Home » Barbs and Backlashes » Fish Keys

Fish Keys

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the importance of having some fish identification skills, You Gotta Know!  Yes, I believe that even beginning anglers have a responsibility to know what they are catching.

At that time, I mentioned that we had a fish identification aid in the works.  Now we have it!

Fish Key

Fish Key cover

Again, I would recommend EVERY angler spend some time looking at that publication and brushing up on their fish identification skills.  However, keep a couple of things in mind:  First, no, this tool does not include every species of fish anglers can catch in Nebraska.  It is basic, and meant for beginning anglers; start simple, then advance from there.

Along those lines, let me suggest a few additional resources. . . .

If you are fishing the Missouri River, lower Platte or lower Elkhorn, you need to be familiar with sturgeon.  Lake and pallid sturgeon are protected species.  If captured, they must be released immediately.  Anglers need to know what kind of sturgeon they might catch.  This webpage from Missouri Department of Conservation, is very good, Sturgeon Identification.

DSCN1731

Another one that can be very important:

muskieID

No, I do not expect everyone to be an ichthyologist.  I do expect that if you have any interest in fish and fishing, you will be interested in learning some fish identification skills.  If you really get into it, then you gotta have this:

fg-24_un_fishes_cover_final_front_without_spine

About daryl bauer

Daryl is a lifelong resident of Nebraska (except for a couple of years spent going to graduate school in South Dakota). He has been employed as a fisheries biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for 25 years, and his current tour of duty is as the fisheries outreach program manager. Daryl loves to share his educational knowledge and is an avid multi-species angler. He holds more than 120 Nebraska Master Angler Awards for 14 different species and holds more than 30 In-Fisherman Master Angler Awards for eight different species. He loves to talk fishing and answer questions about fishing in Nebraska, be sure to check out his blog at outdoornebraska.org.

Check Also

Rise Art

Sometimes you just need to pull over, put it in park, and de-stress for a …