Happy Halloween, Catch-M-All style

A happy Halloween for all and here are some fishy costume ideas if you need then tonight.

Fish Horror Tale #7: The Lion Sleeps Tonight in Your Neighborhood

The red lionfish is a venomous fish with long spines that can sting, leaving a swimmer or fisherman vomiting,  sweating or in some cases dying,

fromWikipedia: "The red lionfish is found off the East Coast of the United States and the Caribbean Sea, and was likely first introduced off the Florida coast in the early to mid-1990s. It has been speculated that this introduction may have been caused when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida, It is also believed that six lionfish were accidentally released in Biscayne Bay, Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
However, a more recent report statesNOAA ecologist James Morris Jr. has discovered that a lionfish was discovered off the coast of south Florida prior to Hurricane Andrew in 1985. It is also believed that the lionfish were purposefully discarded by unsatisfied aquarium enthusiasts. The first documented capture of lionfish in the Atlantic occurred in Dania Beach, Florida. In 2001, NOAA documented multiple sightings of lionfish off the coast of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Bermuda, and were first detected in the Bahamas in 2004.


P. volitans comprises the largest part of the invasive lionfish population in the Atlantic and Caribbean
A vast number of lion fish are migrating to the costal waters of St. Maarten as of Aug 2011. fisherman have all of a sudden found astonishing numbers arise."

Fish Horror Tale #6: The Blob

The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a deep sea fish. Inhabiting the deep waters off the coasts of Australia.

Blobfish live at depths between 2,000 and 4,000 feet deep 600-1200 meters

The reason the blob fish is blobby is to help with its buoyancy. At those depths an air bladder is not very good for controlling bounacy. Instead, the gelatinous flesh of the blobfish has a density lightly less than water; thus allowing it to float and move around on the bottom expending energy on swimming. It appears to be a ambush predatory, gulping down crabs and other crustaceans that come by.  .

Blobfish are sad fish, because they are often accidently caught in bottom trawlers. Currenty the species is believed to be endangered. Poor Blob fFish

Fish Horror Tale #5: The World's Most Feared Fish

So what do you think the most feared fish in the world is?  Great White?  Piranha? Sting Ray?  Ha! Those are all  teddy bears compared to the candiru.

So the common story goes that this small Amazonian catfish will swim up the urinary tract of a swimmer who decides to pee in the river. The catfish wiggles its way in and then opens up it three sharp spines and holds fast where it will start eating its victim from the inside out.  Ouch!

Here is a video from the BBC on it. http://youtu.be/QQWgUht-ObI

Also the fish scored a segment on Animal Planet's River Monsters.
http://animal.discovery.com/fish/river-monsters/candiru-catfish/

Fish Horror Tale #4: You've been Fugued

Fugu  is the Japanese word for pufferfish, and it is used in Japaneses cuisine even though it is highly poisonous. Not all pufferfish are poisonous, but apparently the tastiest ones are.   Pufferfish organs, such as the liver, and the skin contains high levels of tetrodotoxin;a nasty chemical that sometimes is colloquially referred to as "zombie powder" by those in the Voodoo world.  Chefs must be careful when cleaning the fish so that they don't rupture the organs and thus contaminate the meat, thus killing their guests.

The poison, a sodium channel blocker, paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious along with causing paralysis. The victim is unable to breathe, and eventually dies from asphyxiation. There is no known antidote.

Here is a story from 2007 where people were unknowingly eating fugu when they thought they were eating salmon. Killed 15. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294190,00.html

Fish Horror Tale #3: Room mate horror

There was a horror movie released this spring called  "The Roommate", where a freshman deals with a psycopath stranger sharing her space. We think that is nothing compared to a real-life bad roommate called a cutlip minnow.

The cutlip minnow is a small fish found only in the Northeast US and parts of Canada.  It gets the vote for the worst roommate ever.  When crowded in a tank the little fish has a really nasty habit of plucking out and eating the eyes of other fish!

Here is a story of some research finding a small population in the St. Lawrence River.  http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=1459074

 Photo: Erling Holm / © ROM

Fish Horror Tale #2: Empire of the Carp

Evidenced by killer bee and army ant movies, people are freaked out by hordes of things. In the fish world most of the horde horror has involved sharks and piranhas, but there is a new plague in town: Asian silver carp.

The internet is full of videos of these fish jumping out of the water by the hundreds when a boat goes by and stories of people getting hurt are mounting.

In Missouri a 15-year old kid that was tubing behind a boat and was hit in the face by a silver carp. The impact broke his jaw and sent him to the hospital. Another person was

Another silver carp took matters into his own fins. During a carp bowfishing tournament an angler was clobbered by a big carp that clocked her in the face 

Fish Horror Tale #1: Marlin's Revenge

This wild video from Animal Planet is a crazy story about marlin fishing. It is about a big marlin that gets its long bill in the mouth of a person on the boat that has just caught it.Check out the graphic animation. We will stick with minnows.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=727ISEi6Kyw

Catch-m-all's Guide to Taking a Fishing Vacation with your Family

Now that we are 30 some odd fish into our quest we have learned that making time to catch and eat every type of freshwater fish in New Hampshire would be very difficult if we didn't include our families. We love to share what we have learned, so here is a guide to help you plan a successful family fishing vacation!

First choose a place with easy access to fishing. We stayed at the Chieftain Motor Inn in Hanover. With a hundred foot dock right in their backyard, equipment to borrow and boats to use, it was an ideal place to fish with kids.  Kids love fishing, but their attention span for it is limited.  Choosing a place with easy accessibility means that you can fish in short stints.  Head down, fish for 15 minutes, then go check out the playground.  Head back down, head out in a boat and fish for another half hour.  Take a walk back up and explore other things.

Stay somewhere that caters to families. At the Cheiftan, we had a fantastic room with a king size bed, a set of bunk beds and a toddler bed they customized pink for our girls.  They even had a pet friendly policy so Abi the Wonder Dog got to come too!

Make sure the place you choose has more than just fishing!  On a good day your kids will only have an hour or so of fishing in them. Luckily, New Hampshire is full of great fishing spots near great places for kids.  We loved fishing in Hanover.  Between our fishing excursions we took in a college soccer game, went to the Montshire Museum, explored the Path of Life Sculpture Garden and  walked around the Dartmouth Campus.

The most important thing when taking a fishing vacation with kids...outnumber them! If they outnumber you, forget about fishing. We brought grandparents along for the weekend, so we could divide and conquer.  Taking turns with the kids meant they were entertained and an entire weekend of fishing could actually take place. Saturday morning we all took the kids fishing on the docks for an hour, using the techniques outlined in our original how to fish with kids blog, then Papa and Mom took the kids to see the sights.  Mumsy and I (Clay) stayed behind and went hunting for walleye.

We were able to get a few good hours of grownup fishing in, catching our walleye. The kids had a great time, and feel like they took a fishing vacation.  Everyone left with great memories and is excited to go on the next family fishing vacation.  In then end, that's really what you want!