Hello everybody,

It's been a while since I've posted a trip report. I've been getting out quite a bit (for work and play), but just haven't been making the time to share. We'll see if I can add some more material to this forum this winter while things are frigid in Ohio...

This past summer I was fortunate enough to make two visits to the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania to conduct electrofishing surveys on a portion of the river near the Pennsylvania/New York border. If you're a fish enthusiast from the Midwest, you're likely familiar with the fish diversity in this river (and one of its tributaries, French Creek). These two visits represent my first visits to this stream, and...I can't wait to get back this upcoming Spring.

From a boat, I surveyed approximately 3km of the river near Warren, PA. I would consider fish habitat to be excellent throughout most of this stretch. Numerous well-defined, high quality riffles transition into long, swift runs that empty into deep bolder-strewn pools. Many fishes considered rare or extirpated from Ohio flourish in this river system. This portion of river is also home to hellbenders (although I haven't seen one yet...). Here's some shots of the scenery:

At the boat launch


Down the river a bit...


In the summer, cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) were found along the stream bank and were very numerous on several islands


The foliage in the fall wasn't too bad either



Dang...I was just about to start getting into the species list from the two sampling events (56 species!), but I've ran out of time. I'm going to try to pick back up on this soon.

-Nate

Oh, and just so that the title of this thread makes sense...here's a picture of a silver redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum) I netted that had a sore throat:




The hitch-hiker is an Ohio lamprey (Ichthyomyzon bdellium). I kept finding adults through this stretch, but I wouldn't recall netting any. Turns out the adults that were ending up in the livewell at the end of the survey were ones that had detached from redhorses. I threw one of the adult lampreys in a phototank for a few seconds to get a peek at its oral disc:


All right, I've got to go for now....to be continued.

Looks like a pretty area. That's a neat shot of the lamprey's oral disc. I'm lookIng forward to hearing more about your sampling here and the species you encountered.

Ouch!
Thanks Nate... a nice lifting away of the dreary winter blues...

Here's what I found in this portion of the Allegheny:

Ohio lamprey (Ichthyomyzon bdellium)

- in addition to the adults that were dropping off redhorses, almost all of the backwater areas contained good numbers of ammocoetes. They were most abundant in areas with silt and vegetation, as opposed to leaf litter and other detritus.
Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula)

- this was my first time encountering this amazing species! Although paddlefish historically occured throughout the Allegheny River watershed, dams and habitat alteration have caused them to be extirpated throughout most of the river. Paddlefish have been gone from this section of the river for more than 50 years, however in recent years they have been stocked in the Allegheny Reservoir in New York. They're doing quite well in the reservoir and some of those fish are passing through the dam and showing up in the portion of river near Warren. This fish was one of three that I saw during my time there, but was the only one that made it into the boat. As those of you that electrofish know, electrofising can still be "fishing" sometimes. Hitting a fish with the juice doesn't guarantee it ends up in the boat.
Central stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum)
Spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)
Common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

- here I am posing with a 27 lb. fish. The gradient of this stream is fairly high and the water remains fairly cool (thanks to an upstream bottom level dam release). Common carp were few and far between here, but the ones that were present were huge.
Streamline chub (Erimystax dissimilis)

- in general, cyprinids were found in relatively low abundance throughout the section surveyed. Occassionally, I would find large streamline chub traveling in groups of 20 or so individuals in swift runs and near large boulders in deeper pools.
Tonguetied minnow (Exoglossum laurae) - these fish were a little more common than the streamline chub. There is a healthy population of this species in this river system. At a few sites, these were the most abundant cyprinid captured.
Striped shiner (Luxilus chrysocephalus) - I was surprised that these weren't encountered more frequently in this stretch of water. When I did find them, however, they would be large adults (6"+) traveling in schools of 100+ individuals in the deepest pools.
River chub (Nocomis micropogon)


- chubs of all sizes were found throughout this stretch of river. The biggest ones were always encountered in runs (1-3' deep) with scattered boulders and plenty of gravel. It's no wonder there were so many large river chubs in this portion of the river. There was no shortage of fish food...

Golden shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas) - rare. Only one or two small individuals.
Spottail shiner (Notropis hudsonius)

- found a few closest to the Allegheny Reservoir, which makes sense, since the population of spottail shiner in this portion of the river is reportedly due to an upstream introduction into the reservoir.
Rosyface shiner (Notropis rubellus) - a few in the shallow riffles and runs.
Silver shiner (Notropis photogenis) - much more common than the similar looking rosyface shiner. In some of the pools I found silver shiner over 7" long. At quick glance during netting, I thought they were year 1 redhorse.
Mimic shiner (Notropis volucellus) - one of the many fish species found here that are considered intolerant of pollution and habitat degradation.
Bluntnose minnow (Pimephales notatus)
Blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus) - only found one individual during both surveys. I'm still trying to grasp the differences in subspecies (i.e. eastern and western). I've caught them in the Midwest and along the East Coast and can't say that I realy have found consistent morphological differences. To me, for now, they're all R. atratulus.
Longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) - this find was interesting to me. Out of all the sites I did on this portion of the river, I never collected a longnose dace. However, I was waiting for a few crew members to get ready, so I walked out in a riffle with the dipnet, and in my first jab, I pulled up two longnose dace. Further evidence for gear selectivity. This small stuff just gets overlooked in most cases.
Creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) - like the blacknose dace, this creek chub looked lost in a river this size. Only one individual was caught during the surveys.


All right...the end of the minnows is a good stopping point for now. I'll pick back up on this later.

-Nate

Picking back up with the Catostomids...

The majority of the biomass in this river consisted of suckers. The abundance and diversity of suckers in this stream is hard to rival.

Quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus)

- occurred sporadically throughout the survey area. None looked particularly healthy, however, as most had whorled scales or eroded fins (like the one pictured).
White sucker (Catostomus commersonii) - rarely the most abundant sucker in any portion of the survey area.
Northern hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans) - every gravel run had plenty of adult hogsuckers. The gravel shoal areas served as nursery habitat for hundreds.
Silver redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum) - large adults (most weighing more than 5 lbs.) could be found throughout the survey area.
River redhorse (Moxostoma carinatum) - collected three individuals throughout the survey area. They seemed to be found in the deepest runs, and not in the pools.
Black redhorse (Moxostoma duquesnei)

- the most abundant sucker species. These dominated the catch as several age classes could be caught throughout the river. Large groups of adult black redhorse could be seen in the clear water of the gravel runs.
Golden redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum)

- an occasional adult and a few age 1 were found in the survey area. The black redhorse appears better adapted for life in this high gradient stream.
Smallmouth redhorse (Moxostoma breviceps)

- these were common at the heads of pools, right where a riffle or run dumped in. The bright red tails on these fish could be seen while they were foraging in some of the clear gravel runs. Most of the smallmouth redhorse captured were large and robust (like the one pictured).
Brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus)
Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) - an occasional large adult was found among the branches of some fallen trees in the deeper pools.
Stonecat (Noturus flavus) - like the longnose dace, these were not collected via electrofishing, but when I used a dip net real quick in a riffle during downtime, I pulled up two individuals in five minutes. These fish are likely abundant in the shallow gravel riffles.
Grass pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus) - an occasional grass pickerel was collected in the backwater areas and among water willow on a few mid-stream gravel bars.
Northern pike (Esox lucius) - not very abundant, although four or five escaped capture (as pike tend to do). However, we did collect one that was ~42" in length. I dropped him off with the crew that was processing fish from the survey and didn't manage a picture of it.
Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy)

- we did manage to get a few muskellunge into the boat, including one over 45" (released without picture). A few deep areas with slow current had dense vegetation beds. Muskellunge and pike were found along the edges. I was surprised by the number of young-of-year muskellunge we encountered. Almost every backwater area had a few of these snakes...

Central mudminnow (Umbra limi) - found one among the water willow on a mid-stream gravel bar. It was a bit surprising to see it out in the middle of a river this size.

All right...more to come later.

Nice pictures, love that river chub and the paddlefish. Any idea why the quillback were not too healthy?

Your posts are my favorites, Nate. I miss my days as a field biologist. Beautiful, keep up the good work.

What is that insect?

What is that insect?

A stonefly nymph isn't it?

Pteronarcys, probably P. dorsata.

I've never seen parasitic lampreys actually attach inside the opercular cavity of their host. That's pretty wild...

smilingfrog: Thanks for the compliments. I shouldn't say that they were not healthy. To be specific, many of them had eroded fins and whorled scales. I would just be guessing as to the reasons for this. Sometimes eroded fins are caused by water quality issues (as I've seen common carp with eroded fins in areas with high levels of chlorine downstream from wastewater treatment plants), but sometimes whorled scales and eroded fins can be the result of injury. Quillback are common in the reservoir upstream from where I was sampling. The fish may have been injured as they passed through the dam and down into the river. Can't say for certain.

MichiJim: Thanks, buddy. Where did you work?

daveneely: I've never seen a lamprey do that before this encounter. I've usually seen them attached to the side of their host, posterior to the pectoral fin.

Continueing the species list...

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) - this section of water is managed as Trophy Trout Water by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Rainbow and brown trout are stocked in the spring.
Brown trout (Salmo trutta) - small trout were abundant after the spring stocking, however, only a few large adults were captured in fall. The largest of the trout was a little over 24".
Brook silverside (Labidesthes sicculus) - only a few were collected. Whenever I find these during electrofishing, only a handful show up during sampling. I think this is an issue of gear avoidance, as I typically catch these in greater numbers when seining.
Mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdii) - very common.
White bass (Morone chrysops) - only one found throughout the survey area.
Rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris)
Pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus)

- only found a few, but the ones I did see were large adults.
Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus)
Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) - this section of river provided lots of nursery area for smallmouth bass. In some 500m stretches, I would see hundreds of young-of-year fish near the shoreline. All of the deeper holes contained adult bass, including several in the 4 lbs. range.
Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) - caught one largemouth bass per every 200 smallmouth bass. The high gradient rocky habiat favored smallmouth bass.
Greenside darter (Etheostoma blennioides)
Rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) - very common. These were not only found in the gravel riffles and runs, but they were found along the rocky shoreline of deeper pools with little current.
Fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare) - only a few.
Johnny darter (Etheostoma nigrum) - surprisingly, only 5 were captured during both samping events. I'm used to seeing this species dominating the darter catch in the Midwest. Perhaps the high gradient of this stream and the competition from other darters (especially blackside, channel, and longhead darters) kept numbers of this species low.
Tippecanoe darter (Etheostoma tippecanoe) - a few were found in some of the gravel runs. A few would show up in the samples, however, they're likely MUCH more abundant than our survey indicates. Those little guys are tough to see and tend to get stuck in rock crevices when stunned. A trib. to the Allegheny, French Creek, is known to have two other Nothonotus darters (eg. bluebreast and spotted darter). So I was looking hard for those species but didn't find any (certainly doesn't mean they're not there).
Variegate darter (Etheostoma variatum) - occurred sporadically throughout the sample, and were never the dominate darter.
Banded darter (Etheostoma zonale) - one of the 7 Etheostoma sp. that could be found in the riffles and along the rocky shoreline of this portion of the river. Not bad.
Yellow perch (Perca flavescens) - not many adults were captured. Young-of-year perch were abundant in the dense vegetation beds in a few of the slower pools.
Logperch (Percina caprodes)
Channel darter (Percina copelandi)

- very common along the rocky shorelines of the slower moving pools. These would be found alongside blackside and longhead darters. In some areas, we would catch ~100 of channel, blackside, and longhead darters. The picture above shows a blackside darter (top) and a channel darter (bottom). The two can look quite similar.
Gilt darter (Percina evides) - only caught two in the survey area. It appears that they are being stocked in New York above the Allegheny Reservoir (but the fish collected here are likely residents of this portion of the river, and not fish that have washed downstream). Here's an article about the recovery efforts for this species in the Allegheny: http://conservationf...es-gilt-darter/
Longhead darter (Percina macrocephala)


- this was my first time collecting this species. Man, they were abundant and large in this river! They were most often collected in slower moving water near the shoreline in deep pools. However, the largest ones were located near large boulders in swift runs. These have quickly become one of my favorite darters.
Blackside darter (Percina maculata) - normally when I encounterd blackside darter, they're only present as a handful of individuals that are collected near a fallen tree or other cover. In this stretch of river, however, they were the most abundant darter. In a few pools with rocky shorelines, I netted so many that I got tired of seeing them.
Walleye (Sander vitreus) - it seemed that every pool sampled had at least four or five adult walleyes. A few pools closest to the dam had fish in the 7-8 lbs. range.
Freshwater drum (Aplodonitus grunniens)

- every now and then one would show up in the deeper pools. Each one I nettted was over 15 lbs. in size! The one pictured weighed 17 lbs. (althoug it certainly doesn't look that big in the picture).


Well, that wraps up the species list for this survey in the upper Allegheny River in Pennsylvania. I'm headed back there for a few sampling events this spring, summer, and fall. I'll be sure to post and update afterwards. I hope this post may encourage some of you to visit the Allegheny to enjoy the scenery and the diverse fish fauna.

-Nate

Nate! Awesome. Love your reports, thanks! Love the longhead, and the drum.

Thanks very much for sharing, that is a lot of really cool stuff for one river. I would love to see some of those species. Those longhead darters look so cool!

This was just like being there, except drier and faster. Thanks for sharing.

Skipjack: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've got a whole bunch of pics and notes from other sites that I've been meaning to put up here...but these reports are time consuming...

Kanus: Those longheads are really special fish. As soon as I get an aquarium up and running again...those will be the feature darter.

Doug_Dame: Glad you enjoyed it.

Great report and photos, Nate. You sampled a nice mix of all different kinds of species. I appreciate you taking the time to share this.

Nate- great report. I helped out the NYSDEC on the NY gilt darter project. Two part strategy - 1) adult capture in PA/captive breeding at CFI with young reared at SUNY-Cobleskill and 2) in 2012, a trap/transport of wild fish from the Allegheny R near East Brady took place (Kudos to PA F&BC as they have been a great partner in the project and very willing to assist in every way). The 2012 stocking involved a combination of fish from CFI/SUNY-Cobleskill and the wild trap/transferred fish. Here is the press release- http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/86781.html It is exciting, good stuff!

-Scott

Great report and photos, Nate. You sampled a nice mix of all different kinds of species. I appreciate you taking the time to share this.

Thanks, Isaac. Hopefully I can get a few more up here soon.

Nate- great report. I helped out the NYSDEC on the NY gilt darter project. Two part strategy - 1) adult capture in PA/captive breeding at CFI with young reared at SUNY-Cobleskill and 2) in 2012, a trap/transport of wild fish from the Allegheny R near East Brady took place (Kudos to PA F&BC as they have been a great partner in the project and very willing to assist in every way). The 2012 stocking involved a combination of fish from CFI/SUNY-Cobleskill and the wild trap/transferred fish. Here is the press release- http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/86781.html It is exciting, good stuff!

-Scott

Scott, the recovery of gilt darter in the Allegheny is a great story. Hopefully we can have similar recovery in Ohio sometime. Is the NYSDEC working on any other recovery projects in the Allegheny right now? I've been following some of the work done by CFI for a few years now. I was just taking a peek at their diamond darter husbandry efforts and found it interesting that larval diamond darters have pretty large teeth...
http://conservationf...diamond-darter/
They're doing some pretty neat work there.

Paddlefish and gilts are the current effort, other darter and mussel species may be considered in the future. Other highlights in NY for 2012 includes bloater repatriation to Lake Ontario and lake sturgeon stocking in trib to St Lawrence River. The great part is these efforts took place in the same week- back to back to back.