# What the heck is it?



## Oldguy1 (Oct 16, 2007)

:Hi everyone!This is my first post.I fish mainly from bellair to pike island.Last sun.my buddy and i were jigging with minnows our main MOF.(mode of fishing)
I snagged a small fish the likes of which i have never seen before.I will do my best to describe it maybe someone out there will know what it is.It was approximately 3.5 to 4 inches long from the eyeball back it had the body of a pike or musky, long and skinny.but it did not have a predator mouth it had more of a bottom feeder mouth that is to say its mouth was more under its snout it was not a sucker mouth like a carp or sheephead.Its markings were really striking,it was mainly silver with very pronouced vertical stripes or bars the entire length of its body, some of the stripes were broken into two stripes
like a lightning bolt.It was a neat looking fish.We were low on bait so i used it for such,and caught a channel cat on the first cast.I tried to find stuff on the net with no luck,I found one site that had stream fish of ohio,nothing 
even close.Anyone out there know what it could be?Thanks for your time!


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## fshnfreak (Feb 24, 2007)

maybe a log perch darter


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## Wannabitawerm (Apr 13, 2004)

It's great channel cat bait is what it is!!

Seriously, does sound like some species of darter. I've never seen one that big, but there's a lot of things I haven't seen yet.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

It does sound like a logperch darter. I have seen them in the size you mentioned as well. Here is a picture in case you have not seen this one.









Also, here is the link to the Fish ID page for the ODNR site.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

That's what it sounded like to me as well.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

logperch are all over that river, watch using darters for bait though, there are alot of very endangered darters!


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## Oldguy1 (Oct 16, 2007)

Thanks guys,
I guess it must be a log perch darter,wish the picture had a little more contrast my eyes arnt what they used to be! Im going to start taking a camera like I should have been all along!Thanks again!


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

OldGuy1 - Yes it is a log perch - I was down in the Racine Pool last weekend and a few of these were caught.


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## Oldguy1 (Oct 16, 2007)

hey snyd,
you say a few were caught?how big were they?the one i caught i snagged. like i said ,it was only 3.5 to 4 inches ,its mouth was so small i doubt it could have been caught on a hook.anyone know how big a log perch darter gets?


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## CoolWater (Apr 11, 2004)

According to the ODNR they range generally from 2.8 to 6 inches with the record speciman being 7.1 inches. I've caught them on the fly rod in the Mohican River on several occasions.


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

Oldguy1 - The one we caught a few weekends ago was about the same size - I would say it was about 5 inches. It was caught on a silver Buddy.

I believe the other one that was caught by one of the other guys in a different boat was about the same size.


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