Fishing

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• Warmouth

  Warmouths can be distinguished from other sunfishes by feeling for the patch of small teeth on the tongue.

• White Sucker

  The white sucker is arguably our most important fish species.

• Bluegill

  Bluegills often inhabit shallow areas and are very easy to catch on a variety of small lures or baits (especially worms).

• Black Crappie

  Also called “calico bass,” crappie grow quickly and are a popular food and sport fish.

• Blueback Herring

  Blueback herring and alewives are so similar that the color of the gut lining (peritoneum) is the only sure way to tell them apart.

• Bluntnose Minnow

  It is unclear how or when bluntnose minnows arrived in Connecticut.

• Blacknose Dace

  Blacknose dace are a native minnow that prefer the pools and rocky riffles of small headwater streams.

• Bowfin

  Often confused with the snakehead, the bowfin is an introduced fish that has grown rapidly in abundance since 2003.

• Blackspotted Stickleback

  Rarity and difficulty with identification cause the blackspotted stickleback’s whereabouts in Connecticut to be unclear.

• Black Bullhead

  Black bullheads are very difficult to distinguish from brown bullheads. It is unclear whether the few individuals reported in Connecticut represent self-sustaining populations.

• Bowfins

  This primitive family has a diverse fossil record, but only one species still exists.

• Rainbow Smelt

  Smelt are important forage fish for large pelagic predators such as striped bass in estuaries and brown trout in lakes.

• Rainbow Trout

  Rainbow trout seldom survive the summer in Connecticut and natural reproduction is rare.

• Redfin Pickerel

  Connecticut’s smallest pike species. They are typically mistaken for small chain pickerel by anglers.

• Redbreast Sunfish

  In Connecticut, the redbreast sunfish typically outnumbers other sunfish species only in river environments.