Fish Identification

[ThreeLions]

Hey guys,

I'm back again.

Anyone have any idea what type of carp this fish is: http://www.pbase.com/image/143058597

It measured 12 1/4" in length and had a really slimy covering. I caught it at Hickman Creek in Lexington just using the good old-fashioned nightcrawler under a float.

Any help is appreciated.

DAVE

[Rico13]

Looks to me like a Golden Redhorse. Also known as fall fish, suckers, or squawfish. Very common in creeks, I catch them all the time. They can get pretty big, ( I've caught them as big as twenty inches) but they don't hardly put up a fight. -Nice fish, Rico

[mhall]

Golden Redhorse, known to most Kentucky fisherman as a plain ole common Sucker..

[ThreeLions]

Thanks for the info, guys. Another one to add to the species collection. Appreciate the help.

DAVE

[smashdn]

Good flathead bait

[the pyromaniac]

It looks like a white sucker. Redhorses usually don't have such a protruding mouth, and they usually have red fins and tail. Fallfish and squawfish are minnows, not suckers. They're something completely different.

I love catching suckers, they usually give you a heckuva fight on light tackle. I caught a 16-inch golden redhorse once that nearly pulled me in. The fight it gave me in that river had me thinking it was a 4-5 pound flathead!

[jodill101]

I'm going with Pyromaniac on this one ... it looks like a white sucker ... the scales would be a lot larger if it was a redhorse ...

[the pyromaniac]

I know my KY/VA trashfish, from intentionally targeting them a hundred plus times a year since 1982... I haven't caught a lot of suckers but I have paid attention to theeir distinguishing characteristics and spent an irresponsible amount of time reading and posting at roughfish.com...

[Hlleonard]

It does look like a white sucker by the pic here.


http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/kyfishid.pdf

[ThreeLions]

Looking at Hlleonard's link I'm actually leaning towards the white sucker too. My reasoning is the dorsal fin being non-concave in my image.

I wonder if there are any biologists I could get a second opinion from?

DAVE

[the pyromaniac]

I'll post it on the roughfish boards. There's a guy over there who works for the Minnesota DNR and has probably forgotten more than I'll ever learn about roughfish.

[the pyromaniac]

Looking at your photo gallery, it's hard to tell if your bullhead is a brown, black, or yellow. I think your shiner is a striped, though it could possibly be a common, white, or spotfin, though I need to have a closer look. That's the problem with bullheads & shiners, there are so many species that look the same at a glance...