I have a question about coding. how is it possible to pull a single data value from a stream of data?
How would you pick a single fish out of a stream? You'd have to detect when its snout passed by, and when its tail passed by, so you'd know when to collect fish, without collecting water.
char data = "";
You can NOT store a string in a char.
Single quotes are for single characters. Double quotes are for strings.
Your "fish" obviously has a snout ('*') and a tail ( or or both), so:
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=396450.0
will make interesting reading.