July was a tough month, I had my 28 gallon tank spring a leak and had to move the red breast sunfish to my 20 long i was using to raise feeder guppies and had some bluefin killies in it. Within a day their were no fish besides the sunfish, and in a couple weeks no nuisance snails left.
Three weeks ago I wanted to sample but had a friend call to visit instead. We were going to go fishing but he decided not to at last minute. So I went fishing in the connecticut river and got a few bluegill and a very big pumpkinseed.
Two weeks ago I decided to sample some streams in the merrimack river drainage.
My first step was the Gridley River. It wasn't an intended stop, just their along the way.
I tried netting their and got nothing. Eventually I felt a sharp pain in my shoes. Last time that happened I had glass in my shoe. I dumped out my shoes and found only sand. I took that as a cue to move on.
Next I went to the Souhegan River in New Ipswitch. Downstream in Wilton I found the best spot for Rhinicthys, but this spot upstream was trouble. A mix of sudden drop offs as you got deeper, slippery mud, and large rocks. I mostly netted in place for fear of falling and getting injured. then went back towards Peterborough for my last spot.
(these photos are not the best as it was starting to get darker and my camera has trouble focusing in dim light) .
I dipped undercut banks and moves downstream to a riffle where i got a longnose dace. One fish from three rivers.
Last week I went to Boston for comic con and didn't think I'd have a fish experience. To make it worse my camera broke so I couldn't see the view screen except the top right corner (meaning no more switching to macro). This made most of my photos either blurry (as I couldn't see what I was photographing) or on the right.
After the convention I went to try and go to the aquarium and it was closing. So I walked aaround the dock looking in the water. A girl came by asking me if I was watching the fish. I said I was trying but cannot see any. So she got out a soft pretzel and threw pieces into the water and large stripers rose to eat it, and gave me one to feed them. I doubt pretzels are that good for fish but they seem to like them. I asked her if any of the sparrows swooping for the crums I toss ever get too close and the fish eat them. She said yes, and that they also eat ducklings. I didn't know stripers eat birds before this.
I also learned the answer to one of my geography questions due to American Currents. I seen maps of the Appalachians with piedmont mentioned on them and always thought it was a mountain range. But I saw that AC treated it different from mountains. A bit of research showed it was the hilly area before the mountains. A search showed New England indeed had piedmont and also explained the incongruities between maps (some showing the mountains ending at the Connecticut River valley in Vermont, some show them ending in southwest NH, others show them going to the coast). It said the borders between peidmont and mountains and coastal plains are blurred in New England leading to disagreements. But most maps show it going to the coast or nearly so. Which leads to a new question. If piedmont is hills, what makes the flat central and eastern parts of eastern New England piedmont? Shouldn't the Merrimackvalley and sea coast be too flat to be foothills?
NANFA Youtube Channel 
