Jump to content


Trip To Hurricane Creek In The Walls Of Jericho, Alabama


7 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_fundulus_*

Guest_fundulus_*
  • Guests

Posted 03 March 2007 - 09:24 PM

I went out today on a telescope shiner collecting trip to Hurricane Creek in the Walls of Jericho tract on the AL/TN border. The big excitement was using my new 4WD truck to get in on the blown-out road. It worked great, 7 of us were able to fit in and on the truck; good thing it was a mild sunny day. I'd been warned that one stretch of the road would become part of the creek during high water, and sure enough that's what we found due to the heavy rains last Thursday. No problem, we were able to roll along for a long stretch in about 6 inches of water.

The creek was flowing higher and faster than I'd seen, but we were able to work some flowing pools and catch fish. We were primarily interested in catching our quota of 40 telescopes, which took a while. It's usually easy to net them in riffles during normal conditions, but those riffles were way too rough for seining. In the flowing pools we caught lots of scarlet and striped shiners, with telescopes being a distant third in number. Several of the telescopes we netted approach the maximum reported length of 8 cm. Even bigger were several large striped shiners, ~15 cm, which none of my students had seen that large before and were dutifully impressed by. We also caught a large sculpin, which are surprisingly common in this stream. The most common darter in this creek seems to be stripetails, followed by blacks; we also netted a few juvenile greensides. For the first time we caught a few johnny darters. And we also caught what seems to be my daily allocation of a single flame chub, although we may have released a few juveniles without noticing them because they look a lot like juvenile stonerollers and blacknose dace.

#2 Guest_drewish_*

Guest_drewish_*
  • Guests

Posted 03 March 2007 - 10:25 PM

Are you restricted to the 1st Saturday of each month?

What type of sculpin are found in that area?

#3 Guest_fundulus_*

Guest_fundulus_*
  • Guests

Posted 04 March 2007 - 09:32 AM

Are you restricted to the 1st Saturday of each month?

What type of sculpin are found in that area?



I go on the first weekend just as a scheduling device with students who know in advance when we're going. Also, it's an all-day project to get in and out so that's a limiting factor. As to the sculpins... I would guess(?!) that they're banded, although I would also guess that there are undescribed forms in these very isolated headwater streams of the upper Paint Rock. I defer to Dave Neely's opinions on the subject....

#4 Guest_fundulus_*

Guest_fundulus_*
  • Guests

Posted 04 March 2007 - 10:06 AM

Here are some photos of yesterday's trip.

This shot is of most of the group, netting a small rivulet along the creek. All we found were juvenile scarlet and striped shiners. The slower riffle directly across the creek in this view produced some of the biggest telescope shiners we found, and the big sculpin.
MarchHurricane03.jpg

Water was flowing fast and relatively high, so that we couldn't seine in our preferred riffles. Body surfing was an option, if you could face 11 deg. C water (brutal by local standards...).
MarchHurricane04.jpg

#5 Guest_AndrewAcropora_*

Guest_AndrewAcropora_*
  • Guests

Posted 04 March 2007 - 10:38 AM

Another excellent trip--more so than the last due to the warmer temperatures and the longer stay this time! Fundulus didn't mention that we also caught one of the smallest sculpins we'd ever seen too, or the one studfish that we caught three times (I think he wanted to me to take him home). Kilifish and Sculpins have quickly become by favorite native fish, and every collecting trip we go on makes me want to set up a native tank more and more.
I can't wait until next month!

#6 Guest_drewish_*

Guest_drewish_*
  • Guests

Posted 05 March 2007 - 05:09 PM

On our recent trip to NC, a couple of the guys including Gerald had to get in pretty deep water to find any sign of shiners.

Looks like some good habitat though.

#7 Guest_daveneely_*

Guest_daveneely_*
  • Guests

Posted 05 March 2007 - 08:21 PM

Bruce,

If it was bigger than ~80 mm SL it was a banded sculpin; the "mottled sculpins" in the Paint Rock system are way up in the headwaters or in spring-fed tributary seeps.

...and yes, you would guess right!

cheers,
Dave

...As to the sculpins... I would guess(?!) that they're banded, although I would also guess that there are undescribed forms in these very isolated headwater streams of the upper Paint Rock. I defer to Dave Neely's opinions on the subject....



#8 Guest_fundulus_*

Guest_fundulus_*
  • Guests

Posted 06 March 2007 - 09:00 AM

OK, banded sculpin it is!



Reply to this topic



  


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users