Do you mind if I take the picture of me netting and the picture of the blackbands (don't have a good one of them) for my trip album on facebook when I make it?
Also, sorry I haven't added my pics to this thread yet, I have been lazy about resizing and uploading them.
New Jersey Pine Barrens - 09/07/13
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, Sep 10 2013 03:26 PM
38 replies to this topic
#23
Guest_FirstChAoS_*
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 12:08 AM
Please help yourself to the pictures Josh. When your trip album is up, let us know so we can share it on facebook.
My trip album is up in the gallery archive.
I wish I had more pics of the fish and less of the other wildlife. I find when sampling alone I tend to make trips to my camera and photograph each fish. On trips with others I focus on catching fish for others and mainly take photos between fish spots.
First Bunker Hill bogs, an odd name for a place nowhere near Boston and the hill next to the one where the famous battle took place. (Breeds Hill).
their we got lots of banded and blackbanded sunfish
I caught the first of several tadpole madtome of the trip, and my first and only mud sunfish there (the first of the trip), Mike got the rest in Horicon
#24
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 12:18 AM
This pumpkinseed had us very confused. None of us had seen one who kept such strong banding at this size before.
In addition to fish Bunker Hill Bogs had a Variety of other Animals and Plants including.
A garter snake. It had an odd brownish/reddish color, different from the black and yellow ones back home.
Butterflies including a cabbage white which I chased for a long time trying to get a photo of, and skippers (my favorites)
skipper on an invasive loostrife
A leopard frog
A dragonfly
In addition to fish Bunker Hill Bogs had a Variety of other Animals and Plants including.
A garter snake. It had an odd brownish/reddish color, different from the black and yellow ones back home.
Butterflies including a cabbage white which I chased for a long time trying to get a photo of, and skippers (my favorites)
skipper on an invasive loostrife
A leopard frog
A dragonfly
#25
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 12:27 AM
Also at Bunker hill bogs was a copper butterfly, a wasp (with caterpillar), a ferocious carnivorous sundew, and some kind of yellow flower
From their we moved onto Horicon, which despite the name isn't a gathering place for fans of scary movies.
Here we found alot of blackbanded, banded, and bluespot sunnies
Chain Pickerel were also present
As were Pirate Perch, shown here in a convenient position to become pickerel food
I got these chubsuckers in a seine. Note the bluespots too
All sorts of critters were eagre to enter our collection bins.
From their we moved onto Horicon, which despite the name isn't a gathering place for fans of scary movies.
Here we found alot of blackbanded, banded, and bluespot sunnies
Chain Pickerel were also present
As were Pirate Perch, shown here in a convenient position to become pickerel food
I got these chubsuckers in a seine. Note the bluespots too
All sorts of critters were eagre to enter our collection bins.
#26
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 12:37 AM
Cattus Island and the last spot me and Mike went to (whose name I forgot) I took the least photos from. A pitty as their were three Osprey at Cattus. (I also didn't get a picture of the huge flock of geese at horicon).
We got lots of mummichog here (as well as goby, silversides, and sheepshead minnows).
The mud at cattus was deep, I had to be pulled out of it a couple time by net. And in some places movement was more like swimming in mud than walking. The scaries time was when I was stuck in the mud and saw four jelly fish near me. these were not comb or moon jellies either. Their disc trailed tentacles from the center.
The biggest disappointment of Cattus was the fish we were not catching. I saw a six inch fish jump, clearing the water, and a few ripples from large fish, This disappointment carried onto the last spot where some kind of large fish rolled in the brackish water in a carplike way.
At me and Mike's last stop we got mummichog, rainwater killies, and a flopping leaf that turned out to be a hogchoker. (I was on it right off, Unlike the flopping stick in Virginia which ended up being a gar that I sort of failed to beleive my eyes the first time I saw it move, only pointing it out when it moved again later).
I wish I had a picture of the fish, instead here is a picture of a pond, then a close up of the ducks from it. (a mix of a wild mallard (later another joined), mallard derived domestic breeds, and a domestic mucovey not in the close up).
We got lots of mummichog here (as well as goby, silversides, and sheepshead minnows).
The mud at cattus was deep, I had to be pulled out of it a couple time by net. And in some places movement was more like swimming in mud than walking. The scaries time was when I was stuck in the mud and saw four jelly fish near me. these were not comb or moon jellies either. Their disc trailed tentacles from the center.
The biggest disappointment of Cattus was the fish we were not catching. I saw a six inch fish jump, clearing the water, and a few ripples from large fish, This disappointment carried onto the last spot where some kind of large fish rolled in the brackish water in a carplike way.
At me and Mike's last stop we got mummichog, rainwater killies, and a flopping leaf that turned out to be a hogchoker. (I was on it right off, Unlike the flopping stick in Virginia which ended up being a gar that I sort of failed to beleive my eyes the first time I saw it move, only pointing it out when it moved again later).
I wish I had a picture of the fish, instead here is a picture of a pond, then a close up of the ducks from it. (a mix of a wild mallard (later another joined), mallard derived domestic breeds, and a domestic mucovey not in the close up).
#27
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 07:28 AM
Nice trip report Josh... looks like a great day... those NJ Pine Barrens have always been interesting to me.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#28
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 02:12 PM
Thanks to Ray and Bob for setting this trip up. I hadn't been to NJ Pines Barrens fish collecting since 2008 I think. Used to come down once or twice a year even if I wasn't interested in keeping anything. There's so many cool spots to explore acidic pine barrens, brackish and marine. I have some nice black banded sunnies, now going to change my 150 to a pine barrens tank. Unfortunately I NY had different laws I could have it fully stocked just from this trip. But since pretty much every other freshwater fish in NJ is also native to NY I could only keep some black banded sunfish. I hope I didn't annoy my fellow collectors with my constant murmuring but man every time I pulled up a nice banded or blue spot it was painful tossing them back. And one of my favorites the mud sunfish I was catching by the basket full in the first half of the bank I found over 10 of them then continued as I tried some other areas. And plenty of swamp darters and pirate perch as well and a few tadpole mad toms. Had to leave em all behind! I really got to move. But I do love those Black Banded Sunfish!
So my Pine Barrens tank will be more of a southern Pine Barrens tank with black banded sunfish and maybe some brown darters, banded pygmy sunfish, least killies, pygmy killies. I hear Georgia calling.
We had a great time the weather was perfect, the company fantastic, and the discoveries kept coming. I've never found so many naked gobies before. Gotta run sorry been so busy I'll try to get some photos up soon mostly non fish. What a great time.
So my Pine Barrens tank will be more of a southern Pine Barrens tank with black banded sunfish and maybe some brown darters, banded pygmy sunfish, least killies, pygmy killies. I hear Georgia calling.
We had a great time the weather was perfect, the company fantastic, and the discoveries kept coming. I've never found so many naked gobies before. Gotta run sorry been so busy I'll try to get some photos up soon mostly non fish. What a great time.
#31
mattknepley
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Posted 15 September 2013 - 03:26 PM
Fun head-on pictures of those blackbanded sunfish, Josh. Looks like they were trying to channel their inner pacu! 
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#34
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Posted 17 September 2013 - 12:03 AM
Great pics Mike - thanks for posting!
Pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts - even the plants in Jersey are carnivorous. Careful or we're going to give the place a bad name.
Oh wait ... never mind ...
The Pine Barrens, it's coniferous and carnivorous.
#35
mattknepley
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- Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.
Posted 17 September 2013 - 06:29 AM
I might have lost my little mind trying to go back and forth between the pitcher plants and the fish! Toss in the parasitic wasp in action, and you got to observe some truly fascinating, beautiful parts of our natural world that (unfortunately) remain hidden from so many. What a fantastic day you all must have had!Great pics Mike - thanks for posting!
Pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts - even the plants in Jersey are carnivorous. Careful or we're going to give the place a bad name.
Oh wait ... never mind ...
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#38
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Posted 20 September 2013 - 08:01 AM
All nine black banded sunfish i kept from this trip are settling in nice.
My chubsuckers are mostly fine (one died on the trip home) but had some tail issues. Their once flowing caudal fins are now mini nub shaped lobes. The day after I noticed I medicated the tank. Not sure if it was fin nibbling from other fish or fin rot but I wasn't taking chances,
#39
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Posted 20 September 2013 - 09:26 AM
Very cool, wish I would've been there. I do believe that garter snake is in fact a Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus) though
I concur. Check out that relatively microcephalic head -- one of many indications that it's not T. sirtalis. Cool fish all around (I can't get enough of those mud sunfish), but man, I'd have to break away for a short fish hiatus and look for Hyla andersonii and a pine snake or two if I were out that way. Looks like a ton of fun.
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