I've been fishing and catching small fish my entire life, but I only recently decided to try keeping them. I wanted to see what was in the streams near my home, and this is what I found so far. I'm still a bit shaky on my identifications, so if you see something you think I've misidentified, please let me know. Unless it's something I know immediately, I'm more of a 'take a picture and hope to ID it later' kind of guy.

This sampling was done in an unnamed (I believe) tributary of the Cuyahoga River near Macedonia, OH in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It is legal to fish in this area, though I still need to check to see if it is legal to collect small fish from the creeks. Game fish are legal to take but there is a prohibition on the possession of minnows that will likely put the kibosh on taking darters and dace.

I primarily used a large dipnet, though in a couple of spots I tried a small seine with mixed results. The creek bed is approximately 30 feet wide, though at the moment the water itself varies in width from 3-20'. It varies in depth from 3-20" with pools that can be much deeper downstream of fallen logs (more than 6' deep in one case.) The bed is sand, gravel, and cobbles with very few large stones. This collection was done today, June 9, at 10 AM. I searched over a 100 yard stretch of creek and netted approximately 100 fish over the course of two hours. It was 85 degrees and sunny.



I threw together a photo tank out of scraps of acrylic and silicone that I had on hand. I know that the two don't really mix, but I figured that a 5" deep container should hold together. It lasted through about 5 fish then basically fell apart. Thus the first few pictures are pretty good and later pictures were of iffy quality and most were not worth posting.

The very first thing I did was step into some very deep sand/mud mixture and sink up to my knees. Apparently this was sufficiently funny to convince a male western blacknose dace to catch himself in my seine while I floundered nearby. I'm not sure who was more surprised that he ended up in the net. This is also about the least blacknosed blacknose dace ever...



I caught a number of these fish in the time I spent looking. Some of the females had extremely faint black lines like the male above, others were more typically marked as below.



I caught a number of rainbow darters on this trip (12 or so.) I don't know whether they were all female or if some were male but had entirely lost their mating coloration, but they were all about as colorful as the one shown below. I was under the impression that male rainbow darters were relatively easily distinguished from the females even out of season, is this correct?



I caught several other darters as well that I didn't positively ID as rainbows. I don't have any pictures worth sharing (or even worth eating up space on my hard drive) and was unable to identify them for certain. I believe at least one was a johnny darter, which I was a bit surprised by based on the type of water I caught it in, but it was pale and very snub nosed.

Finally, I caught large numbers of the fish pictured below. I'm not certain what they are, and unfortunately I didn't catch any before my photo tank suicided. They are handsome little critters, 2" long. They look like they could be the young for a number of larger fish, but I can't figure out what the heck they actually are. I'm intending to post in the ID subforum for help on this, but here is a picture.

Edited by jasonpatterson, 09 June 2011 - 08:04 PM.

The fish in the last pic looks like some kind of trout. I'll leave the positive ID to somebody who knows trout better.

Edited by jblaylock, 09 June 2011 - 08:36 PM.

Unless it's something I know immediately, I'm more of a 'take a picture and hope to ID it later' kind of guy.

Also, it's a good idea to have a positive ID before taking any fish home. This will completely aviod the situation of endangered/threatened fish or fish you may not want. I'm not sure if that's what you meant, just thought I would add that.

Also, it's a good idea to have a positive ID before taking any fish home. This will completely aviod the situation of endangered/threatened fish or fish you may not want. I'm not sure if that's what you meant, just thought I would add that.

Nope, not what I meant. I was saying that if there's some uncertainty about something I've netted I tend to take a picture and forget about it for then rather than trying to puzzle it out in the field. Taking home a mystery fish is just asking for trouble.

You mentioned that "It is legal to fish in this area, though I still need to check to see if it is legal to collect small fish from the creeks. Game fish are legal to take but there is a prohibition on the possession of minnows that will likely put the kibosh on taking darters and dace."

Here's a link to the official rules on collecting fish in Ohio: http://www.dnr.state...spx?tabid=18644

Each person may possess up to 100 crayfish or up to 500 in the aggregate of crayfish and bait fish including minnows, suckers no longer than 10 inches, brook silversides, brook sticklebacks, gizzard shad, trout-perch, sculpins, darters, topminnows and mudminnows.

Clams, mussels or mussel shells may not be taken, possessed or collected for any purpose.

Other bait, including night crawlers, red worms, leeches, wax worms, mousies, hellgrammites, and other larval aquatic insects, may be possessed in any amount.

And here is the list of endangered Ohio animals you should familiarize yourself with before collecting so as to avoid collecting them: http://www.dnr.state.../pdf/pub356.pdf

Edited by EricaWieser, 10 June 2011 - 11:35 AM.

You mentioned that "It is legal to fish in this area, though I still need to check to see if it is legal to collect small fish from the creeks. Game fish are legal to take but there is a prohibition on the possession of minnows that will likely put the kibosh on taking darters and dace."

Here's a link to the official rules on collecting fish in Ohio: http://www.dnr.state...spx?tabid=18644



And here is the list of endangered Ohio animals you should familiarize yourself with before collecting so as to avoid collecting them: http://www.dnr.state.../pdf/pub356.pdf

Indeed. I have a copy of the fishing regulations as well... It's perfectly legal in Ohio to collect bait fish (which includes things like darters and dace) and keep them in an aquarium. It would be strange if that were not the case, allowing me to jam a hook in hundreds of them and feed them to larger fish for fun but not to take a few home and care for them. The difficulty and uncertainty comes from the additional rules that are in place for the CVNP and that can be found on their website. They prohibit the possession of "live minnows" in the park intended to limit contamination from fishing bait. Before collecting them I was intended to talk to the people at CVNP about it to see whether it referred only to fishing bait or extended to all small fish caught in the park.

I'm not sure why you included a link to the endangered species in Ohio or decided that I was not already aware of the existence of them or the illegality of collecting them.

I'm not sure why you included a link to the endangered species in Ohio or decided that I was not already aware of the existence of them or the illegality of collecting them.

I'm sure you're a good person and you obey the law and everything. I just figured I'd give you a link to the fish to avoid just in case. *shrugs* I wasn't intending to be mean or imply that you didn't already know them; I was just trying to be helpful.

I'm sure you're a good person and you obey the law and everything. I just figured I'd give you a link to the fish to avoid just in case. *shrugs* I wasn't intending to be mean or imply that you didn't already know them; I was just trying to be helpful.

Gotcha. Sorry, I guess I'm getting a little defensive. The replies to this thread have been of the "You'd better learn what you're doing or you're going to get in trouble!" sort.

We don't mean to be unfriendly, we've had some issues in the past with the authorities thinking we are indifferent to the law, which we aren't. We want to be welcoming while also making sure people know the rules. It's difficult.

Pictures of the fish held in the palm of your hand are usually fine for identification purposes. If you hold the fish gently in your fist and then quickly dip it in and out of the water, then open your hand, the fish will often display its fins for you.

We don't mean to be unfriendly, we've had some issues in the past with the authorities thinking we are indifferent to the law, which we aren't. We want to be welcoming while also making sure people know the rules. It's difficult.

Don't forget the obligatory "You should join NANFA!" post at some point in the near future.

Pictures of the fish held in the palm of your hand are usually fine for identification purposes. If you hold the fish gently in your fist and then quickly dip it in and out of the water, then open your hand, the fish will often display its fins for you.

Thanks for the tip!

You SHOULD join NANFA, we only abuse forum guests! 20 bucks will save you many a thrashing.

It ain't no lie, anyone interested in native fishes should join NANFA.

Hi Jason,

Your mystery fish are rainbow trout. Also, National Parks are very much against net collection within their boundaries (regardless of state law), although I've yet to see where they state this explicitly. What is explicit is getting an hour long explanation of your activities to the governing body who also think they know what they rules are, and then the consequent outfall over the next couple days while they figure it out. Given that I have colleagues who had appropriate scientific permits for monitoring wells in that particular Park and a ranger who insist on tearing them out in his "zone", I wouldn't bother with it. We won't even get into "Big South Fork Gate". There's plenty of great water near you with the same if not better assemblages of species, I'd stay out of the park.

Check out access on the upper Black, Chagrin and Grand Rivers. Lot of great water around you!

Todd

Edited by farmertodd, 11 June 2011 - 06:37 AM.

It falls under that whole "don't touch/remove any living non-living organism from federal lands", which I've seen explict on pretty much every NPS website. Obviously hook and line fishing falls into a different category because it is authorized, as are some other resource use activities. But nets in water to take stream organisms is asking for trouble.

Yes, this is pretty much true on many National Forest lands too, which are explicity multi-use. It's easier to get formal permission to collect on NF lands than NP, too.

Check out access on the upper Black, Chagrin and Grand Rivers. Lot of great water around you!

Todd

Yeah, the Grand River Wildlife Area is on the list for a day when I get more than 2 hours to myself (sometime in the early 2020's, I suspect...)

Yeah, the Grand River Wildlife Area is on the list for a day when I get more than 2 hours to myself (sometime in the early 2020's, I suspect...)

Heh, sounds like me. I've had a great one man trip planned since winter and I still haven't gotten to it yet. My 8 year old son just doesn't enjoy walking through swamps which sounds abnormal to me but then again I've been walking/falling into creeks since I was 4 years old

Jason - those are baby steelhead. I've ran into them in the tribs
in the spring, but I think they get cooked in most of those tribs by the end of summer
except for a few that are mostly spring fed.

DO NOT get caught with any minnows you netted in the CVNRA, trust me.
Got read the right act years back. I thought I was in the good, gathering
"bait" with a valid fishing license, I was wrong.