Hello,

I recently made a new acrylic photo container and got some new photo technique ideas (thanks Uland and Lance!) that I just had to try out. I picked the nicest day of the week and headed out to one of my favorite places for seeing fish typical of large river systems (at least large river systems in the Great Lakes drainage). I went to the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. This large river is a tributary to the western basin of Lake Erie. Many species of fish make spawning runs out of Lake Erie, and wind up in this river. During this time of year, however, it's mostly river residents. I decided to sample (via 6'x4' minnow seine) in two areas near the most downstream dam on the river. First I went 100 meters upstream of the dam...

Date: 7-27-10
Location: Maumee River in Grand Rapids, OH. 100 meters upstream of the dam.

Water level: 1300 cfs - and slowly rising. Normal discharge is 900 cfs. The area I sampled was less than 1m deep.
Water temperature: likely in the upper 70's*F
Water quality: Recent rains made the Maumee more turbid than usual. Pools upstream of the dam were heavily silted.
Substrate: Heavily silted limestone cobble and bedrock.
Vegetation: The turbid waters, silted substrate, and bedrock of the area don't provide for much in-stream diversity. Some water willow emerged near the shoreline.
Collected:
Longnose Gar (Lepisosteus osseus) - didn't catch any, but saw some very large adults coming up for gulps of air from time to time. I was glad that some of them were on the opposite side of the water willow from me. One looked like it could have been approaching 4 feet in length!
Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma cepedianum)

- saw large schools dimpling the surface, occasionally breaking the surface, likely eluding Longnose Gar.
Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)
Redfin Shiner (Lythrurus umbratilis)
Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)
Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides)
Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) - a few large ones were foraging among the willows.
Tadpole Madtom (Noturus gyrinus)

- caught 3 small fish buried in the water willows. After looking at this fish closer, he appeared to be parasitized by small grubs.
Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus)
Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
Orangespotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis)
Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) - caught one small young of year here.

After a short while there, I decided to see what was swimming downstream of the dam...

Downstream of the dam

Collected:
Longnose Gar (Lepisosteus osseus) - saw several large adults breaching the surface in some of the deeper pools.
Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) - millions of shad, ranging from 3 to 4 inches in length were piled up below the dam. The water directly below the dam was dark with shadows of enormous schools of these fish, which are no doubt feeding many of the area's predacious fish, birds, turtles, and snakes.
Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)
Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)

Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides)

- almost as equally abundant as the Gizzard Shad. A single scoop with a 6'x4' seine would produce ~1,000 of these fish.
Sand Shiner (Notropis stramineus)


- found at least two age classes of this shiner. The older of the age classes was easy to identify as a Sand Shiner, however, the younger age class looked like Ghost Shiners at first.
Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) - tripped over a few large ones while rounding up shiners.
Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus)



- saw several groups of large adults moving from deep pools into shallow rapids to feed. They appeared to be foraging on the abundant Cladophora found below the dam (or perhaps more likely on the midges and other macroinverts found within the Cladophora). After seeing this, I brought out my fishing pole and rigged my line with a hook and split-shot. Using Cladophora as bait, I managed to catch two large adults.
Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) - caught a few nice sized ones in the deeper holes while using Emerald Shiners as bait.
Brook Silverside (Labidesthes sicculus)
Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)
Orangespotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis)

- found quite a few in the shallow pools below the dam (away from the current). They still appear to be in prime breeding condition.
Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)

- had a blast catching these on ultra-light tackle. Local fishermen harvest Gizzard Shad and fish here for Channel Catfish and Flathead Catfish. The ever abundant Freshwater Drum is overlooked and easily caught using smaller bait. I fished for only an hour with hook-and-line and caught at least 40 Drum! None were very sizeable, but most were around 8" in length.

All in all, a great day to do some exploring, fishing, and trying new photographing techniques. Next week, I'm off to the Outer Banks on the east coast of North Carolina. I'll surely be bringing my net and photo gear to chase fish in the salt marshes.

-Nate

Great photos Nate! How do you sample in the water willow?

Thanks, Susan. Getting in the water willow is all a matter of determination. I surround a clump as well as I can then stomp the willow with focus on scaring fish down into the bag I've created with the seine.

Nate, how do you put the algae (Cladophora) on a hook?
Keith

Nate, you did have good reason to fear the Longnose;

Fishing in murky water for them a couple weeks ago yielded one running into the back of my leg, a weird feeling getting bumped and definately scared the hell out of me. Nice photos, glad to see the new photo techniques worked excellent

Nate, how do you put the algae (Cladophora) on a hook?
Keith

Cladophora is actually pretty easy to get on a hook. I've found that when it's dried out a bit, it takes on a texture like wool (nicknamed "water wool"). Then, just wrap it around the shank of the hook. You have to reapply the bait quite a bit, but luckily, Cladophora is abundant where found (usually).

Fishing in murky water for them a couple weeks ago yielded one running into the back of my leg, a weird feeling getting bumped and definately scared the hell out of me. Nice photos, glad to see the new photo techniques worked excellent

Thanks. Yeah, I get a little uneasy in a waist deep pool of murky water when I know there could be hundreds of them in the pool with me. Not that they're something to be afraid of, it's just that if I startle them they could knock into me and give me some good scrapes like what you have pictured.

makes for some good battle scars/stories