Chelidonichthys lucerna (Tub Gurnard)

Tub Gurnard

Library Picture

Commonly called gurnard, and in this case a Tub Gurnard which is a reddish–bluish with a spiny armoured head. They also have spines around the gills that can inject a poison cuasing some pain for a couple of days (I can vouch for this personally). Of the Triglidae family (which include Sea Robin and other commonly called scorpion fish) they have pectoral fins that have developed into finger like legs used for crawling along the sea bed. They also have two other butterfly like pectoral fins of great size with a rather beautiful blue colouring. They retract these fins when swimming but extend them while sitting on the bottom. However, they do sometimes kind of flap their fins whilst swimming almost like birds flying. It is a coastal species, prevalent in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean from Norway to Cape Blanc and is also found, though less common, in the Black Sea and southern Baltic.

One I caught and released

Their mating season is quite long from May to August and all year around Africa. They can be found in shallow water on sandy and muddy bottoms but other members of the Triglidae family can be found on rocky bottoms.

One of the many curious things about this fish is the croaking noise they can make when fished. They can do this with the use of a “drumming muscle” they can beat against their bladder.

They are quite tasty, firm meaty fish although very spiny.

Happy Fishing

Small-Spotted Catshark or Lesser-Spotted Dogfish

Scyliorhinus canicula

Commonly known as Dogfish the Scyliohinus canicula are of the family Scyliohinidea and can be found from the north Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea (see map). They can grow to just over a metre (under 4 foot) and weigh about 2 kg (6.5 lb) they dwell from shallow waters to somewhere around 400 mts in depth. Near the coast they can be found on sandy beaches but also over gravely or muddy bottoms.

It is in fact a small shallow water shark. It has a slender body with rough skin, almost like sandpaper to the touch. Its’ nostrils are situated on the underside of the snout of its’ rather blunt head making it look almost like a miniature tiger shark. The two dorsal fins are located towards the tail of the body and along with its’ other fins are a sandy, tan colour. The overall colour is a greyish-white underside and a greyish- brown top with darker spots. They have very small sharp teeth and the typical five slit gills of their relatives. The male of the species is a little larger and are equipped with slightly larger teeth and mouth. An extremely stylish and flexible fish, in my view beautiful.

For the moment their numbers are stable.

Bait Fish / Smelt - Updated

Update

Thanks to "Carbono21", one of my followers and who has one of my favourite blogs (http://pasionporelcantabrico.blogspot.com.es/), I can now say that the correct name of the "Smelt" below is "Argentina presbyter". It's great to have followers of this category and for a professional like him to save the day. Thank you mate.

As I’m doing a series of posts on fishing with live bait fish I also wanted to let readers know what type of fish I’ll be using. It suddenly turned into the most difficult post to date. Finding the correct species has been a challenge and after several days of research I’m still not 100% sure I’ve got the right one.

The fish in question is commonly known as “smelt”, of this we can be sure. However, pinning it down to a specific one turned into several trips to the library and countless internet searches. I now have two possible candidates; “Argentina sphyreana” and “Argentina silus”. In truth something between these two would be perfect. 

The reason I’m confused is that after reading about both these candidates a little of both seems to be correct but at the same time some things about both don’t seem correct, such as habitat, location or size. I’m about 30% in favour of “Argentina sphyreana” and 65% of me leans towards “Argentina silus” leaving 5% open to other suggestions. It has dawned on me that there are a lot of fish in our seas that have been studied very little.

Anyway, it's definitely a fish, a little one.

Library Pictures:

Argentina sphyreana

Argentina silus

My pictures

Argentina Presbyter

If anyone has more to add I would greatly appreciate your comment.

Happy Fishing

Sepia Officinalis (Cuttlefish)

Today I went out to try some things with the Go Pro and filmed this:

Click on "Read more" for more information

Pollachius pollachius

Commonly known as Pollock (or Pollack) it’s of the Gadidae family of fish which include Cod, Haddock and Whiting. Family features are three dorsal fins on the back a two anal fins on the underside. Most also have Barbels (whiskers) on the chin.

Very similar to the Coalfish (Pollacius virens) it’s a whitefish and, unfortunately for the Pollock, of great commercial value to the fisheries.

It can reach over 50 inches (130 cm) and weigh in at a little over 40 lb (18 kilos). However, the examples caught near the coast are more between 10 to 20 inch and between 1 and 4 lbs (25 to 50 cm / 500 grammes to 2 kilos) or smaller with very few surprises.

They can usually be found around rocky seabed with lots of vegetation, also in or near ports and harbours were they find a lot of baitfish to feed on.