacts but their intended use.  In fact it mentions that some things that look like this are not artifacts at all but soft stones that have been burrowed into by mollusks!

But for several reasons I'm calling these fishing weights.  They have turned up on shorelines in large enough numbers that alternate explanations such as loom weights are implausible.  And in at least one report a series of them were found perfectly spaced out.....just as you'd expect if they came off a weighted fishing net.

Age is hard to judge.  A few of these things have initials or a cross on them.  Certainly not Roman.  Medieval is possible, but cheap low tech technology often survived well into the modern era.

Just for fun I might try using one as a sinker and see if I can catch a 21st century fish with one of these!

Florida Men Living Dangerously

Looking for alligators.  It was a chilly morning for Florida and the one we did spot was pretty sluggish.

Later in the day we were out on the fishing pier.  Wonder what's down there....

SHARK!!!!

Getting a disgruntled shark, even a smallish one, up to a pier 30 feet above the water is a complicated task.  All hands on deck to play the fish, run and get the big net on a 30 foot rope, clear all our stuff out of the way and dehook the little monster.  More than one of us will add this to our Life Time Species caught list.  Note for the compulsives among you, the specific ID on this thing is still pending......

Florida Man - Strange Fish

Florida has some great fishing.  Why you can rent a charter, go out on the ocean and catch some really swell fish.  Bah, tourist stuff.  We serious anglers are after the weird ones.                                                                                                                                                             

This trip was an opportunity for my grandson and I to both expand our Lifetime Species caught list.  We started out even up but I got a quick three species bump because fish I'd previously caught in Florida were now countable.  I have no doubt he'll overtake me but so far our new catches have me still a couple ahead.

This is a Mojarra.  Or at least a variety of same.

And here's a Blue Runner.  Not that interesting to look at but when caught they make remarkable grunting noises.  I told my grandson that it was promising us to grant a small wish if we let him go.  

We had a long discussion as to whether non fish catches should be on the Lifetime list.  The conclusion was no, because once you allow in crustaceans it is hard to exclude random bugs.  So here's a nasty crab.

Although not part of the official Salt Water Strange Fish challenge my son caught some new species as well.  This is a snook.  I had one on briefly, they are quite fun.

If you are paying close attention you might notice that we are not on a scenic Florida beach.  No, in true Florida Man - and Florida Boy - style we spent a lot of time fishing under a bridge that was adjacent to a drinking establishment.  

Late addition.  This is a Sheepshead.  The salt water version not the freshwater critter we have back home.  Three new species for me on this trip.  Not bad.