Page 91 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2024

Eastern Mosquitofish
Also Known As....
Native to the Eastern and Southern United States from Florida to Pennsylvania and inland to Alabama and Tennessee, this small, light- colored fish is easily identified by its semitransparent fins. The females usually have a black stripe near their eye area and light spots can be seen on the caudal and dorsal fins of both sexes. Generally, males reach 1.5 inches and females reach 2.5 inches. These fish are a livebearer species, and as such the females are larger and more rounded than the males.
• Minnows are often used as a biological control method for mosquito larvae, helping to reduce mosquito populations and the risk of disease transmission.
• Male and females can be easily distinguished by differences in size and the shape of their anal fins.
• They flourish in ponds and streams containing freshwater, but can also survive in water with some salt.
• Life expectancy is one to one and a half years.
• Frog eggs and tadpoles are a favorite meal.
• They have 50-300 eggs at a time. The eggs stay inside
the female’s body until they hatch. It takes the new fish two months to become adults.
• Females can give birth several times per year.
with beautiful black water. Practically impossible to see from the highway, the pond contained some monster bluegills and even some big bass and other fish species.
The kindly lady allowed some of us to fish her pond as long as we didn’t touch her flowers. Soon, word got out about the new fishing hole. We spent many long hours in what seemed like remote wilderness, but barely yards from a major highway.
On the last day of school one year,
a friend and I made a bet to see who could catch the most fish before the first day of school began in the fall. The rules simply stipulated that we could catch any fish species by any legal hook and line gear. Every fish we physically
Big bluegills like this one can put up quite a fight on light tackle and make great species for youngsters and novice fishermen to catch.
touched scored one point. Throughout that summer, my friend
and I kept close tabs on each other’s progress. Sad to admit, he gained a considerable lead over me with the new school year about to start. With braggin’ rights at stake, I had to do something.
One blustery day, I headed to the pond. Without the bet, I would never fish on such a day, but I needed to try. Unfortunately, the bass and bluegills refused to cooperate that day no matter what I tried. However, schools of large minnows swam on the pond surface.
I devised a plan. I rooted through my tackle box for the smallest hook I could find and baited it with a sliver of bread from my lunch sandwich. I dangled the bread in front of the minnows. When a minnow grabbed the bread, it couldn’t get its tiny mouth over the hook, but it held onto that morsel. I quickly swung it over to the shoreline where I touched it, scoring a point. Then, I immediately released each minnow to possibly catch it again.
The weather turned more ominous. Before heading home, I racked up enough points to win the bet. More importantly, I secured annual braggin’ rights for the next year as the best fisherman in our little gang!
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net
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