1st Time Collecting - trip report

Date: 7/28/13
Location: Lincoln County, Lincolnton, Lithia Inn Branch and Lithia Inn Branch Tributary 1
Number in party: 3
Devices used: 4x10 siene, 3 dip nets.

Trip summary: Went out about 2 pm to Lithia Inn Branch, collected for several hours. Packed up to head out to ther locations along tributaries of the South Fork of the Catawba. We knew there was quite a bit of flooding that occurred but we were hopeful that waters had receded at the tributaries enough to look for fish. Our next location we were going to go to near High Shoals was blocked because the road was flooded. We continued south to north Gastonia to check out Long Creek. It wasn't as high but it was too high and fast moving for us to be comfortable with getting in. We decided to go back to Lincolnton and checked out Lithia Inn Branch Tributary 1 for the rest of the evening.

Collection summary: We two different species of darters, total we got around 16-18 darters. We caught at least 2 different species of minnow/shiners/dace upwards of 30-35 total. We also got quite a few crawfish (most released) , a couple toadpoles (released) , a baby large mouth bass (released) and a few baby sunfish (released). CollI got a few plants as well and what we think to be alder cones. I'll be determining id's for these hopefully tonight.

Review of our collecting skills: We definitely had better luck catching darters in riffles with dip nets. We would hold the net at the end of a run and reach out up stream and move rocks and splash down towards the net. This is also how we caught most of the crawfish. The siene took some getting use to, we did best with it in deeper pools and worked our way upstream fairly quickly and then finish by bringing the bottom end together then up.

Overall: I had a great time on my first collecting trip. It will be great to get out again in some other streams to see if we can get some other species. I found I could easily catch darters myself and even shiners and other minnows if there is a good spot to set up the siene and leave it as a trap while I go up and splash towards it.

I'll post of pictures as soon as possible.

Also try downstream seining and cross-current seining. Different species have different escape responses, so you may catch different fish in the same pool or run depending on the direction you pull the seine. Turbidity (visibility) can also affect what you catch. Looking forward to your pictures.

The siene took some getting use to, we did best with it in deeper pools and worked our way upstream fairly quickly and then finish by bringing the bottom end together then up.