Josh Pickett

  2024 has been a great year! I picked up where I left off in 2023 with light rock fishing (LRF), accounting for most of my fishing, though I didn’t limit myself, and did some boat charters, shore fishing with bait, and went back to freshwater to tick off some species I had not yet caught. Below is a tally of all the rod and line species I've ticked off this year... All photos/icons are my own catches  

    1st April 2024 - 31st March 2025 Shore fishing only (sea), with bait and lures   TOTAL 32 SPECIES *8 new species    I found out about this competition late into 2023, and really wanted to join. I decided to start it at the beginning of next years hunt, to give myself a fighting chance. Like all competitions, I don't go in with the intention of winning, but rather my own personal goals; I think these hunts are a fantastic incentive to get out of the house! As these catches overlap with my 2024 species tally, I won't go into detail on every catch, rather I'll do a brief overview of each month.

♪ Scales 29 lateral, with markings unnatural; that's Amur-ay ♪ Joshua Pickett   Adorned in sunset red daubs; peppered with dalmation-esque speckling; shiny, steel blue scales; streaked in vibrant orange; or completely piebald—these ornated fish come in a wild assortment of markings and colours that would've made the likes of even Vivienne Westwood envious. To the Japanese, they're called Nishikigoi, to species competition organisers, they're known as a nightmare, and to you and me, they're the kicky koi carp!