2012 - The Year Of The Fish
#1 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 17 January 2013 - 02:15 PM
I met up with Andrew Gunthrope and Bernie Arnoldi to a collecting trip to one of the swamps near my home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and it changed my whole perspective. After seeing a new assemblage of native fish, and beginning to get educated about the vast diversity, my attentions shifted.
Seven years later, I am proud to say that I have just taken a position as an Aquatic Resource Technician with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. When the opportunity arises, I plan on getting a Master’s Degree in fisheries conservation. NANFA should be proud to take a large portion of the credit for inspiring me to learn and become passionate about fish and aquatic systems, and devote my career to native fish.
In the last two years, I have had many great experiences both on my own exploratory collecting trips, as well as having been a frequent volunteer for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (and if anyone reading this is struggling to get ahead and find a job, I encourage you to VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER!).
Besides my crappy cell phone camera, I had no way of really recording my adventures until last Christmas when I bought myself a Pentax WG-1 waterproof camera.
In January 2012, I was in North Carolina visiting family and slipped away for a quick collecting trip. I drove NW of Charlotte to sample to Catawba Drainage. Due to the cold water, I struck out at one spot, except for netting a smallmouth bass from under a rock. I then went to Killian Creek where I was able to find a few species.
Sandbar Shiner (Notropis scepticus)?
Bluehead Chub (Nocomis leptocephalus)
Rosyside Dace (Clinostomus funduloides)
And my target species...
Greenhead Shiner (Notropis chlorocephalus)
At the beginning of February, I travelled to Blacksburg to attend the Virginia chapter of the American Fisheries Society annual conference. During these few days, I fell in love with the town, Virginia Tech, and met tons of great contacts. After much discussion, my girlfriend and I decided to move so she could transfer to Virginia Tech, and so I could move to an area ripe with fisheries opportunities.
#2 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 17 January 2013 - 02:39 PM
I figured fish would be few and far between in the cold water, but I quickly found success.
Beautiful Mud Sunfish (Acantharchus pomotis)
I quickly found my target species to be relatively abundant in the shallow bladderwort beds...
Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus)
I was surprised by how common Flier (Centrarchus macropterus) were, since I had only ever seen one or two at a given site.
Eastern Mudminnow (Umbra pygmaea)
I drove a few minutes to a downstream segment of the same stream. When I arrived I saw a large wake from some fish frantically darting around in the shallows. I quickly found the answer...
Chain Pickerel (Esox niger)
I also found more banded sunfish, including this one, which was the biggest. Not the most colorful fish in February, but one you get them in an aquarium they are HANDSOME!
And another first for me in Virginia, I had read with even less certainty of a disjunct population of these in the area, so this was a doubly successful day when I found this single specimen.
Swamp Darter (Etheostoma fusiforme).
There will be PLENTY more stories to share next time I get a chance to type them out...
#4 Guest_gerald_*
Posted 17 January 2013 - 04:07 PM
What's the evidence for the York River obesus being introduced rather than native?
#5 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 17 January 2013 - 04:42 PM
Gerald: Thanks! I think it was around the time when I was carrying a backpack full of lead shot 2 miles up a mountain, in order to weigh down a camera so my soon-to-be supervisor could take some video of brook trout digging redds, that he decided that I was probably worth the money.
As for the obesus, it's not proven that they were introduced, but in the York system, they weren't found until 1934, directly below a millpond was/is a popular fishing destination, and that has a history of being stocked with Florida Largemouth Bass. They seem to only occur in the one tributary system to the Mattaponi river in the York drainage. They MAY have been there all along, especially since E. obesus and E. gloriosus have been known to be confused in collections, but it sounds an awful lot like they hitched a ride there, especially when one considers their range hiatus in the Chesapeake watershed. It would be interesting to do a little genetic work on them to see if they looked like mid-atlantic banded sunfish, or florida banded sunfish...
#7 Guest_IsaacSzabo_*
Posted 17 January 2013 - 05:56 PM
Your second sampling site is very interesting to me. Those are all species that I'm interested in but have not yet had the chance to see in person (besides the swamp darter).
I'm looking forward to more when you get the chance!
#10 Guest_sschluet_*
Posted 19 January 2013 - 03:49 PM
#11 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 07 February 2013 - 12:27 AM
Upon arrival, it was immediately clear that the place was special. A primitive canoe launch was convenient, but clearly not often used based on the lack of alcohol containers on the ground. The stream itself was a wide, shallow, pristine waterway, with water clear to at least 5 feet (which I have never seen on the coastal plain) with a fairly strong current, and incredibly abundant submerged vegetation, especially considering it was mid-march.
After canoeing no more than 100m upstream, I looked into the clear water and noticed tight schools of 50-100 small fish dancing in the current beneath me. Armed with not only a fishing rod, but also a dipnet, I was easily able to scoop up a species I'd never seen in the flesh before, the Ironcolor Shiner (Notropis chalybaeus)
While not colorful compared to other shiners, they have an undisputable attractiveness to them, and their small size meant that they would certainly be well-behaved tankmates for other fish I had at home. While not necessarily planning on keeping fish from the trip, I was wise enough to bring breather bags just in case, and quickly grabbed a nice group of them.
The rest of the day didn't yield much else in the way of small nongame fish, but we had plenty of sportfish to entertain ourselves with. Besides some truly impressive redbreast sunfish, we all caught good numbers of small bass and I was able to finally experience the fight of a few feisty chain pickerel as well.
In time, the light started to fade and I was sad to be leaving as we packed up to drive back to northern Virginia traffic. I was not able to make a return trip before moving to Blacksburg, but I would really love to dive in and snorkel this very special stream.
#12 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 07 February 2013 - 01:12 AM
The water was still a little chilly, but comfortable enough to explore for an hour or so. I was shocked by the fact that besides a few fleeting glimpses of river chubs investigating the silt I stirred up, the water column was basically devoid of life. I figured by mid-April to see crowds of shiners fattening up and getting ready to spawn.
I had a hard time finding photography subjects until I started thinking benthic.
I was very pleased to see a Shield Darter (Percina peltata) holding in steady current. I had previously thought these fish were few and far between, based on my difficulty collecting them by seine. I quickly discovered this was gear bias, as they were not hard to find this trip, and by the end up summer I was seeing crowds of them for every Tessellated darter (Etheostoma olmstedi) I found, which I had thought was the common species.
I was happy to see both species of darter playing together, for this turned out to be a cool photo opportunity.
The Tessellated darters were in breeding dress, though for darter connoisseurs that doesn't mean much. On the Atlantic slope, we have to take what we can get, so it was nice to see black outlines on the fins as they skittered along the sand.
2-3 inch redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritis) were common, but inconspicuous. I was able to catch one being shy, but curious enough about me to snap this shot.
At some point I must have reviewed my pictures and realized how yellow they all looked. I adjusted my white balance just in time to find a pretty male tessellated darter defending a nest. Testing the darter's patience, as well as my macro settings, I captured my favorite photo of the day.
While trying to get more good shots of a nesting male, I accidentally scared him off the nest, so I decided to investigate the underside of his rock. Testing my macro settings much farther, I was able to get an image of the Class of 2012.
At this point I was getting chilly and tired, and was too excited about going home to look at my pictures than taking any more, so I called it a day.
After seeing the results of this, I became even more hooked on snorkeling and many of my subsequent outings had me forgetting to grab the seine out of the car. Seeing the fish in a fish tank is very cool (and not a hobby I will be giving up anytime soon) but getting out into the wild and seeing animals do what they do in their natural habitat, and to be absolutely surrounded by life, is something very special indeed.
#13 Guest_IsaacSzabo_*
Posted 07 February 2013 - 03:09 PM
I agree that there's something special about observing fish in their natural habitat. Watching them interact with other species and their environment cannot be replicated by looking at them in a net or watching them in an aquarium. My desire to keep fish in aquariums was greatly reduced once I started snorkeling regularly.
#14 Guest_blakemarkwell_*
Posted 07 February 2013 - 06:32 PM
Awesome to see people hook-n-line for the smaller Esox species. BTW, did you use a leader (metal or monofilament) while fishing for E. niger to prevent line snaps, or is it needed? I've been thinking about heading out shortly to see if I can catch some nice-sized spawning E. a. vermiculatus that I can never seem to get with a seine.
#15
Posted 07 February 2013 - 08:09 PM
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#16 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 11 February 2013 - 10:34 PM
It was a cool cloudy day and the water was running a little high, but was manageable. After spending a fair amount of time chasing after access points that either had no parking, or had no trespassing signs posted everywhere, I finally found a nice looking stream just outside of town. Things weren't what they seemed though. Once I got into the water, my boot sank into a 1-2 inch layer of sticky, grey clay. I don't know what happened upstream, but there was clearly great cobble and rock in this stream that has recently been smothered by this accumulation of clay. The banks were thick in spots with watercress, and this appeared to have been a healthy spring-fed stream before the sedimentation disaster. I netted one fish in this stream. Confusingly, that single fish was a rainbow trout in the 1.5-2 inch range. This was not indicated as a stocked stream, and was a fairly small stream where I was, which was close to its confluence with the Shenandoah River.
I proceeded to another spot nearby and had much better luck, though this stream was certainly not exceedingly full of fish either.
Again, the first fish I collected at this site was a small rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).
Potomac Sculpin (Cottus girardi) were fairly common here, with a face only a mother (or Dave Neely) could love...
The eastern blacknose dace here were among the most colorful I've seen (in my limited experience, obtusus seems to be more colorful on average)
I finally did find my target in small numbers in a deeper pool area, though they ended up being perhaps the most unattractive fish I'd ever put effort into finding.
Pearl Dace (Margariscus margarita). These all looked the same, with a complete absence of color and pattern in both the males and the very gravid females. They looked nothing like what I'd seen pictures of, vaguely resembling a Chrosomus without the color. Regardless, it was still an exciting find since I had never seen them in the flesh.
#17 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 11 February 2013 - 11:00 PM
I quickly netted my only cyprinid from this stream, a largish male Central Stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum). At this point I'd been living in one of the only Virginia drainages without this species, so it was a real treat to see one colored up. Now that I've lived in SW Virginia for a few months, I'm already tired of stonerollers, which dominate the biomass in this area.
A VERY handsome fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare) was a nice treat, as these are strangely enough, present but relatively rare in the Rappahannock drainage where I was living at the time. I think they may be a relatively recent introduction into the Rappahannock though, as I've only encountered a few, and I have not found any previous records of the species in the drainage.
And I definitely found an abundance of rainbow darters. I would say that 90% of the rainbows I captured that day were males, which was the opposite of what I usually seemed to encounter, so that was a welcome change.
Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)
On my last seine haul (after I'd packed my camera up), I was able to manage a female greenside darter, who is still happily living in a tank with a few of those rainbows, and devours snails like she is sucking mollusk meat out of a crazy-straw. Very interesting to watch. I kept her in my 75 gallon native community, where she and a single small cutlips minnow decimated my entire, large population of Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I have since managed to repopulate my other systems with 3 tiny snails I found alive when I broke down the tank to move. Amazingly efficient snail predators, at least in an aquarium setting.
#19 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 12 February 2013 - 05:47 PM
#20 Guest_gerald_*
Posted 12 February 2013 - 06:09 PM
1. Chesapeake fantail (E. flab. humerale): Atlantic slope from Susequehana to Cape Fear, and lower PeeDee (below High Rock Lake).
2. Carolina fantail (E. flab. brevispinum): Upper PeeDee/Yadkin, Catawba-Broad-Saluda (=Santee), and Savannah
3. True Fantail (E. flab flabellare): Tennessee and Ohio basins
Not sure whether the latest DNA info backs this up, and dunno about the fantails farther north or west; I've never had reason to ask about those pops. Maybe Chris Scharpf can illuminate for us.
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