Huron River, Livingston County MI

Hi folks,

I FINALLY got some snorkels in this year over the 4th of July week. The first was in a kettle lake of the Clinton River watershed, flowing east off the Interlobate Moraine that cuts across south central Michigan from the Thumb. The pics didn't come out all that great in the photos due to a recent disturbance, but was fun nonetheless. The second was in the Huron River in the same general area, just a little further west. Conditions there weren't all that great either, as the river was seriously hot, hypoxic and anoxic conditions happened in the substrate, and a massive pulse of nutrients made for a lot of algae smacking into one's forehead. However, it also created a photographic situation that I wasn't all that quick to overlook. The following are the results...

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There's only one way to get pictures like this of a pike... And it's something more like this:



So the hypothesis is that it died from heat shock and I found it in the magic window. Which is pretty amazing, because that part of the Huron historically was amazingly buffered by springs, and stays very cool. Guess you can't pave things all the way over huh? Now, if I would have known more quickly about the Chuck Testa Ojai Valley Taxidermy viral video, I may have felt led to put in more scenes, in particular... One where I dangle my fingers and have the pike "attack" and film the ensuing struggle. May be disrespectful of the dead, but amusing none-the-less.

I did like this picture tho:

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We tend to get focused on the teeth, but note the flaps of skin on both jaws (and review the video). There isn't any function overlooked in the business end of this critter! Everything says "you're staying in my mouth". Neato.

Saw some other critters too... A young map turtle greeted me when I got in and I thought I was going to have an awesome snorkel.

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But then the algae started hitting me in the face, and then a huge mat of it pummeled me while trying to get a shot of a pumpkinseed sunfish. Suckers, northern longear, walleye were all absent. And worse yet, in the 5 years since I'd visited this site last, both Dreissenid mussels have established themselves. This is an elktoe mussel that's smothered in them. Also note that it was so hot, some of the driessenids were dying:

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But to end on a positive note, there were plenty of smallmouth and a couple massive largemouth swimming about....

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Most of the bass were really spooky, I assume with all the algae going by and the hot water. But that guy was too interested in what my wife was scouring up. Always watch your dive buddy to see what's following them around (or look downstream for what you've attracted!)

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Hopefully I'll have some more photos later this summer. If it remains as hot as it's been, I'll be making the drive to the cooler waters of the north... This will make the subjects mostly gamefish, but I guess they need some love from time to time too. Still, if it's this hot... I'd deal with it much better with tangerine darters and combshell mussels in cool clear streams. Oh well.

Todd

Edited by farmertodd, 10 July 2012 - 12:45 PM.

Time to get out of that wetsuit... down to bareskin.
Fearsome beast the Pike... i get to see pickeral lurking in Florida, i reckon their next of kin.
So what is hot to you tempwise?

The river was somewhere around 80. It was bathwater. I usually wear a shorty to help with buoyancy now that I lost the weight, and it wasn't even a consideration.

Awesome images and write up, Todd. The third photo down is my favorite -- great capture.

Thanks Blake, the third is my favorite one too. I tried to stage it like one of Larry Toples' covers on In-Fisherman. Been even more awesome if I would have been able to get the gills to flare. He'd already set up enough that it was impossible and really looked unnatural.

Yes, this was a diorama/mount in a open stream, a pike puppet, so to speak

Todd

Great stuff, Todd. Thanks. The Huron's just down the road from me. Every year I intend to go over there, and then I don't. I appreciate the reminder.

If you get a lemon, make lemonade; If you get a dead pike, well, actually even more interesting than lemonade. Real nice photos. I like the first one with the mirror image. Thanks for sharing.

Very cool, Todd. I like the first pike image as well. Too bad about the algae and mussels. I hope you're able to get out again soon.

Hey thanks guys! Yeah I was kind of bummed that it was illegal to take it home and eat it, seemed like there was still some waste, but okay.

Jim, how far is it for you to get over there? There are many places across the moraine I'd like to check out, and I'm very familiar with Hillsdale County and east. Neat stuff in the upper Maumee, Raisin and Huron, and I'd like to investigate a little more about the distribution of the Indiana logperch (P. c. manitou) in the upper St. Joseph (Lake Michigan drainage). So don't be shy about bugging me to get out... Else I don't end up going out

Todd

The Huron is less than an hour away in some places. I live in northern Ingham County. I've done a little exploring in SE Michigan, but not anywhere near enough. The Huron and River Raisin have a little different cast of charactors than the rest of the state due to the Lake Erie drainage.

I've done some sampling down in Berrien County (SW), but that was a long time ago. Don't remember any logperch, but I was in some very small streams.

I hope to have some time available soon, I'l let you know.

Jim

Wonderful stuff Todd. Crazy pike stories for sure - heat's been burning up all kinds of things of recent.
Glad you finally made it out for leisure!