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Project Noah Nature School
Urophycis regia
The fish I caught was long, almost eel-like in shape, with a large, pointed head. It had two dorsal fins; one small and pointed, the other soft, and extending down the back. It also had a rounded tail, large pectoral fins, and one long anal fin. The most interesting features of the fish were two y-shaped feelers located directly behind the gills. From above, it looked like the fish had antlers! It had a small chin barbel characteristic of cod. Several people told me that it was a tomcod, though I still think it is some kind of hake.
I had set my trap in an inlet off the Atlantic Ocean. It was in about 7 ft of water off a wharf, approximately 12 ft off shore. The bottom was mostly sandy interspersed with large rocks and metal debris.
I baited my trap with mackerel skin if that helps :)
It's a phycid hake (Family Phycidae), a group closely related to the true cods (Gadidae). I'm not familiar with this group as we don't get them out in the Pacific. Based on the location where this was caught and descriptions from Fishbase, I suspect this is the spotted codling (Urophycis regia).
Welcome to Project FinneyCatfisher
Nice first spotting,congrats and thanks for sharing
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Spotted on Aug 22, 2014
Submitted on Oct 22, 2014
