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Beaverdam Redux, and Stevens Creek, Too


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#1 mattknepley

mattknepley
  • NANFA Member
  • Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 18 June 2013 - 07:27 PM

A quick disclaimer; the photos in the post are mine. Since I am amazingly tech inept, I am having to put Michael's gallery-hosted photos in as links. Also, humidity causing the photo tanks to fog over every half second made for some tricky photography. With that said...

Since I "rediscovered" NANFA last summer, my interest in native fishes has grown substantially. As part of that growth, I got wind of a little fish called the Christmas darter, Etheostoma hopkins, that captured my fancy. The obligatory google search turned up a bit of data, the most interesting of which was an eleven year old collecting report in the NANFA archives. Chip Rinehart, Steven Elllis, and John Patterson, armed with possible locations provided by Fritz, made a three stop expedition through a couple South Carolina counties looking for Christmas darters and other fish in 2002. Here's the link: http://www.nanfa.org...0602/sc0602.htm

I was intrigued by their adventure and decided I ought to try to replicate it; to see what might be different and what might have stayed as it was. My daughters and I checked out the first two stops, both on Beaverdam Creek, in late January of this year, Even though I made it back to Beaverdam a few times after that, Stevens Creek stayed just out of reach. I acquired some E. hopkinsi on one of those Beaverdam trips and found them just as fascinating and pretty as I had imagined. I developed a little project for myself, to collect more information on these little gems, in the field and as observed in aquaria. I had two challenges, however. One challenge being that I knew I was missing fish, as I was always dipnetting. I needed a seining buddy. The other challenge was I still wanted to get to Stevens Creek, to see these fish in a different waterway. I was wondering if there'd be differences between the populations. For one reason or another, I just kept missing opportunities to get to Stevens.

Then along came the individual who pulled me out of the forum and put my feet back in the water; Michael Wolfe, the NANFA siren himself. :rolleyes: Michael encouraged my little project, providing much needed moral support and other help. He suggested we combine my darter project with my desire to retrace Chip, Steven, and John's adventure. Perhaps the biggest help was his willingnes to hit the water with me, providing a competent seining partner and fish identifier. We hit the road, and the water, in late April of this year.

Michael and I met up at Hardee's in McCormick, SC and after some quick planning and ice-skating we hit the road. Ice skating? Almost. If you ever find yourself in the Hardees in McCormick, be careful. Whatever they use on their floors is dangerously slippery when dry. When wet it's nearly lethal. The humidity had that floor slicker than Kanus in a shirt and tie. :blink:

In our planning, we determined to leave out the first stop from the 2002 trip (at SSR 35). My January stop there with my girls wasn't nearly as interesting as the one downstream, and if we were to get in quality time at Stevens Creek it just made sense to skip that stop. The only thing from the first stop I want to go back for is pictures of some seriously cool mud dauber tubes. The sediment there at the site must have been perfect for wasp architecture, because the bottom of the bridge was covered in tubes about the length of my arm! I was a fairly active caver for a short while in my twenties; these tubes looked for all the world like they belonged in a subterranean cavern.

After one missed turn (poor navigating on my part) and some "unavoidable" four wheel drive fun, Michael parked his bright yellow NANFAmobile at the SSR 51 bridge. I thought we'd be upstream, but Michael was more interested in the downstream stretch. We hit that and I'm glad we did. We spent a good deal of time turning up fish and were probably never more than a couple hundred feet from the bridge. Between pictures and the descriptions from the '02 report, you can get a pretty good feel for what the water was like. The '02 crew may have been there in June, but the water was comparable when Michael and I visited. The only notable difference was the lack of any sign of beaver. That, and they didn't mention humidity. It was uber-humid when we were there.

P4240574.JPG http://gallery.nanfa...CN2607.JPG.html



Our list of fish netted turned out to be pretty similar to Chip, Steven, and John's. Like them, we turned up redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus), pirate perch (Aphrododerus sayanus), yellowfin shiners (Notropis lutipinnis), dusky shiners (Notropis cummingsae), Christmas darters (Etheostoma hopkinsi), tessellated darters (Etheostoma olmstedi), blackbanded darter (Percina nigrofasciata) and bluehead chub (Nocomis leptocephalus). In addition, we netted warmouth (Lepomis gulosus), rosyface chub (Hybopsis rubrifrons), creek chubsucker (Erimyzon oblongu), and tadpole madtom (Noturus gyrinus). The warmouth, rosyfaces, duskies and tadpole madtom were "life" fish for me. Unlike our intrepid predecessors, we did not find whitefin, sandbar, or spotfin shiners; nor did we see flat bullhead, largemouth bass, bluegill, or eastern mosquitofish.
P4280576.JPG warmouth
P4280581.JPG redbreast sunfish
P4280583.JPG pirate perch
P4280586.JPG rosyface chub
P4280587.JPG yellowfin shiner
P4280589.JPG yellowfin shiner
P4280599.JPG Christmas darter
P4280605.JPG Christmas darter
http://gallery.nanfa...shiner.jpg.html As the '02 crew noted, the Christmas darters were found in slower water than we expected. Not that they were in slack areas, there was current. It just wasn't a blasting current I tend to associate with darters. I also thought they liked to be near vegetation.

We eventually decided it was time to find Stevens Creek. What an adventure! On the way there Michael and I got to discussing animals abilities to sense upcoming weather. A herd of beef cattle promised dry, if cloudy skies for us, as we motored on. In short order we crossed the Stevens Creek bridge and parked on the McCormick County side. Before we even made it to the bridge to scout out the situation we met this fella, a box tortoise.

P4280634.JPG

At this point our adventure got, well, adventurous. The '02 crew wasn't lying; the Stevens Creek bridge is not only high for this part of SC, it is friggin' high for this part of SC. And not only does it not allow space for pedestrians, I'm not sure two mopeds could pass each other on it without bumping elbows. There was no way either Michael or I were taking bridge pictures! Initial assessment of approaches to the stream left us questioning the sanity and memories of the '02 crew. Approach from the McCormick County side would have required rappelling equipment. Although not as sheer in drop, the Edgefield County side was no picnic either. I never did see the canoe portage from the earlier report. A four wheel drive trail stopped well short of the water, and its beginning was nowhere to be seen. We finally chose the eastbound side of the Edgefield County side of the bridge for our approach. A quick slide put us on dry sand under the bridge. It was actually a pretty structure from underneath; especially when compared to the mess it presents up top! At Michael's wise advice, we donned our waders here. We were a decent hike from the water, but the waders allowed us to "walk with impunity" through grasses and other plant growth of ambitious height, abrasive edges, and unknown allergen content. Just when we thought we'd made it to the water, we had one more surprise; there was no easy path into the stream. Instead, an otter slide down an ~8' embankment was necessary! But at last, and with only a few more colorful commentaries on details our travel guide writers had left out, we entered Stevens Creek. The water was more in force for our visit. It was much higher than what is shown in the '02 pictures, and it was much wider and quite fast. I could easily envision that wherever the canoe ladder that Steven reported seeing was, it's bottom step was under the water now! Michael and I spotted a large, dead sucker of some type hung up on a rock, and the leathered remains of a striped bass high up in a tree. We guessed an osprey was the cause of that unusual scene. Hoping these were good omens, we got to seining. We worked from one side of the river to the other, but had the most luck on the east side. We netted tadpole madtoms, rosyface chubs, dusky shiners, blackbanded darter, and whitefin shiners (Cyprinella nivea). Following are the whitefins and Christmas darters:

http://gallery.nanfa...shiner.jpg.html
P4280624.JPG
P4280628.JPG Christmas darters, Stevens Creek, SC
P4280630.JPG

Oh, and Michael found a porno dvd on the river bank. I know, not a fish, but still interesting. Maybe the osprey left it... But back to fish; I thought the Christmas darters in Stevens Creek were smaller and brighter than the Beaverdam specimens. They were definitely in faster water, but compared to the water around where we netted them, the hopkinsi water was calmer. Didn't notice any vegetation here, either. Michael seemed to quite like the Christmas darters, and even took several home. As we all know, Michael is a Georgia fish snob, so it wasn't until he could convince himself that Christmas darters are really Georgia fish, and that these poor finny souls were only misplaced in SC, that he could justify keeping any. About the time Michael made peace with the idea of keeping SC fish, we began to hear rumbles of thunder in the distance and thought maybe those cows were wrong in their prognosticating. About the time Michael found the porn the lightning was flashing close by and we realized those particular cows were dirty damn liars. (I smile thinking they'll be somebody's steak some day.) We did manage to make it up the otter slide and make the rest of the hike back to Michael's Jeep with no issues. Shortly after getting in the Jeep though, we got hammered by a deluge of Noahesque proportions. We drove all the way back to McCormick in the downpour, but only actually saw about half the ride. The other half was obscured by rain! We reached McCormick safely, divvied up fish and gear and said our good byes.

I have since had the opportunity to observe my E. hopkinsi and learn a bit about them. I also can say I have retraced a trip that excited my native fish interest, maybe not exactly, but closely enough to satisfy my curiosity. Both of these goals were only obtained with the help of a NANFA friend. Thank you, Michael.

Edited by mattknepley, 18 June 2013 - 07:49 PM.

Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

#2 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 18 June 2013 - 08:21 PM

I've found some truly eyepopping porn material under bridges around Alabama. It seems to be a popular disposal method.

#3 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 18 June 2013 - 08:55 PM

Very nice report, thanks very much for sharing. I've gotta get back down to the Carolinas soon. Definitely with waders. Maybe with a wetsuit. But I'll leave the tie at home ;)

#4 Guest_sbtgrfan_*

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Posted 18 June 2013 - 09:07 PM

Very cool. Sounds like a fun trip. Christmas darters are awesome.

#5 Michael Wolfe

Michael Wolfe
  • Board of Directors
  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 18 June 2013 - 09:30 PM

Nice write up Matt. And I should also add that Matt's obsession with Christmas Darters has also resulted in a Fish in Focus article that will be in an upcoming AC.

Oh and those E hopkinsi are doing very nicely back in Georgia. No transport losses. They acclimated well to an empty planted tank. They like frozen foods in the filter out flow and are about to figure out earthworm flakes.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#6 mattknepley

mattknepley
  • NANFA Member
  • Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 19 June 2013 - 07:45 AM

Thanks for the kind words, all.

Just want to clarify something from my post I stated very poorly. It is my observation, in the field and in the aquarium, that Christmas darters do enjoy a certain proximity to aquatic vegetation. I certainly wouldn't call them plant obligates, but they seem to be close by more often than not. Also, a couple of mine at home spend quite a bit of time prowling a thick clump of java moss. They seem pretty socially oriented (or at least tolerant) fish, and they aren't perpetually in the weeds, so I think its those fishes' choice. I don't think they have been intimidated into going in there.

If anybody would like to see these little critters in the wilds, let me know. If I can't get you there in person, I'll certainly give you better directions than what I put up above!
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."



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