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Better Lucky Than Good

Started by mattknepley , Aug 28 2013 01:18 PM

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5 replies to this topic

#1 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 28 August 2013 - 01:18 PM

Had an hour or so to kill so this morning so made the short trip from my house to the Saluda River where it empties out of Lake Greenwood. My primary goal was to pick up some gambusia for rain barrel skeeter control back at the house. Started off very poorly; could even net gambusia! (Whose team would this relegate me to at the '14 convention?)

Luckily for me, dumb luck trumped any cognizant netting. After an hour of getting skunked by gambusia and everything else, I was giving up. Strolling along the river I dropped the headend of my dipnet into the river. I pulled the net out, and staring at me was one really confused Micropterus salmoides.

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It was quickly released, but I figured I'd strike while the luck was on, and went back for some gambusia. Got seven in a couple swipes, when I noticed some larger fish in about two feet of water. For kicks and giggles I tossed the net more or less blindly into their general area, slapped it to the bottom, and got a new life fish. Out of the 50+ fish I saw swimming by, two spottail shiners, Notropis hudsonius, were unlucky enough to wind up in my net! They weren't too cooperative in the field for their photo shoot, but calmed down at home while I observe them and acclimate them to house temperature.

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Lastly, I spotted silver on the surface and swiped quickly. Turned up a dead fish I assume to be a gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum; but don't find anything that deep bodied or with an eye that massive in my guides. The snout and features of the back seem to match.

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Couldn't get the dorsal fin up to see if there might be a thread to it. What all do you think it to be?

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

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#2 Guest_sbtgrfan_*

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Posted 28 August 2013 - 01:54 PM

Good looking juvi bass and spottails.

Gizzard Shad have the thread on the dorsal just like threadfin shad. From my understanding, the best way to determine the difference between Gizzard and Threadfin shad, is that the Gizzard has an upper jaw that extends beyond the lower jaw and has a deep notch in the center. The threadfin's upper jaw does not extend past the lower jaw and it does not have a notch. I think gizzard shad also have no yellow on their fins, whereas threadfin do BUT gizzards do have a yellow spot in the whites of their eyes that threadfin do not have, though I'm not 100% sure on that characteristic.

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#3 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 28 August 2013 - 08:23 PM

Do you have any anadromous shad species where you caught this?

Cool catch with those spottails. While not a particularly attractive fish, they seem to be harder to net than other shiners in my experience. I've snorkeled near schools of hundred of them and they always stay a good ways away from me. Similarly, I've "cornered" schools of them to try to seine, and somehow by the time I left the net, never have more than a small handful. Very impressive you caught some with a dipnet.

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#4 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

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Posted 29 August 2013 - 04:31 AM

Do you have any anadromous shad species where you caught this?

Cool catch with those spottails. While not a particularly attractive fish, they seem to be harder to net than other shiners in my experience. I've snorkeled near schools of hundred of them and they always stay a good ways away from me. Similarly, I've "cornered" schools of them to try to seine, and somehow by the time I left the net, never have more than a small handful. Very impressive you caught some with a dipnet.

Took me forever to get one in a dip net, the fact that their are other species with tail spots doesn't help. (is their any shiner a fallfish doesn't look like at one stage of its life or other?). I blindly dipnetted vegetation until I got one.

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#5 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 29 August 2013 - 05:04 AM

Derek, I agree, spottails aren't the most attractive fish, but they have a nice sheen to 'em, and there is something about the long, cylindrical shape I like. As for anadromous shad, only blueback herring, Alosa aestivalis, seems to be a possibility.There are several dams between where I found that fish and the ocean, and only the blueback has been reported above the last dam these guys would have to pass before coming up here. That is a good bit downstream, and there are no confirmed reports of them up this far. (That I know of, anyway.)

Josh, maybe blind swiping is the key for spottails! Actually, maybe I ought to just make that my standard approach...

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

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#6 Guest_sbtgrfan_*

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Posted 29 August 2013 - 06:50 AM

The bluebacks, if present, may not be truly anadromous. For example, in lakes Keowee, Hartwell...etc, they are present (introduced, but present) year round and spawn in the lakes successfully (excellent fishing time

). Down in the santee-cooper, I believe they actually do migrate for spawning, but I'm not too familiar with lake greenwood to know if they are there year round and actually migrate or anything.