About
I am an avid angler that started lifelist fishing in 2021. I upload most of my catches to iNaturalist, generally posting 1 representative species from each spot I visit. I like to use iNaturalist to scope out potential microfishing spots, and therefore I keep all my coordinates public so others can do the same. I also like to identify and review fish observations in regions I've lived. Feel free to contact me with any ID questions or comments related to fish, but please note that my experience is mostly limited to the Great Lakes Basin and Intermountain West.

I haven't been doing much fishing recently, but I am hoping to add many new species to my lifelist in 2026.

How do I find fishing spots for new species?
Many standardized fishery surveys (1, 2) report non-game or microfish, but they are not the best or only source of information to find these fishes. Other than iNaturalist, here are some resources I use to find new species of fish to catch.

Literature - many states or regions have books that are more useful than a standard field guide for finding fish, such as George C. Becker's Fishes of Wisconsin. Monographs like this contain detailed life history information as well as locations where species may be encountered. Finding the sources or references used in these publications can help as well. Most physical copies of these books are quite expensive and are sometimes challenging to find.

FishNet2 - this website contains a database of archived museum specimens collected during ichthyological studies. It is very useful for finding areas with certain fish, albeit some localities lack data. The search engine also allows you to draw a polygon and extract files (.kml) for viewing in Google Earth Pro. One way I like to use this website is to draw polygons around roads I'm traveling down and then seeing if there's any microfish I'd like to catch along that path.

FishMap - I don't use this website frequently, but it contains records and observations of fish and a watershed-level search engine. It compiles observations from a variety of sources, including iNaturalist and FishNet2.

USGS NAS - by querying a state of interest, some weird nonnative fish hotspots can be found within the USGS database. I sometimes examine records of fish in a state to see if there's a species that was recorded in the state but not in iNaturalist or field guides. Note that some of the records are old or questionable; I always look for the "established" populations, as those have a higher chance of being "fish-able".

Custom iNaturalist queries I use
Great Lakes Basin fish ID | Great Lakes Basin fishes map | Western Hemisphere Salmonine ID |
Sunfish stuck at genus | Species finder - credit to @hydrophilus | Hybrid fish in North America |
The Sunfish Review-inator | Fishes of Wisconsin project review | Pre-maverick fish in the United States - credit to @jeanphilippeb and @dianastuder

Random projects I like
Sugar Robbers | East Palestine Ohio Fish Kill | Camera Traps | Animal Architecture | Squirrels Eating Stuff | Species Look-Alikes | Hybrids without iNat Taxa | Bird-window collisions

Favorite Taxa

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