Q: After a thoroughly enjoyable trip fishing lingcod, I was relaxing in the evening sun on the crab dock in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Jigging a 3/8-ounce diamond jig, I caught nice greenlings, rockfish and sculpins when a strange creature bit off more than its small mouth could chew. The mystery fish was a little more than a foot long, very thin and had a long dorsal fin full of small spines. I took a couple of photos and released it. It swam with undulating eel-like movements. My best guess is something in the prickleback family. What do you say?
Thorke Østergaard
Odense, Denmark
A: Thorke, that's a very good call. That's an aptly named snake prickleback, Lumpenus sagitta. These fish grow to about 20 inches long and live over sand and in eelgrass from the Sea of Japan to northern California. While people usually see them kind of propped up on the bottom, they often rise in the evenings to feed on plankton. Even with a very small mouth, this species is quite aggressive and gets hooked fairly often. While not a major sport species, several economically important fish, such as lingcod and many rockfishes, eat snake pricklebacks. — Milt Love
