Ontario Shore Fishing Forum

Many anglers old and new may run into a fish they've never seen before or are not sure if they have identified the fish correctly. I thought I'd start this thread to get some people posting about fish they've caught that they are unsure what species they are. I've seen some misidentification in the OSF OMC contest so I thought this would be a great way to help some members that are unsure about what species of fish they caught. I know I can benefit from this thread and I hope others can too!

Hope everyone can find this useful,
Giuga10

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I'll start the thread off.

Caught this guy not too long ago and am not sure what he exactly is. I'm almost 100% sure he is a Shiner species but not sure what type, my guess is emerald.

I took a bunch of pics so that I could ID it right only 4 came out well.

Ok, let's go through this exercise together...

1) Use the Baitfish Primer as a guide since this is most likely a shiner species. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/regions/central...26-eng.htm

2) Start going through the descriptions to see what features are the most consistent. The questions you should be asking...

Q. Does it have a deep body or a thin body? A. Thin body

Q. Does it have fine scales or small scales? A. Fairly large scale

Q. Does it have a black stripe or no stripe? A. No stripe

Q. Does it have a small mouth or big mouth? A. Fairly large mouth

Just by going through these few questions, you can narrow your choices down to a few species...

Emerald Shiner, Silver Shiner, Rosyface Shiner, Ghost Shiner, Mimic Shiner...etc.

But let's look more closely.

1) Does it have a sharply pointed snout? No...eliminate Rosyface Shiner.

2) Is the origin of the dorsal fin line up directly with the origin of the pelvic fin? No...eliminate Sand Shiner and Mimic Shiner.

3) Is the dorsal fin origin above the pelvic fin? A little hard to tell in the picture...this is where good photos help!

4) Just based on personal knowledge of the limited range and sampling of the Silver Shiner, I would say this is instead an Emerald Shiner, especially since these further characteristics are more consistent with the Emerald Shiner...

a) Fairly pointed snout instead of a long snout of Silver Shiner.

b) Front half of lips are black.

(05-28-2013 04:36 PM)MuskieBait Wrote: [ -> ]Ok, let's go through this exercise together...

1) Use the Baitfish Primer as a guide since this is most likely a shiner species. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/regions/central...26-eng.htm

2) Start going through the descriptions to see what features are the most consistent. The questions you should be asking...

Q. Does it have a deep body or a thin body? A. Thin body

Q. Does it have fine scales or small scales? A. Fairly large scale

Q. Does it have a black stripe or no stripe? A. No stripe

Q. Does it have a small mouth or big mouth? A. Fairly large mouth

Just by going through these few questions, you can narrow your choices down to a few species...

Emerald Shiner, Silver Shiner, Rosyface Shiner, Ghost Shiner, Mimic Shiner...etc.

But let's look more closely.

1) Does it have a sharply pointed snout? No...eliminate Rosyface Shiner.

2) Is the origin of the dorsal fin line up directly with the origin of the pelvic fin? No...eliminate Sand Shiner and Mimic Shiner.

3) Is the dorsal fin origin above the pelvic fin? A little hard to tell in the picture...this is where good photos help!

4) Just based on personal knowledge of the limited range and sampling of the Silver Shiner, I would say this is instead an Emerald Shiner, especially since these further characteristics are more consistent with the Emerald Shiner...

a) Fairly pointed snout instead of a long snout of Silver Shiner.

b) Front half of lips are black.

Thanks Ken!