2022 Year in Review

Here. We. Go. Again  I am continuing my year in review series from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, & 2021. I have kept track of every fish caught by day and location. I have compiled and crunched the numbers are here are the results for 2022!

80 total fish caught
33 different species
11 new species
22 saltwater species
11 freshwater species
Month with most fish - May (29)
Month with least fish - January, April, June, July, August, & December (0)
Fished 14 different locations
Caught fish on 12 different days
Total days fishing - somewhere around 16
Fished off personal boat - 1
Fished off pier – 0
Fished off party boats – 1
Fished off private charter – 0
Countries fished - 2 (United States, Norway)
States fished - 2 (Florida, Alabama)

2022. What can I say. I have certainly been busy, just not so much with fishing. This year we went caving, exploring across Florida, visited Sweden & Norway, attended my first Explorers Club Annual Dinner, pulled off our 5th continuous year of our brother weekend (EDIT: This isn’t true, I don’t know why I said this. We did not meet in 2020) and I spent some time in Texas at the SpaceX Starship facility. Shockingly, I still managed more new species than last year and 33% of every species I caught this year was a new species. A huge part of this was thanks to Dom, but probably also honestly focused on the fact that I would not fish much unless I had a chance at a new species. I am really close to my goal of 334 species caught on hook and line (or 1% of all fish species known) and I will be working harder this year to finish it out.

Number of new species per year continues to tick up from a low in 2020.

Highlights of the year, not necessarily in any order.

1. As always, I enjoy meeting and fishing with people throughout the year. This year I fished with Steve again on his epic quest to catch a Gulf Flounder, fished with Dom, Ben, and Ally during our Memorial Day outing, and fished with family .

Still hunting that Gulf Flounder.

2. Already mentioned above, but my outing on Dom’s boat during Memorial Day weekend off Pompano Beach. I got 8 new species very easily and it was a great day fishing. Owe a lot to Dom for this one.

Dom, Ben, & me. Photo credit - Ally.

3. Continuing my Cichlasoma research in Florida. I am still trying to find the full range of the chanchita.

Specimens from the Green Swamp delivered to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

4. And, of course, Brother Weekend 2022. Another success and another fish fry. The plans have already begun for next year.

Hmmmmmm, bass.

What will 2023 bring? Well, hopefully more than 80 fish. I am starting the planning now!

Fish Counts

Sheepshead 1
Southern Puffer 2
Striped Mojarra 1
Pigfish 4
Pinfish 10
Southern Kingfish 2
Sand Perch 2
Inshore Lizardfish 1
Bonnethead 1
Warmouth 3
Bluegill 5
Spotted Sunfish 1
Dimerus Cichlid 11
Brown Hoplo 1
Sand Tilefish 2
White Grunt 4
Striped Grunt 1
Tobaccofish 1
Yellowcheek Wrasse 1
Mahi 1
Blackline Tilefish 1
Grey Tilefish 2
Graysby 4
Live Sharksucker 4
Spanish Hogfish 1
Snakefish 1
Speckled Darter 1
Tallapoosa Shiner 1
Leopard Toadfish 1
Rough Shiner 4
Spotted Bass 4
Redear Sunfish 1

Species #314

Surprise random catch from a Gulf party boat out of Clearwater. This is species #314 the Leopard Toadfish (Opsanus pardus). Didn’t really take a good picture because at the time just figured it was another gulf toad.

Species #312 the Tallapoosa Shiner (Cyprinella gibbsi) and & #313 the Speckled Darter (Etheostoma stigmaeum) from Cornhouse Creek in Alabama on the way back from Brothers Weekend 2022.

Brothers Weekend 2022

Adam got a new lake house so we put the waters to the test and ended up catching a bunch of spotted bass. We took Cam out to keep his fishing skills growing. Another successful Brothers Weekend fish fry.

Go here to read part 1. I can only do 10 images per post now which is another reason to switch off this platform. Maybe sometime soon.

Afterward, we made a run in closer to shore off of a 70 ft deep reef where I caught a number of species including many Graysby and Sharksucker but only managed to pull in one new species. However, it was really one of my favorite of the day. Species #310 was the Spanish Hogfish (Bodianus rufus).

Spanish Hogfish!

Graysby - lots of these!

Lots of these as well!

The final species, and species #311, of the day was a Snakefish (Trachinocephalus myops). A real cool fish that Dom told me I would catch in 30 seconds and this turned out to be true.

Snakefish (Trachinocephalus myops)

It was a fantastic day and I really appreciate the opportunity Dom gave me. It is not often I can put 8 new species on the board in a single day anymore.

Photo credit - Ally

I got an invitation from Dom to go out on his boat off of Pompano Beach on a species hunting tour. Ben and Ally would be joining as well. The weather looked sketchy at first, but it ended up being a very nice day.

ALT

Heading out!

The first new species for me was a Sand Tilefish (Malacanthus plumieri) which is a fairly common catch in the area and I actually ended up catching a few.

Species #304 Sand Tilefish (Malacanthus plumieri) Photo credit - Dom

Next up was a fairly uncommon species - #305 Striped Grunt (Haemulon striatum). This was about 170 ft of water.

#305 - Striped Grunt (Haemulon striatum)

Almost immediately afterward I pulled in from the same location species #306 a Tobacco Basslet (Serranus tabacarius). This is a very pretty fish and one that was really cool to find.

#306 Tobacco Basslet (Serranus tabacarius)

Right after this happened as we were about to leave to go to another spot we spotted some Mahi zipping around the boat. Dom immediately threw out a goggle-eye and the bull Mahi took it. Dom handed off the rod to me as Ben started trying to get one of the other Mahi on. After a good, long fight I was finally able to get the fish to the boat where Dom netted it. Almost immediately after that happened Ben pulled in one of the females.

Teamwork! Photo credit - Ally

The next species I pulled up was the Yellowcheek Wrasse (Halichoeres cyanocephalus). I was exhausted from fighting the Mahi so I wasn’t paying attention and actually didn’t get a great photo. Will have to catch one more sometime.

Species #307 - Yellowcheek Wrasse (Halichoeres cyanocephalus)

We left the area and went to try a wreck for Amberjack. Ben was first up and within a very short time was hooked into something big.

Ben hooked into something strong. Photo credit - Ally

Turned out to be a nice Almaco Jack!

After striking out on any more hookups at this wreck we headed north to do some deep dropping for species. I managed to pull up two new species from around 500 feet - #308 the Blackline Tilefish (Caulolatilus cyanops) and #309 the Blueline Tilefish (Caulolatilus microps).

#308 the Blackline Tilefish (Caulolatilus cyanops)

#309 the Blueline Tilefish (Caulolatilus microps)

See Part 2 for the remainder of the pictures from the day!

Spent some time in the Green Swamp searching for evidence of the full range of Cichlasoma dimerus and managed to find them in every spot I checked. The next place to check will be the northern Withlacoochee near Dunnellon. Specimens were dropped off at the Florida Museum and as a bonus to the trip, I got to see Rob’s snake farm!

Some scenes from Steve’s first 2022 attempt to catch the elusive Gulf Flounder.

2021 Year in Review

Took a while to get this one out but here we go again -  continuing my year in review series from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 I have kept track of every fish caught by day and location. I have compiled and crunched the numbers are here are the results.

159 total fish caught
50 different species
7 new species
31 saltwater species
19 freshwater species
Month with most fish - September (65)
Month with least fish - April, July, August, & November (0)
Fished 21 different locations
Caught fish on 15 different days
Total days fishing - somewhere around 15
Fished off personal boat - 0
Fished off pier – 1
Fished off party boats – 0
Fished off private charter – 2
Countries fished - 2 (United States, Bahamas)
States fished - 5 (Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi)

2021 continued to be a weird year for travel and fishing and actually represents my lowest total count for fish caught since I started keeping track. Interestingly, I still managed more new species than last year and was able to fish in 5 states and 2 countries.

Highlights of the year, not necessarily in any order.

1. As always, I enjoy meeting and fishing with people throughout the year. This year saw an increase in outings with Zaine out on the Econ looking for shad, Gerry inviting me out on one of his charters, shark fishing (and snorkel fishing) with Ben and Ally, fishing with Steve as he caught his species #2000, fishing in Mississippi with Noah, and fishing with my family and brothers. EDIT - Also fished with Theo from the NL in December of this year.

2. Shark fishing - I caught 2 new species of shark this year - the Finetooth Shark and Bonnethead.

3. Our road trip across the south checking out pitcher plant bogs, fishing, and catching crayfish. It was a very fun trip.

4. Family trip to the Bahamas where we fished off the hotel docks for a while. It was our first international trip in some time and was good to get out.

Quick family trip to Bimini by ferry in early December. Didn’t spend much time fishing but did manage some squirrelfish, jacks, grunts, etc. - the usual bunch. Also added one more country to my list.