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[troutbreath]

Probably an Ikea sculpin

[Rodney]

I spent a bit of time just now doing some searches for you to come up with a possibly identification.

First I ran the search in the Cottidae (sculpin) family and narrowed it down to 61 species in the Pacific Northwest.

Then out of the 61 fish photos, the ones with the genus Enophrys stood out.

I then narrowed down to two Enophrys species:

Leister sculpin (Enophrys lucasi) and antlered sculpin (Enophrys diceraus). I can't find any photos of leister sculpins, only drawings, with no complete description of its morphology. Although the drawing somewhat resembles your catch, I am leaning towards the antlered sculpin more.

Here's what the antlered sculpin looks like in water.





Description of the morphology:

Dorsal spines (total): 7 - 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12 - 15; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 10 – 13. Dorsal surface of head rough with 2 pairs of developed bony ridges; uppermost preopercular spine long and straight with some ascending processes dorsally in adults (Ref. 559). Lateral line scales large and with a rough posterior margin.

Don't be fooled by the difference in colours. Your fish could have changed colour as soon as it left the water like some groundfish do. I counted the pectoral fin rays of your fish, which is within the range of the description (16 to 19, yours had around 16 or 17). The tips of your fish's pectoral fin are orange/pink in colour, fairly close to the body colouration of the antlered sculpin when it is in the water. What really stands out is the "two pairs of developed bony ridges on the head surface", which you can clearly see on your fish. The size of the fish also falls within the range, around a foot long. Other than that, I can't really use any other features on your fish to identify because I can't see them.

More information...

[JiG_Head]

Weird looking fish! At first glance I thought it looked like some sort of Cabezon...



Nice antlers on it!
Nicole

Man if it was a cabazon ... it would be in my tummy rite now..... those things are soooo tasty baked... @ 1 point they were 14.99 a lb.


and THE GREAT RODNEY PULLS ONE OUT OF HIS WIZARD HAT!!! ... hehe thats what i thought too....but i have my doubts... you know the antlered fishy ... in that over view picture on google... near the lips... it has these 2 thingys sticking out... mine doesnt....and it also looks if it had a smaller mouth.     

i take it.... this is a pretty rare catcH?..... are they edible?

[Youngin]

Perhaps it was a fish caught in a major oil spill?

[TrophyHunter]

Perhaps it was a fish caught in a major oil spill?

I agree I think we should call it the " RED TIDE SCULPIN "   

[Rodney]

Jig Head, we know you're an Asian when the first two questions are...

1) What is it?

2) Can you eat it?



Why don't you find out for us? If you are still posting in the next six months, we can assume that it is edible.

[Fish Assassin]

He may be alive but typing with his mouth 

[THE_ROE_SLINGER]

Very interesting pics, Thankls for posting a pic, Ill have it for my fish tank

[JiG_Head]

wats with the hate.... i was just wondering.

[Rodney]

Wow, there's no hate, we're just teasing and kidding around. Those would be the exact same questions that my parents would ask too.

[BwiBwi]

May be a Buffalo Sculpin?

[joshuag232]

ya pretty sure its a buffalo sculpin look at this pic it looks like jigheads and notice the pinkish fin tips like jigheads fish

[JiG_Head]

who cares ... lets just say i made a rare catch =D

[Nina]

who cares ... lets just say i made a rare catch =D

You started the thread. Very short attention span, eh?   

[DragonSpeed]

who cares ... lets just say i made a rare catch =D

You started the thread. Very short attention span, eh?   

Yeah, I mean.... Ooh... look at the pretty flowers! They're nice. Hey!  Anyone wanna go for ice cream? 

Now... where were we?