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Pictures from my northern pike research in northwestern Ohio


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#1 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 15 December 2011 - 01:12 PM

I'm currently in the process of writing up the results from my master's thesis research project involving agricultural streams as northern pike spawning and nursery habitat in northwestern Ohio. I've been adding pictures to my presentations and reports and I got to thinking that you guys might enjoy seeing some of the pics. I'll add them here periodically.

A young-of-year northern pike (57mm in length) collected at Baden Ditch on 5-21-10:
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This was one of 24 young-of-year pike we collected in a 100 meter stretch of Baden Ditch that day.

Baden Ditch on 5-21-10:
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We surveyed 100 meters of this stream and collected only one species of fish, young-of-year northern pike.

One of the hazards of working in the ditches:
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When we encountered "mom", we stopped and let her pass through before continuing seining.

More to come...

#2 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 15 December 2011 - 01:34 PM

I grew up in the Cleveland area and I'd see those ditches all the time. I never knew there were pike in them. neat

#3 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 15 December 2011 - 03:04 PM

I grew up in the Cleveland area and I'd see those ditches all the time. I never knew there were pike in them. neat


There certainly is pike in some of them...but not others. That observation led me to the design of my project in which I tried to identify relationships between characteristics of agricultural streams in northwestern Ohio and measures of successful spawning and nursery for this species.

Edited by NateTessler13, 15 December 2011 - 03:06 PM.


#4 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 15 December 2011 - 07:07 PM

We surveyed 100 meters of this stream and collected only one species of fish, young-of-year northern pike.


No wonder... look at the fat and rather irregular belly on that first picture... everyone else in the ditch had been eaten...
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#5 olaf

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Posted 15 December 2011 - 10:12 PM

No wonder... look at the fat and rather irregular belly on that first picture... everyone else in the ditch had been eaten...


Cool project. I've always figured some ditches might hold fish but that most wouldn't, and that any fish there would be ultra-tolerant (of silt, chemicals, low oxygen) minnows of some sort. Never even considered predatory fish. Might have to take a closer look at some water I've ignored. Hope you'll let us read the paper some day.
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#6 Guest_az9_*

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Posted 15 December 2011 - 11:39 PM


I wasn't aware juvenile northerns had that dark marking that went through the eye posterially and anteriorly.

#7 Guest_mywan_*

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Posted 16 December 2011 - 06:43 AM

I never pass up checking out any stream of water, no matter how small. Some of the coolest ecosystems I've seen are so tiny you could wipe them out by hand in a few minutes.

Nate, I would certainly be interested in what you might learn about the relationships between agricultural stream characteristics and their ecological roles. This kind of stuff is extremely interesting to me, and the more detailed the better. :)

#8 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 19 December 2011 - 07:07 PM

No wonder... look at the fat and rather irregular belly on that first picture... everyone else in the ditch had been eaten...


That's possible. Even when I visited the stream in early spring, the only fish I collected were adult northern pike.

Cool project. I've always figured some ditches might hold fish but that most wouldn't, and that any fish there would be ultra-tolerant (of silt, chemicals, low oxygen) minnows of some sort. Never even considered predatory fish. Might have to take a closer look at some water I've ignored. Hope you'll let us read the paper some day.


Olaf, I've spent way too much time in ditches, so my opinion of them is very biased...but many of them are loaded with all kinds of neat fish. Certainly, there are those containing little to no fish and those that contain only the most tolerant of species. But others can have a wide variety of fishes. For example, one of my study sites was recently dredged and contained little to no vegetation and its substrate was entirely clay. That stream contained only a few fathead minnows. Another ditch hadn't been "maintained" in 20 years and had a variety of habitat including; undercut banks, riffles, runs, and vegetated pools. That ditch contained 20 species of fish in the 200 meters that I sampled. My paper is in the works right now, but there are a number of papers highlighting biodiversity in ditches. I'll have to send some your way.

In the meantime, here's a small collage of the different fishes I found at my study sites in 2010:
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I wasn't aware juvenile northerns had that dark marking that went through the eye posterially and anteriorly.


I think there's a thread pinned in the Pikes & Mudminnows sub-forum that discusses the characteristics of young pike. Check it out if you haven't already.


I never pass up checking out any stream of water, no matter how small. Some of the coolest ecosystems I've seen are so tiny you could wipe them out by hand in a few minutes.

Nate, I would certainly be interested in what you might learn about the relationships between agricultural stream characteristics and their ecological roles. This kind of stuff is extremely interesting to me, and the more detailed the better. :)


I've been involved with some work at the University of Toledo prior to my master's thesis work looking at those relationships. A fellow student at the University, Todd Crail (farmertodd), has done extensive work in that area as well. Send me an e-mail if you'd like to discuss the topic in-depth.




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