fish ID help

[B Young]

While chumming for rock fish last Friday on the channel edge across from bouy 68, I had a vicious hit by what I thought was surely a big rock. Then it came to the top and came clean out of the water (twice), and I saw a long silvery fish of about 36" with what I think was a split tail. It reminded me of a king mackeral, but when it came out of the water, it had a pretty good bend in its body which I'm not sure a king would do. I think it was much too big to be a spanish, and it most definitely was not a bluefish. The fish then dove deep and as I worked it up to the boat it cut the line before I could get another look at it. The line was frayed to indicate teeth.

Could it have possibly have been a barracuda? It kinda resembled one of them too.

Anybody got any ideas?

[pepsi_man]

check on the MD board, they had a picture of a hound fish, resembles a garr, that was caught up north in the potomac. i know i was at the reef 2 years ago, and saw one of those caught there.

pepsi man

[Nancy S Lewis]

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02sab/logs/aug10/media/hound.html

[riverwatcher]

BY,
I think Pepsi Man nailed it. I have only seen one houndfish, which I caught while chumming for bluefish. The fish jumped out of the water several times before we landed it. It was about 4 feet long and slender. Since I didn't know what I had caught and it was raising a ruckus by flopping around on the deck, I decided to release it. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures, but you can find pictures on the VMRC web site: http://www.mrc.state.va.us/vswft/Angler_Guide_web_guide.pdf.
I had the booklet and was able to identify the fish from this reference. The VMRC site states that the average size is 3 - 6 pounds with a maximum of 10 pounds. I probably didn't release a record fish , but it was definitely bigger than the average indicated by VMRC. I have noticed that some Tidalfish anglers in the lower Bay target houndfish on light tackle, so they may be more common farther south.
Tom

[B Young]

Yep,

I think houndfish it definitely was. The silvery slender body in the picture in Nancy Lewis' post is definitely what I saw. That is a new species for me to have encountered for sure. Thanks for the replies.

[rickrider]

Here's another one to see if we can figure out. I was fishing the Rappahannock about a month and a half ago out from Garrett's Marina. While croaker fishing, I caught 6 fish, all being about 7 inches long that had a head looking like a fresh water trout, two white whiskers over an inch long under it's mouth, the back fin ran all the way down like a bowfin and it had white spots down the lateral line. I didn't notice any teeth. I fished in the same spot many times last year and never caught any of these. I tried to figure it out on my own and the closest thing I could find was the spotted hake. I don't know if thay are in the river. Help me out guys.

[Scott McGuire]

Based on your description I'd lay money down on "Spotted Hake".

Not a rare fish at all they are seen in good numbers every year. We even Catch them up in Solomons sometimes.


Edit: I didn't even read your last line before I went searching for a picture... :)

[Scott McGuire]

Here's some better pictures of Spotted Hake.

[rickrider]

That's definately the fish we caught. Thanks for the help guys. It drives me crazy when I catch a fish and don't know what it is. I moved here from the mountains and have only been fishing salt water a little over 2 years. I'm sure there will be more that I can't ID since I'm getting out into the bay sometimes now. Thanks again for your help.

Crow Bait - the fish looked exactly like the first picture in your second post. Thanks for your help bud.

[DocSavageJr]

Does anyone know if they are good to eat?