Get to know the warpaint shiner, a vibrant southeastern U.S. species with striking red and black markings. This trout-like minnow is found in cold, clear, fast-flowing streams and is both important prey for sportfish and host for native freshwater mussels. If you're feeling like a challenge, we discuss partaking in the "shiner slam" (for both anglers and snorkelers). Fish on!

Casper Cox, a freshwater snorkeling enthusiast from Tennessee, takes us below the surface and into the underwater world of the Tangerine Darter! The beauty of this fish and enthusiasm of our guest will have you grabbing your snorkel gear and heading to your nearest/clearest water and immersing yourself in new worlds. On deck next: Warpaint Shiner!

Katrina and Guy celebrate the start of season five by highlighting the journey so far through over 200 episodes. They reflect on what's been learned by digging into the rich diversity of fish and cultural connections across different geographies and cast a line towards topics to come. On deck: Tangerine Darter!

Find out which fishes have made the cut for season 5! Katrina and Guy bring listeners behind the scenes for a peek into their annual fish draft.

This episode explores the ability of Pacific salmon to colonize Alaska rivers flowing north into the Arctic Ocean. Are they able to spawn successfully or are they just adventurous strays probing north? Our guests are Peter Westley and Randy Brown. Randy, a Fishery Biologist, operates out of our Northern Alaska Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office and Peter is the Wakefield Chair of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

If you're a big Randy Brown fan like we are, check out our S1:E37 episode on Alaska's Bering Cisco and S3:E11 episode on dwarf Dolly Varden char. You can read his interviews here:

• https://www.fws.gov/story/dandy-dollies-far-north-alaska
• https://www.fws.gov/story/made-alaska-bering-cisco

The cookiecutter shark has a very peculiar set of skills and is known for its distinctive feeding behavior. Despite leaving its mark on a wide variety of creatures (and even some humans and inanimate objects), much about these small sharks remains a mystery! Guest Aaron Carlisle from the University of Delaware's School of Marine Science and Policy brings his perspective and highlights the challenges of studying this amazing and strange fish.

Meet the Jack Dempsey, an American cichlid known for its beauty and aggressiveness. Your co-hosts Katrina and Guy have fun exploring the likeness between this fish and the 1920s heavyweight boxer, its aquarium presence, and how its found its way into unlikely places like South Dakota and Russia.

If you like this fun take, you might also enjoy S4:E19 about the bizarre knifefishes.

We are joined by two (and a half) guests who really like Fantail Darters and have found a creative way to get people excited about overlooked nongame fish! Drew Holloway is a fisheries biologist for the Muncie Bureau of Water Quality in Central Indiana and North Central Division of American Fisheries Society President Elect. Luke Etchison is a conservation biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail co-creator, and North Carolina AFS President. Their creation is Duke Hollison, a small little man who makes tiny native fishes look big and cool on Instagram.

For our 200th episode, we chat with Gene Gilliland - lifelong bass enthusiast and conservation director of the Bass Angler Sportsman Society (BASS). Learn about the variety of ways to catch this fish, why they're so popular, and more.

Get to know the fish and places it calls home. We also discuss fishing strategies, the importance of curiosity, and pathways into fishing and caring for native fishes. Our guest is Redband Trout enthusiast and Oregon State University student Roberto Ponce Velez.