Seven NANFAns and a few family members joined the naturalists on Saturday and we ha a great day exploring the park and seeing which fishes were there (and which ones were not). We did not have a huge species list, but it was still a very nice day. We saw some things that I never expected to experience on an August day in Georgia.
So before I get started, let me apologize for the photographs, between my excitement and impatience and the humidity of the day, the photos are frankly terrible. But you can at least see what we saw, and there is a bonus at the end that made it worth posting these.
We saw several Largemouth bass... we were in small streams, so they were mostly small, but this one individual was certainly trying to eat his way into being full grown... look at the belly on him!
We also saw the expected Sunfish... Bluegill (all sizes), redbreast, and green (not pictured)
Slightly outside the park we saw Gambusia and Yellowfin Shiners and Bluehead Chubs, and this guy... Striped Jumprock!
... and stonerollers (I presume bluefins based on our drainage) were found in and out of the park...
But certainly the highlight and surprise of the day was finding active chub nests in some of the small streams right near the road. Now this water was much cooler than some fo the other streams that we were in later in the day. I think there has to be some spring fed component to these little streams to keep them so cool. But in any case the stream architect was there... and he was showing off for his girl friend.
so you know if the architect is doin' his thing, that it gets the Notropis in the neighborhood all 'riled up. And boy were they. We saw swarms and swarms in a couple of different places. Now my pictures are not liquid sunshine, these are the fire of Atlanta... This is not yellow or orange, but bright red and meanin' it.
We call 'em yellowfin shiners most of the year, and we saw plenty of our of color individuals that had the yellowish orange fins. But when the boys are fired up they got all red and white... look at him, so excited he cannot even contain the white to his fins it starts running up on his belly!
And this guy... I have seen warpaints that looked like their mascara was running they were so intensely colored... well this guy looks like he has been painted with Tom Sawyers whitewash brush... not applied carefully but just slapped on thick and heavy, covering his head and turning his fins all opaque.
We bothered them as little as we could... they would easily chase off the nest, but only fled ten to fifteen feet or so and went right back to the nest as soon as they could. We only held a couple dozen in the photo tank for a few minutes before returning them to their hundreds of fellow orgy participants. Maybe it was the cool water, maybe the rainy summer we have had, but here in August we got to see the beauty of the spring... the fires of Atlanta...
... and this post is too much fun, but I cannot resist throwing in a little of the yellowfin mystery/debate back in here... really white fins, this far west, in the Ocmulgee drainage... I am not sure this fits any of the models I have been seeing...
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