I just returned from leading three snorkeling groups in the Conasauga River, sleeping 2 nights in my windows rolled up, sweltering van trying to keep the bears and mosquitos out.
The first group was a summer camp organized by the Tennessee Aquarium for about 20 highschoolers from the area and beyond. Friday was their "Snorkel the Conasauga Day" and there were plenty of smiles and happy faces. Dave captured a bunch of fish via seine and presented them photo tank style with bits of wisdom.
We always gather at the Snorkel Hole's beach for a short talk on the history, geography, ecology and the many types of fish and critters we will see. Last year i created new graphics for the existing sign which illustrates much of the discussion. Several NANFA members assisted me with their photos including Todd, Lance, Michael, Pat & JR of CFI and my boss Jim Herrig. Jim is with the Cherokee National Forest and responsible for creating and nuturing this very successful outreach program, educating folks to the wonders of the Conasauga and the proper management of the watershed for the river's health. This is my 3rd year being paid to lead snorkeling trips here and at a few other rivers within the CNF like the Hiwassee and Tellico. It is an honor to be involved with such a project, and no where better to be on a hot summer day! The World WildLife Fund provided a grant to redesign the sign and i was able to add our NANFA logo and website. A perfect project for a native fish infatuated regional graphic artist.
I applied a new graphic to the back of the sign Friday afternoon, the collage created from the awesome photgraphs of Jeremy Monroe and David Herasimtschuk of Freshwaters Illustrated. They have been working the last 2 or 3 years seasonally here in the Southeast capturing some amazing video and images of our favored fish. We hope to see their work on PBS in the near future.
Looking across the deepest section of the Snorkel Hole you see this rock bluff, marking the downstream limit of our activity. Upstream is where the action is, in the clean sweeping riffle runs where most of the darters and shiners congregate.
Here are a few images from below the surface...
You don't want to see one of these on you but are they not beautifully patterned?
Usually the substrate is often beautiful in the Conasauga, a collage of multicolored stones carpet the surface. In the riffles and runs the stones stay clean and smooth but in the deep pools beyond, sediment can layer up. Don't stir it up! Float calmly. No thrashing about is the word to everyone.
One of the favorite fish for folks to see are the Hogsuckers. Everyone loves to say "Hog Sucker!" They vacuum the bottom, all day, everyday, and if you are patient and calm you can watch them up close and personal.
Bronze darters are probably the most commonly seen darter at the site. Handsome in the spring, they exhibit all the colors of bronze from polished to patina to brassy. Percina Palmaris... "The Prize".
Stonerollers are ever present, traveling in herds, grazing like cows on the smooth algae covering the clean water swept boulders. With your fingernails you can scrape the olive green algae off, and the stones bare witness to their diet. Stonies have sharp underslung lips that leave tiny horseshoe marks behind resulting in a interesting mottled pattern. Dull and drab are the Stoneroller's color until their scales flash mirror like in the sun, easily seen from a stream bank likely near you. Stonerollers survive. I can tell those in the water of the springtime when the males become armour plated thorns, dig pits deep in the gravel, and defend their spawning site from other males, all the while trying to attract the females in. Lots to see in moving, living water!
The rare Conasauga Logperch had not been seen in several years until a couple years ago while i was exploring a site well downstream and photographed an individual, the same individual over several weeks. His pattern unique and more intricate than the typical Mobile's i submitted the photos to Pat and JR of CFI. Sure enough it was a Conasauga Logperch. They and others descended upon the site and collected something like a dozen, transporting them to the CFI facility and hence raising hundreds to an inch or two in length. Released individuals have been marked with an injected florescent plastic designating their return location. At the Snorkel Hole i saw 4 red marked individuals this weekend and feel that they have increased in size to 3 inches or more. Feeding and flipping stones they are active and quite content it appears. Oddly a green marked Conaloggie appeared a few weeks ago having swam down from another release site several miles upstream, a long adventure for a little newborn. Looking carefully you can see the thin red line on the right rear of this fish bisecting a vertical blotch. An oddity about all the released individuals i have observed, is the crazy patterns on their sides. One could almost make an alphabet from the V's, Z's and double upside down L's. I even began to name them such as Double V Right Rear Red. Or Green V, or Long Lined Triple R. But i am beginning to think the lines are slowly verticalizing into the typical logperch banding one sees most often. Interesting.
When i first sighted the Conasauga Logperch a couple years ago i put together this YouTube video.
Here are a couple of red marked ConaLoggies showing some of the random patterns on their sides. Other individuals are much more crazily marked. Also seen in this image are a couple of ever present Alabama shiners along with a Bronze darter nosing in the shadowy crevase. Only the Logperch flip stones, and i have never seen a Bronze do the same. However, i would like to see the Bronze Log hybrid feed one day. 2 years i have seen him but not this year. Kinda like the Yeti.
The next day i had a bunch of Boy Scouts and their Dads along. A great group of eager eyes, everyone in the water for both sessions. Some of the thinner boys took to shivering but we just layered them with a second suit and back in the water they went.
After the troop left i went back in with my camera and chased a Holiday darter for a good bit. This time of year most of the color has faded on many species but the Holiday darters retain a good bit of color. Aptly named for the red and green, these were only recently described in 1991 by David Etnier. The latin name means "Short Snout", like their Tennessee cousin Snubnoses back at home. The Conasauga is 1 hour east for me, driving i cut across the top of Georgia. The Conasauga is a whole different world of fish, their water flowing straight to the Mobile Bay. Back in Chattanooga our waters flow north, way up to the Ohio before cutting to the mighty Mississippi and back south to the Gulf. As the crow flies these drainages are only miles apart, but as the fish swims, thousands including a salty ocean! We have lots of diversity in the long state of Tennessee. Years and years and years have kept the distant cousins seperated, don't transport bait from one water shed to another! Fish can't walk nor should they drive.
My 3rd day brought a group from ATL, 2 hours south. An urban hiking group out for something unique, it was the first time Witherspoon and the Georgia Adventurers as they are called, have participated in one of our outing. From the young to the old and multi ethnic they descended into the water with wide eyes and big smiles. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, white clouds and clear water.
For some reason during my lecture we all launched into the entire Beverly Hillbillies theme song, no lyric left unsung, remembered by all. I get some fun people at these outings, all nature lovers and eager to see what is offered. I put them in the water to see more.
Some of the colored stones are soft and bright. River graffiti can occur.
For the young and sometimes the old and willing, i annoint those who have seen, with the mark of the Da Lo Gee! That's Cherokee for Hog Sucker! Say it loud!
This boy of enthusiasum also carries the mark of the stone flipping Logperch, staying in the water, seeing all, til the thunder and lightning drove us out.
Michael and Alejandro showed up to my pleasure, sharing the river with their fellow Georgians that last day. When the sky darkened and the rain fell folks scurried, running for their cars like they were afraid to get wet. They were already wet! I like to say, while i am standing in the rain, water pouring off of me, my hair in my eyes, fully soaked... "The fish don't mind". Ed Scott taught me that and it gives me peace!
Amanda, my beautiful lifeguard, did not much care for the rain though, and i hurried with the rush of gathering gear and was aptly assisted by Michael and Alejandro. Just as we got everything packed into the pickup truck the sky turned blue and the sun shined! Amanda dried off, changed clothes and headed back to the Ranger Station to unload the gear while us 3 gathered at a wet picnic table and sorted through our MRE's and fresh figs.
Then the rain came again and we hurried to our vehicles gathering the last packets of rations and headed downstream to one of my special permission sites. However delayed, first occured another dose of fretting, tools, advice, and jumper cables. The lesson learned is keep those clamps, cables and battery posts VERY clean and tight! I don't want to be stranded with nothing but darkness and bears gathering.
The sun again returned and we played a bit in the warmer water and added Blacktail and Striped Shiners to our sightings. The Venusta were large and pristine, elegant in their white trimmings, fast and likely unyielding to a small seine. Blackbanded darters poked about under the immersed brush piles. Riffle minnows ganged into groups, their underslung mouths working the clean substrate, their bodies trimmed in gold translucent markings.
I pushed a bit upstream, futher than i had before and Micheal called from the bank as i held on in a raging run watching what appeared to be a bull Conasauga Logperch. Though Michael was ready to begin his 3 hour drive home they relented and joined me to study the Logperch. I felt positive in was a Conasauga. It finally tired of our ever closer gazing and raced downstream. Alejandro and i discussed the characteristics a bit and turned downstream, dunked our masks and there was a Logperch flipping stones, at our feet, big as before but something not quite right, the patterns bolder in this new view, a different light, different stones. I am confused!
We waded back to our vehicles, double checked a restart on my van for assurance and shared a last bit of chatter. Thanks for coming guys! Michael and i exchanged a Wolfe built photo tank for a Elmer G NANFA Rep guide as a token of friendship and tool of NANFA. Still plenty of light for me though, waving goodbye, i loaded a new battery and determined to resolve my confusion.
Back in the water and now two logperch in my view, both the same size but one more intricately marked. Then another smaller one joined the two. It was hard to hold on and Logperch, especially Conasauga, can be pretty nervous, especially when you are thrashing for balance and attempting to be camera steady. I shot a few pics but decided to go for video and finally got the opportunity to push the lens, set supermacro, up to within inches of him. The results though are jarring due to the torrent and a slight motion sickness occurs upon reviewing. Perhaps i can slow mo it down and do a bit of editing. In my experience there is not a lot of difference in the appearance of a Mobile vs a Conasauga / Jenkensi. The Mobile's often sport a subtle reddish band in the dorsal. Their side markings are a lot more bold, fat, distinct, uniform. The Jenkinsi do not have the redness in the dorsal, it being clear. The side patterns more intricate, more refined, fine lined, the thinnest marks even being delicate. I also noted yesterday a very subtle green irridescence quality to their lower sides, something i believe Pat spoke of a few years back.
It's not a good picture but it's the best i got yesterday!
I am heading back Wednesday, a second group of Hebrew summer campers will be looking at what lives below the surface. Maybe i can try again to capture Conasauga Loggie video.
Edited by Casper, 19 July 2012 - 01:05 PM.
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