Driftnetting The Flint River In Alabama
#1 Guest_fundulus_*
Posted 06 October 2010 - 08:38 PM
#4 Guest_fundulus_*
Posted 07 October 2010 - 10:42 AM
No fish, we were purely setting nets to catch drifting macroinvertebrates which of course largely feed fishes like darters. In this stretch of river 12 days ago we caught, in descending order of abundance, banded, black snubnose, rainbow, greenside, fantail, redline and stripetail darters. Under current conditions we think it's too shallow for logperch which might change if it ever rains here again. And yesterday was borderline wader water temperature, at 15 deg. C. Next time it will be waders for sure.Any fish photos? Looks like a nice spot for darters
#6 Guest_fundulus_*
Posted 07 October 2010 - 02:38 PM
That's a good question. We never found any at Estill Fork, a much smaller stream although there are native unionids present. In the mainstem of the Flint we may encounter them. The net is made of organza silk, with a 30 micron mesh. In principle we should be able to catch them. I'm not sure if they're too fragile and might get shredded in our handling of the drift. What we do works great for arthropods and even worms. My really ambitious scheme is trying to figure out how we could catch the larval stage of various trematode Dactylogyrid gill parasites, which range in size from 30-50 micrometer diameter. Even better, we'd have to be able to differentiate one species from the other.Ever look for glochidia or mussel larvae in those drifts Bruce?
#7 Guest_FishheadDave_*
Posted 08 October 2010 - 05:05 PM
My really ambitious scheme is trying to figure out how we could catch the larval stage of various trematode Dactylogyrid gill parasites, which range in size from 30-50 micrometer diameter. Even better, we'd have to be able to differentiate one species from the other.
Sounds like you need a graduate student and some undergraduate work study students...
#8 Guest_fundulus_*
Posted 08 October 2010 - 06:49 PM
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