[JudyG]

I came across this dead Sunfish while fishing a South Sound Beach today. Any thoughts?

 

[Stonefish]

Cool find.
Likely died due to the water temps.
SF

 

[Nick Clayton]

Cool find!

Sun fish are fascinating creatures. We encounter a lot of them offshore. They swim right up to the boat as if they are checking us out. Interestingly enough they can actually jump. I've seen some pretty large ones come clear out of the water. Often times the small dinner plate sized juvenile fish will jump and we mistake then for tuna. Quite a few times we've slid in on what we thought were jumping tuna only to find a school of small sun fish floating along waving at us

We see a large number of sun fish, especially the larger ones, inshore during salmon and bottom fishing trips. Makes sense one would wander into the sound now and again.

Here's a pic of one of our deck hands with a juvenile sun fish that swam up to his boat this summer. Probably not the best idea to pull a fish out of the water, but a cool pic nonetheless

 

[cabezon]

I think that SF is on the mark. Ocean sunfish are known for heading to higher latitudes in summer but some miss the bus to head south in the fall. We have cooler temperatures that can make them moribund and die. It would have had to do some interesting navigation across the Admiralty Inlet sill but once inside the Sound, I can see where one could be trapped. Thank you for sharing your find.
Steve

 

[Dipnet]

I recall seeing maybe two or three of these in the Tacoma area over the years.

 

[Flyguy65]

I've seen some big ones at Westport....

 

[Steelhead]

Looks like it should smoke up fine

 

[jasmillo]

Very cool. It is really amazing what we get to see/find any given day fishing the beaches in our area.

So unique for flyfisherman.

 

[plaegreid]

Who took the chunk out of the bottom fin?

 

[Bones]

It's a tuna bro!

 

[SilverFly]

They are a very cool fish. Saw one the size of a queen mattress a few years ago, but even that wasn't a true monster. The smaller ones jumping have also fooled me into thinking tuna.

 

[JudyG]

Who took the chunk out of the bottom fin?

I know! I wondered the same thing.

 

[Steelhead]

I know! I wondered the same thing.

Sushi

 

[JudyG]

It's a tuna bro!

I loved this video. Thanks for posting it.

 

[JudyG]

Thanks for your insights and comments gentlemen. I thought these were more of a warm saltwater fish, not something you would find close to the southern most point of Puget Sound.

 

[mtskibum16]

Looks like it should smoke up fine

Not much worse off then some of the salmon I see people take home.

 

[Squamishpoacher]

I was a couple miles off Esperanza Inlet about 10 years ago and saw a big one that I almost clobbered. At first I thought it was a piece of clear plastic and I turned the boat to retrieve it and when I approached you could see a fin on the surface. I read later how they will bask at the surface allowing birds to harvest parasites. There should be a photo on my laptop I'll post. It was big. At least 5 feet long. Later that season I heard in Tahsis that someone caught one over 200 pounds. Asking how they knew the exact weight I learnt that the skillful angler naturally had to kill it and it wasnt "caught" per se, but stuck with a halibut harpoon. How sporting is that? Most of it probably ended up in the garbage.

A side bar to this is to look for a book called Pacific Fishes of Canada. It lists and describes all these oddities encountered in these parts including the Ocean Sunfish.