Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Delaware River 4/14, Millstone River 4/15

Started by Guest_davidjh2_* , Apr 17 2012 12:21 PM

Reply to this topic

13 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_davidjh2_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 12:21 PM

I did my first 2 real trips of the year this past weekend. I had a lot of fun but picture wise well my best shots were of some land dwelling critters.

Sat I went with my son and a friend on a daytrip to the Delaware river and to Ringing Rock park in Bucks County PA. I took my son to the park back in January and while we got to check out the ringing rocks we didn't get around to checking out the waterfall that is also in the park. I did get to it this time and while the view itself was very nice (I'll upload some pictures later) I didn't see a single minnow or crayfish in the water.

On the way up we had stopped to stretch our legs at one of our favorite spots on the Delaware river for fishing. I didn't bring my dipnet a fact I started to regret quickly. The water on the river was really low so we were able to walk around what is usually an island. I realized what a mistake I had made in not a net when I started working the shallow water flipping rocks and minnows of various species started taking off left and right. I did catch a crayfish and it was a species I want to catch a couple of to take home but for one important reason I didn't take this one

Posted Image

I don't take pregnant critters fish or crayfish and this crayfish was very pregnant

Posted Image

So we went to the park and after leaving there and stopping at a couple of unproductive spots on the Delaware we returned to the spot we had been at earlier. I brought my net this time and slipped on my wading shoes and hit the water. First off the water was very very cold. I'm very glad I didn't think about snorkeling. I only managed to catch what I think was a very pregnant Tessellated Darter and a small Creek Chub.

Posted Image

Now as I said in the beginning my best picture of the day was of a critter that doesn't even live in the water. I flipped over a rock looking for crayfish and this pretty critter was underneath it.

Posted Image

Edited by davidjh2, 17 April 2012 - 12:23 PM.

#2 Guest_davidjh2_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 12:40 PM

On Sunday I managed to sneak away for a couple of hours on the Millstone river and I caught a very nice variety of crayfish, Eastern Mudminnows, baby Bluegills, Gambusia and a couple of tadpoles. Again my best picture was of something I found under a rock. I would have taken more pictures but I got so muddy dipnetting in a couple large (very) muddy puddles where I caught most of the stuff in my capture tank

Posted Image

And here's another one of my buddies. Did I mention I'm borderline Arachnidphobic? By concentrating on these guys as photographic objects I was to get my camera within about 6 inches for this shot. All of these pictures were taken with my Droid Bionic. The camera on this thing impresses me more and more everytime I use it.

Posted Image

#3 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 01:03 PM

Are you sure that's a creek chub? I don't see a black spot on its dorsal fin,

#4 Guest_davidjh2_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 02:31 PM

It was very soft to the touch and that's usually how they feel. It could be a shiner of some kind though.

#5 Guest_Yeahson421_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 09:10 PM

It looks like a golden shiner to me.

#6 Guest_Kanus_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 09:35 PM

I would also mention that the little sunfish between those two mudminnows appears to me to be an Enneacanthus sp. Probably a bluespot.

#7 Guest_davidjh2_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2012 - 07:46 AM

You're probably right about it being a shiner, what kind I don't know and I don't have any better pics. I want to buy a 5 gallon glass tank as a photo tank and I'm going to black out 3 sides of it so pictures come out better.

A Bluespot? Well they are native to the Raritan River and the Millstone is a tributary of it so I won't say it's impossible but in all my years fishing the Millstone I've never seen one. When it's a little bigger and I move it to another tank I'll be sure to take some good pictures of it so we can get a positive id. I'd live for it to be a Bluespot though they are cool looking little fish

#8 Guest_Dustin_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2012 - 08:11 AM

I agree with Derek. That is an Enneacanthus sp. and looks most like a bluespot to me. The shiner looks like a Luxilus to me.

#9 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2012 - 12:58 PM

I agree the sunnie looks like a bluespotted. For the minnow, fallfish is another possibility, besides common shiner or creek chub. It does not look like a golden shiner to me. I'm doing an Enneacanthus & Elassoma talk for the Bucks County Aquar Soc on July 5, followed by a field trip Fri or Sat. I hope you'll be around then, and maybe have some ideas on where to go. Mark Denaro is coordinating it.

#10 Guest_Kanus_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2012 - 01:10 PM

I second the fallfish suggestion.

#11 Guest_davidjh2_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2012 - 01:44 PM

A fallfish?That's great! It means another fish off my list of fish to catch. I looked at some pictures of fallfish online and I think I may have caught quite a few of them over the years and called them creekchubs.

July 5th? I'll just be getting back from vacation(renting a cottage on Lake Champlain for a week whoo hoo) that week so I won't be able to take any time off but heck yeah if you guys want to do something that Saturday I'm definitely game. Are you or Mark going to post something as the date gets closer? I know a few safe areas on the Delaware for sampling on both sides of the river.

#12 Guest_Elijah_*

Guests

Posted 22 April 2012 - 11:58 PM

eek! That spider looks big!
I was emptying the hatch of my kayak one night after returning home from a trip and found a spider as big as my hand, eyes glowing in my headlamp beam. I live up north and am not used to such creatures. I was freaking out! any way your pic reminds me of it. he. he.