Mud Darter?

I netted this darter in the headwaters of the Embarras River just south of Urbana, IL. I was passing through on a trip and didn't have time to microfish, but if it is a mud darter I'd love to go back when it warms up a bit. There were a lot of small darters in the stream (a field drainage ditch really).

Thanks for the help!

Shoot, is this just a female orangethroat?

Shoot, is this just a female orangethroat?

Yup.

Have you taken a peek at pgs. 937-939 in the Fishes of Wisconsin?
http://digicoll.libr...ishesWI&isize=M

You're not far from mud darter habitat in Madison, WI. I've captured them using a dipnet in the lower Wisconsin River. They can be found among the rootwads and undercut banks. If I remember correctly, I captured them in the Wisconsin River just south of the town of Spring Green, WI. Again, if I'm recalling correctly, the river is very sand there. I stopped because I was hoping to capture a cystal darter with a dipnet on the extensive sand bars in that section of the river (a guy can dream, can't he?). Instead of crystal darter, I ended up catching a couple of mud darter along the bank.

Thanks Nate. By the way, I've thoroughly enjoyed your collecting reports. In fact, I'm hoping to check out some of your spots in central Illinois when it warms up this year. I enjoy your short descriptions of habitat and abundance for each species. They're much more useful than those low res dot distribution maps.

I need to spend time on the lower WI River this spring. Last year I hit up a lot of spots between Prairie du Sac and Lone Rock but never went further downstream.

Apparently the new technique for crystal darters is hook & line! There have been a few reports in the past few years of people catching them blindly fishing for other species, including Lyons himself!