Hello everybody,

I've been meaning to compose a thread highlighting my "fishy" activities from 2011. So far in 2012, my master's thesis has been eating up most of my time, however...now that it's complete I can go back through my pictures and share some stories from the past year. During the past year, I chased a variety of fishes via hook-and-line, caught fish while seining for fun and for my responsibilities as a graduate assistant at the University of Toledo, performed electrofishing, macroinvetebrate, and wetlands surveys throughout the midwestern and eastern United States for an environmental consulting firm based out of Columbus, Ohio, and even got a chance to join Brian Zimmerman and Justin Baker (two of the hosts of this year's NANFA Convention) in collecting fishes as they update the distribution maps for each fish species in Ohio. Let's just say I kept my hands wet in 2011.

I'd also like to use this thread to practice my newly acquired skills in ArcGIS 10.0. I just completed a course in which I learned the basics of this geoanalytical software, so it seems like fitting practice to throw in some maps I've made using this software. If the maps stink, bear with me...I'm still learning.


To begin...

2011 began as every year has since discovering the joy of fly fishing for steelhead in winter! This year though, I was tagged with what fishermen recognize as a "curse" that cannot be broken. I caught a fish on the first cast of the year:



Of course, after releasing this fish I spent the next 8 hours without another nibble. It sure was nice to be wading and fly fishing streams free of ice, however. I had a buddy (Andrew Z.) along during the day that was a first-time steelhead fly fisherman. About 10 minutes into the day, I guided him to his first steelhead, and the beginning of a lifelong obsession:



This was certainly a great way to kick off 2011. Andrew and I proceeded to take a number of trips throughout the winter and early spring to our two favorite steelhead streams in north-central Ohio:



Andrew and I mostly visited Beaver Creek (a small, unstocked stream in Lorain County) in early to late winter. As spring rolled around, we headed over to the Vermilion River. This river gets stocked annually with steelhead by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and these fish return to this river in good numbers to spawn in the spring. This river receives less fishing pressure than those located closer to Cleveland. Here the fly fisherman/woman willing to do a bit of hiking is rewarded with exceptional numbers of large fish and fantastic scenery in and around the steep shale walls of river valley:



In early March, Andrew and I seemed to hit the stream at just the right time. In a half day on the water, Andrew and I combined to land over 20 steelhead in a half mile stretch of the Vermilion River. Many were between 16 and 24" in length:



While several others were real monsters...



A few weeks, I brought a small group of friends to the Vermilion in search of steelhead. A few of the anglers were in need of bait, so I brought my seine down to the river and helped them catch minnows. We started seining at the mouth of a small feeder stream to the Vermilion River (Chance Creek). The pool at the mouth of the creek was full of a variety of minnow species including;

• Central stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum)
• Emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides)
• Silverjaw minnow (Notropis buccatus)
• Sand shiner (Notropis stramineus)
• Rosyface shiner (Notropis rubellus)
• Spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)
• Striped shiner (Luxilus chrysocephalus)
• Creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus)
• Bluntnose minnow (Pimephales notatus)

Certainly, a good variety of minnows, however, none were out of the ordinary for this watershed. While rummaging through our catch, I noticed a few minnows that looked a bit odd. Closer inspection revealed that we had also caught bigeye chub (Hybopsis amblops).





I was certainly pleased to see this species here, as it has become rare or extirpated in many parts of the Lake Erie drainage. Another unusual catch that day was an adult grass pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus). This part of the state has a higher amount of relief than other parts of the state in which the grass pickerel is more common. In addition, the stream bed is mostly shale and limestone and there is little in-stream vegetation. In other words, this is not typical grass pickerel habitat. It's still not clear to me which is the more likely scenario; 1) this fish washed out from upstream drainage ditches/small streams, or 2) this fish migrated here from downstream marsh habitat/or Lake Erie. Either way, unusual. A short hike up the small feeder stream produced two riffles species typical of the small streams in this area; rainbow darter (Etheostoma caueruluem) and mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdii).

----

I've got to get going for now...I'll pick back up on this in a short bit.

Edited by NateTessler13, 08 May 2012 - 12:21 PM.

Excellent recap! Thanks for sharing!

Twenty Mile Creek in southern Ontario features the exact same habitat you mentioned for Grass Pickerel, definitely odd but they seem to manage fine (probably make the most out of bank vegetation/cover

All right, now to pick up where I left off a few months ago...(sorry for the delay - since my last post I have moved to the Cleveland area and started a new job).

Amidst the steelhead fishing of April, I had a few friends visit me in northwestern Ohio from the Chicago area. They came to fish the local event known as the Maumee River Walleye Run. Each year in March and April, walleyes ascend from the Western Basin of Lake Erie up the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of walleyes arrive in search of suitable spawning habitat in the turbid waters of this large river. The running of the walleye is followed closely by the running of the fishermen/women. When the spawning run is in full peak (early to mid-April) this is a common scene on the river:

(Photo courtesy of Andrew Ragas).

Despite the crowds the fishing can be fantastic, and this is also a common scene:


(Above images provided by Andrew Ragas).

My friends and I spent a few days in mid-April catching and eating a good number of walleye from the Maumee. The walleye are certainly not the only fish migrating to the rocky riffles found throughout the lower Maumee River. In my five or so years of fishing the Maumee River in early spring, I have noticed a seasonal succession of species making their way in and out of the river. I have spent a good number of days in spring for the past five years angling in the Maumee River, made a few trips seining with NANFA members, and collected fishes for the aquariums at the local Bass Pro Shops with the aid of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: Division of Fish and Wildlife. Most of my time spent on the river in spring has been near Perrysburg and Maumee in Wood and Lucas Counties, respectively.

Here's a list of the fishes that I have seen or collected in this limited area on the river over the past five years:

• Longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) - although these fish are year around residents of the river, many travel upstream from the lake during spring. This past spring, the local newspaper, The Toledo Blade, published a short article about fish spawning in the Maumee River. The on-line version of the article features an interesting video of gar spawning in the river: http://www.toledobla...-many-fish.html
• Gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum)
• Emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides)
• Ghost shiner (Notropis buchanani)
• Bluntnose minnow (Pimephales notatus)
• Spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)
• Common carp (Cyprinus carpio)
• White sucker (Catostomus commersonii)
  
  
  
  These fish are often the first to migrate from the lake. They arrive on the riffles in early March and remain until mid-April. The nuptial males develop a dusky gray to purple lateral band and many breeding tubercles. I have a hunch that the early spawning activity of this species may assist in loosening up the gravel and cobble to make these riffles more suitable for other broadcast spawners that arrive here later in the year.

Unfortunately, that's all the time I have for now (sorry to cut out in the middle of the list)...I'll pick back up on this when I can.

Edited by NateTessler13, 04 July 2012 - 11:29 AM.

• Shorthead redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum)
  
  - the shorthead redhorse arrive on the riffles and rapids at approximately the same time as the walleye. They would be extremely abundant from late March through mid-April. It was my belief that the aggressive male walleye would chase these fish away from their potential spawning areas, therefore, when fishing for walleye, I would use baits that were red/orange to mimic the caudal fin of a shorthead redhorse.
• Silver redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum) - these fish were less common than the white sucker or shorthead redhorse. The only time I encountered this species was during nighttime electrofishing with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in early April.
• Bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) - bigmouth buffalo are occasionally snagged accidentally by fishermen during late March and early April. I encountered a few large adults (~20 lbs.) when electrofishing in early April.
• Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubbalus)
  
  
  - the smallmouth buffalo arrives on the riffles for spawning in late April. Their arrival signifies the end of the walleye spawning run and the beginning of the white bass run. When wading the river in late April and early May, the smallmouth buffalo can be seen breaking the surface during the act of spawning. They become so numerous in the riffle areas that it becomes difficult to cast a line without snagging one.
• Central quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus hinei)
  
  Quillback are sporadic catches throughout April on the Maumee River. There are resident fish in the river, and likely many migrants from the lake. Brian tells me (and I believe him) that there may be two subspecies of quillback in the Maumee River; central quillback (Capriodes cyprinus hinei) and northern quillback (C. c. cyprinus).
• Channel catfish (Ictalurus puncatatus) - abundant throughout the Maumee River.
• Stonecat (Noturus flavus) - these fish were abundant in the riffles in the side channel around one of the islands in the river.
• Trout perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus) - during numerous seining attempts, I never encountered this fish. However, during nighttime electrofishing surveys I found this fish to be very abundant in the deeper pools.
• White bass (Morone chrysops) - white bass fishing is very popular locally. Thousands of these fish migrate from the lake to spawn in the riffles in an around Maumee/Perrysburg.
• White perch (Morone americana) - these fish migrate alongside the white bass. Oftentimes these fish spawn side by side with white bass or in slightly deeper water.
• Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu)
• Logperch (Percina caprodes) - I would occassionally catch these fish while seining around the riffles in this area, however, during electrofishing, these fish were one of the most common species encountered.
• Walleye (Sander vitreus)
  
  - much attention is paid to the Maumee River Walleye Run and it provides the local economy with a boost every spring. The riffles and rapids in Maumee and Perrysburg become overtaken with walleye from mid-March through mid-April every year. When electrofishing with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, I was in awe of the sheer numbers (and size!) of adult walleye in this river during the peak of the run. Below is a video of a female walleye estimated at 14 lbs. The eggs from this fish will be fertilized by the milt from sauger collected in the Ohio River to produce saugeye for the state's stocking program.
  http://youtu.be/kWjcjnhBpUE
• Greenside darter (Etheostoma blennioides)
• Freshwater drum (Aplodonitus grunniens)

That concludes the fish that I've seen or collected in this lower stretch of the river. My next post will highlight different fishes collected during 2011 in the middle and upper stretches of the Maumee.

Great pictures and info. Many many years ago I made it up to that end of the state to fish the walleye run a couple times. Had a lot of fun. I do especially like your redhorse picture. I just can't get enough of redhorse photos. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Steve. The walleye run can be a lot of fun if you go when it's not elbow-to-elbow fishermen and the bite is good. Did you happen to snag into any redhorse when you were in the river?

Thanks, Steve. The walleye run can be a lot of fun if you go when it's not elbow-to-elbow fishermen and the bite is good. Did you happen to snag into any redhorse when you were in the river?

No redhorse, but we did catch a few walleyes the first time although it was elbow to elbow. The second time wasn't so crowded but the river was flooded. We fished anyway, but didn't catch much that time but still had fun. Never had a bad day fishing, sampling or collecting. Sometimes it even gets better and I get to see, handle or bring home fish.

I've been lucky enough to spend a good number of afternoons over the past few years with NANFA members and other friends at the furthest downstream dam on the Maumee River in Grand Rapids, OH (the stars on the map near Antwerp, OH are in reference to a future addition to this thread).


This river serves as a spawning and nursery habitat for a wide variety of the fishes of Lake Erie (as mentioned in a previous post). As fish are stopped on their upstream migration by the dam in Grand Rapids, they congregate in the pools and rapids adjacent to the dam.







In the early spring, wading this area can be treacherous/deadly, as spring floods bring discharge rates well over 20,000 cubic feet per second. However, when discharge rates in the river dip below 400 cubic feet per second in the summer, fish enthusiasts can wade the water near the dam and catch a variety of fishes typically found in big rivers. Among the bedrock holes, limestone cobble riffles, and gravel bars covered in water willow, friends and I have captured the following fishes directly below the dam over the past few years:

• Gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) - the gizzard shad would occur in unbelievable numbers directly below this dam. Oftentimes in the summer, an 8' x 4' seine would be difficult to lift out of the water because it would be so heavy with shad. These were surely feeding the numerous catfish, bass, and gar in the pools direclty downstream.
• Longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) - these fish could also be seen lazily gulping air from the surface of the pools. Occassionally I would catch one on hook-and-line. During late May in 2007, I came across a large group of spawning gar directly below the dam. They were spawning in very shallow water, many with their backs sticking out of the water.
• Common carp (Cyprinus carpio)
• Emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides) - this minnow species is likely the most numerous fish species in this portion of the river. Their presence at the dam in great numbers seems to be seasonal, and many predatory species may follow their migration to the dam.
• Ghost shiner (Notropis buchanani)
  
  - a small minnow species that can be very numerous below the dam. They seem to be most abundant during the middle of the summer when the emerald shiner is present in great numbers.
• Sand shiner (Notropis stramineus) - very common in the pools directly below the dam, as well as in the cobble riffles.
• Spottail shiner (Notropis hudsonius) - the abundance of this species seems to fluctuate widely from year to year. Some years they are common catches below the dam. In 2011, I only captured 4 or 5 individuals, despite catching thousands of emerald shiner, ghost shiner, and sand shiner in this area.
• Bluntnose minnow (Pimephales notatus)
• Creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus)
• Striped shiner (Luxilus chrysocephalus)
• Spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)
• Golden shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)
• Suckermouth minnow (Phenocobius mirabilis)
  
  - only found a few of these among the cobble riffles downstream of the dam.
• Redfin shiner (Lythrurus umbratilis)
• Quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus)
  
  - always seemed to manage to catch at least a few large adults in the pools that butted up against the base of the dam.
• Shorthead redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) - this species was an infrequent catch. Their red tails could be seen in the rapid areas below the dam from time to time.
• Silver redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum)
  
  - only caught one large adult in the summer of 2011. As you can see, it wasn't in good shape. Perhaps, this old fish was beat up from the rigors of spawning earlier in the year.
• Bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus)
  
  - this large sucker species was very numerous directly below the dam. Although this species reaches sizes of over 30 lbs., I rarely saw any at this site that were much larger than the one pictured above. The fish pictured above was one of the few healthy specimens I saw. Most fish more closely resembled the ones pictured below...
  
  
  (I reached my picture limit for this post - 10 pictures - so, I'll have to continue in an additional post)

(continued)

• 
  
• Brook silverside (Labidesthes sicculus)
• Blackstripe topminnow (Fundulus notatus)
• Grass pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus) - out of all the seining I did among the water willow near the gravel bars downstream of the dam, I only captured one adult.
• Tadpole madtom (Noturus gyrinus) - this species is rather numerous near the roots of the water willow.
• Yellow bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)
• Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) - the pools directly below the dam are loaded with channel catfish. The majority of fish are 12-16" in length. However, during a few summers, it seemed like my catch was dominated by fish over 20". As the summer progressed, the average catch size of channel catfish appeared to decrease. This is likely due to the high harvest rates below the dam, where large catfish are removed on a regular basis.
  
  ^ a picture of a buddy holding a nice sized channel catfish he caught at night below the dam a few summers ago. During this evening, this was the average sized catch.
• Flathead catfish (Pylodictus olivares)
  
  - when targeting catfish, it seemed like I would catch one flathead catfish per every 30 channel catfish. Most flathead catfish I have caught below the dam have been about the size of the one pictured above, however, in the spring of 2007, a friend and I seined a monster...
  
  We were seining in a series of riffles and pools that contained a large congregation of adult longnose gar. The gar were spawning and we were having fun catching scooping up these huge gar, and we were certainly in awe of their numbers. Some of the gar were spooked into a pool that was approximately 3 feet in depth, 10 feet wide, and no longer than 20 feet. My friend and I slowly pulled the seine through the pool, expecting to catch a bunch of gar. We each felt something large hit our legs and then the net. The pools here also contained large common carp, so we expected we'd encountered another carp. When we pulled up the net, we were surprised to see a large cream colored belly of a huge flathead catfish. We brought the catfish to the bank and laid it down on the seine to give the picture some scale. The seine is 4' x 8', so this catfish is nearly 4' long. By far, the largest fish I have ever captured in a 4' x 8' seine. In fact, if anyone here has caught a larger fish in a 4' x 8' seine, I'd like to see the picture and hear the story!
• White bass (Morone chrysops)
  
  - this highly migratory species arrives below the dam in great numbers during their spawning run from Lake Erie. However, a resident population exists in the river that follows the emerald shiners (and to a lesser extent, the gizzard shad) throughout the river. When the shiners occur in good numbers below the dam, so do the white bass. When the white bass are feeding below the dam, it's not uncommon to catch two at a time...
  
• Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) - occurs sporadically.
• Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) - slightly more common than largemouth bass in this area.
• White crappie (Pomoxis annularis)
• Orangespotted sunfish (Lepomis humilis)
  
  - very abundant throughout this river. These fish are very numerous near the limestone cobble found along the shoreline below the dam.
• Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus)
• Green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)
• Logperch (Percina caprodes)
  
  - one of the most common darters in this stretch of the river.
• Orangethroat darter (Etheostoma spectabile) - only encountered this fish once here in the summer of 2011. This large river habitat surely isn't suited for the orangethroat darter. This fish had likely washed out from an upstream tributary.
• Blackside darter (Percina maculata) - frequently encountered in the backwater pools near rootwads.
• Greenside darter (Etheostoma blennioides) - the only darter that is abundant in the riffles below the dam.
• Johnny darter (Etheostoma nigrum)
  
  (continued further...at my picture limit again)

• Walleye (Sander vitreus)
  
  
  - for years, I had heard rumors of resident walleyes in the river known largely for the walleye that migrate from Lake Erie. In the summer of 2011, I caught a good number of small walleye (12-14") directly below the dam, demonstrating that walleyes do persist in this river outside of the spawning period.
• Freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)
  
  - these fish must be the most abundant fish in this section of the river outside of gizzard shad and several species of cyprinids. They are so numerous that at times they can be a nuisance. To illustrate their numbers, a friend and I during the summer of 2011 had a competition to see who could catch the most fish via hook-and-line in two hours. At the end of two hours, I had caught and released 63 freshwater drum, while he caught and released 38...all from the same pool.

This concludes my recollections of collecting fish below the dam on the Maumee River in Grand Rapids. My next post will be about a project I conducted further upstream on the Maumee River (near Antwerp, OH) with the help of a number of NANFA members.

Edited by NateTessler13, 22 July 2012 - 10:12 AM.

Great stuff, Nate. I like the look of the scale pattern on the Quillback and the colors on the O-spot.

That is a huge flathead cat to catch while seining. I'm interested to see if anyone can top that.

That is a whole lot of drum. I've never fished for drum. What kind of baits do you use to target them?

Thanks, Isaac. I certainly agree with you about both the quillback scale pattern and the orangespotted sunfish colors. Always a pleasure to see those two in my net.

Drum aren't that difficult to catch. In fact most people catch them when fishing for other species of fish. They'll take most baits. I've had the most success using minnows and nightcrawlers kept near the substrate in deep pools.

Awesome post and pictures, loved it!

I happened to get back to the dam this past weekend. I had about two hours to play around before heading back to the Cleveland area. With my seine in hand, I descended the stairs to the warm, shallow water below the dam. Seining solo, I caught quite a variety of fish. I took time out to take a few photos. Here's an example of how abundant orangespotted sunfish can be below this dam...

^ This is one seine haul with an 8' x 4' seine...by myself. I probably missed just as many in that one haul.

I had my photo tank along, so I took time out to snap a few voucher shots...
Orangepotted sunfish (Lepomis humilis)

Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus)

^ this is the first smallmouth buffalo that I've collected below the dam. I caught 3 young-of-year buffalo directly below the dam. All fish were between 70 and 90mm in length.
Spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)

I did take a number of other photos...but I'm still going through all my pics. I'll post them soon.

Edited by NateTessler13, 09 August 2012 - 05:58 PM.

Three more from the afternoon...

Quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus) - around 90mm in length


Silver redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) - around 80mm in length


Shorthead redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) - around 80mm in length

Gotta love the rainbow in the first pic