About
I am an avid angler that started lifelist fishing in 2021. I upload most of my catches to iNaturalist, generally posting 1 representative species from each spot I visit. I like to use iNaturalist to scope out potential microfishing spots, and therefore I keep all my coordinates public so others can do the same. I also like to identify and review fish observations in regions I've lived. Feel free to contact me with any ID questions or comments related to fish, but please note that my experience is mostly limited to freshwater fish in North America.

I recently started curating on iNaturalist due to the high volume of global fish curation requests that seemingly went unanswered for months (even years, in some cases). I will attempt to help with any fish-related curation issues although taxonomy is not my specialty. Warning: My political affiliation is the Lumper party.

How do I find fishing spots for new species?
Many traditional fishery surveys (1, 2) report non-game or microfish, but they are not the best source of information for these fishes. Aside from using iNaturalist, there are many resources for finding new fish species to catch.

Literature - many states or regions have books that are more useful than a standard field guide for finding fish, such as George C. Becker's Fishes of Wisconsin. Monographs such as these contain detailed life history information as well as locations where species may have been encountered. Additionally, finding the source material used for these publications can help as well. Most physical copies of these books are quite expensive and are sometimes challenging to find.

FishNet2 - this website contains a database of archived museum specimens collected during ichthyological studies. It is very useful for finding areas with certain fish, albeit some localities lack data. The search engine also allows you to draw a polygon and extract files (.kml) for viewing in Google Earth Pro. One way I like to use this site is to draw polygons around roads I'm traveling down and then seeing if there's any microfish I'd like to catch on that path.

FishMap - I don't use this website frequently, but it contains records and observations of fish and a watershed-level search engine. It compiles observations from a variety of sources, including iNaturalist and FishNet2.

USGS NAS - by querying a state of interest, some weird nonnative fish hotspots can be found using this website. I sometimes examine records of fish in a state to see if there's a species that was recorded in the state but not in iNaturalist or field guides. Note that some of the records are old or questionable; I always look for the "established" populations, as those have a higher chance of being "fish-able".

Custom iNaturalist queries I use
Great Lakes Basin fish ID | Great Lakes Basin fishes map | Western Hemisphere Salmonine ID |
Sunfish stuck at Genus | Species finder - credit to @hydrophilus | Fish ID for places I've lived |
The Sunfish Review-inator | Pre-Maverick Fish in the United States - credit to @jeanphilippeb and @dianastuder

Random projects I like
Sugar Robbers | East Palestine Ohio Fish Kill | Camera Traps | Animal Architecture | Squirrels Eating Stuff | Species Look-Alikes

Grupos de especies (taxa) favoritos

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