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TN Drainage Trip

Started by Guest_drewish_* , Mar 25 2007 08:10 PM

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#1 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 25 March 2007 - 08:10 PM

arnoldi and I met up with Ranger Bob for a day of collecting in the TN drainage. We arrived around noon and were able to hit 4 waterways before dark. arnoldi and I left Saturday night and stayed in the Salem/Roanaoke area with plans on finding Mountain Redbelly Dace in the morning.

Clinch River - Main River
Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris
Blotched Chub, Erimystax insignis
Banded Darter, Etheostoma zonale
Bluebreast Darter, Etheostoma camurum
Gilt Darter, Percina evides
Greenside Darter, Etheostoma blennioides
Redline Darter, Etheostoma rufilineatum
Snubnose Darter, Etheostoma simoterum
Speckled Darter, Etheostoma stigmaeum
Ohio Lamprey, Ichthyomyzon bdellium
Mountain Madtom, Noturus eleutherus
Bluntnose Minnow, Pimephales notatus
Stargazing Minnow, Phenacobius uranops
Banded Sculpin, Cottus carolinae (going by regional species, and recent collection)
Sawfin Shiner, Notropis spp. A
Tennessee Shiner, Notropis leuciodus
Whitetail Shiner, Cyprinella galactura
Northern Studfish, Fundulus catenatus
White Sucker, Catostomus commersoni

Copper Creek - Clinch River Tributary
Greenside Darter, Etheostoma blennioides
Redline Darter, Etheostoma rufilineatum
Snubnose Darter, Etheostoma simoterum
Silver Shiner, Notropis photogenis
Striped Shiner, Luxilus chrysocephalus
Tennessee Shiner, Notropis leuciodus
Warpaint Shiner, Luxilus coccogeni
Central Stoneroller, Campostoma anomalum

North Fork Holston River - Main River
Greenside Darter, Etheostoma blennioides
Redline Darter, Etheostoma rufilineatum
Snubnose Darter, Etheostoma simoterum
Nothern Hog Sucker, Hypentelium nigricans
Smallmouth Bass, Micropterus dolomieu
Tennessee Shiner, Notropis leuciodus

Possum Creek - NF Holston River Tributary
Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris
Fantail Darter, Etheostoma flabellare
Greenside Darter, Etheostoma blennioides
Redline Darter, Etheostoma rufilineatum
Snubnose Darter, Etheostoma simoterum
Central Stoneroller, Campostoma anomalum
Warpaint Shiner, Luxilus coccogeni
River chub, Nocomis micropogon

Catawba Creek - James River Tributary
Blacknose Dace, Rhinichthys atratulus
Mountain Redbelly Dace, Phoxinus oreas
Rosyside Dace, Clinostomus funduloides
Common Shiner, Luxilus cornutus

Banded Darter

Stargazing Minnow

Greenside Darter

Northern Hog Sucker

Sorry about the quality of the pics... forgot my nice photo tanks.

#2 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 04:25 PM

Some pics of the fish I kept :

Gilt Darter, Percina evides

Redline Darter, Etheostoma rufilineatum

Mountain Madtom, Noturus eleutherus

Speckled Darter, Etheostoma stigmaeum
ID'd this as a female speckled, left it big for a closer look
Banded Darter, Etheostoma zonale

#3 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 04:30 PM

ID'd this as a female speckled, left it big for a closer look

Looks like a banded to me.

#4 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 04:41 PM

Looks like a banded to me.

Looked like one to me too but I couldn't find any good comparison pics of smaller bandeds.

Well, crap... http://www.ohiodnr.c...ages/banded.jpg

looks like that, eh?

I guess scratch that off the list... Guess it might have been some wishful thinking

#5 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 05:15 PM

Speckled won't even have a hint of green, you'll only see some orange spotting on a really nice female. And you're not going to miss a male right now. They are immaculate.

#6 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 05:15 PM

On second thought, maybe I WILL take one of those redlines...wow.

#7 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 05:19 PM

Speckled won't even have a hint of green, you'll only see some orange spotting on a really nice female. And you're not going to miss a male right now. They are immaculate.

I honestly didn't see the green until I posted the pic. After posting it, I was puzzled as I didn't see it before. I've also never seen a speckled before and jumped to it probably for that reason.

Ranger Bob says he's seen the speckleds in there and thought we should have found them. There is always next time when it should be easier to seine in those riffles.

#8 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 05:20 PM

On second thought, maybe I WILL take one of those redlines...wow.

That is the biggest brightest one I have. The others are similar in color but he stands out.

#9 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 08:02 PM

On second thought, maybe I WILL take one of those redlines...wow.

Make no mistake about it. The redline darter is one of our most phenomenal fishes. They're abundant across their range, they're easy to care for, and they are goregous, maintaing similar color all year round with a good diet.

Yeah Drew I talked to Casper and he also said you had really high water (he talked to Bob last night). You did a heckuva lot better than Jeffro and I did with Bob about this time in the year. All we got in the Clinch was a good story about some guy running us off "his" land

Is Copper Creek where the family cabin is? Is that "bridge" still there? lol.

When you go back, look in the shallowest portions of the riffles. There you will find the speckeled darter. They can be in literally and inch of water, so long as it's flowing. Sometimes they're easier to find with a dipnet.

But be warned... They're boring as heck as soon as they're out of color, and it's a bugger to get them back into it. I'm getting a flicker of blue right now, while the other darters are on fire now that the days are lengthening. So you will probably end up with this light yellow brown darter that wants frozen food. And that's not really for everyone.

Todd

#10 Guest_daveneely_*

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Posted 26 March 2007 - 11:11 PM

"Speckleds" in the Clinch/Powell are a totally different critter, Etheostoma meadie, from E. jessiae (in the rest of the Tennessee other than a bit of uppermost Bear Creek in 'Bama), and they're both pretty distinctive this time of year. Let's just say that nobody who's seen bucked-up males would mistake either for real E. stigmaeum...

cheers,
Dave

#11 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 07:29 AM

Yeah Drew I talked to Casper and he also said you had really high water (he talked to Bob last night). You did a heckuva lot better than Jeffro and I did with Bob about this time in the year. All we got in the Clinch was a good story about some guy running us off "his" land Is Copper Creek where the family cabin is? Is that "bridge" still there? lol.

Copper Creek is the one that flows into the Clinch not too far from Clinchport. Possum Creek is where the family cabin is, and a bridge of some sort is still there. I asked Bob if it was safe and he advised not crossing it. But there were still plenty of shotgun shells and used condoms on the ground :shock:

You know you're in the south when...

#12 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 08:24 AM

But there were still plenty of shotgun shells and used condoms on the ground You know you're in the south when...

I could take you to creeks in western Massachusetts and Maine with the same littering, and probably anywhere in rural America. It's not a southern thing. But we still have streams with high aquatic diversity that everyone should visit, and fishing regulations that allow easy access for collecting. So come on down...

#13 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 08:51 AM

I could take you to creeks in western Massachusetts and Maine with the same littering,..

Yeah, it's more like "You know you're in a rural area when..."

But it's always fun to joke that your at the sacred spawning grounds of the teenage homo sapiens.

#14 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 12:02 PM

I could take you to creeks in western Massachusetts and Maine with the same littering, and probably anywhere in rural America. It's not a southern thing. But we still have streams with high aquatic diversity that everyone should visit, and fishing regulations that allow easy access for collecting. So come on down...

That is a first for me... Well second, Copper Creek has the same thing. I guess they enjoy the rumbling of the train as it goes by?

Even in the mid-west I missed that, and Northern VA lacks the shotgun shells. We have burned down grills, beer boxes/cans, etc, but I assume those are found across the states.

I forgot to add that we were visited by the local Game Warden and was impressed with our show, that we weren't asked to produce permits/licenses. We simply answered all his questions regarding the species we had, started ID'ng fish with our Fishes of VA and TN, and he was amused. I guess after that, and the fact we didn't book when we saw him, he assumed we were legit.

Also, didn't mention that 'rick', visited us while we took a break. Glad we could meet up and re-associate Bob and him. He also confirmed a couple of IDs we had.

#15 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 09:09 PM

I forgot a couple of species that Bob reminded me of, silver shiner and river chub.

Also, in the Clinch we sampled 100+ female/juvenile redline darters with only a couple adult males showing up. Is this normal for pre-spawn? Are the males found in deeper water?

#16 Guest_Skipjack_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 09:15 PM

I forgot a couple of species that Bob reminded me of, silver shiner and river chub.

Also, in the Clinch we sampled 100+ female/juvenile redline darters with only a couple adult males showing up. Is this normal for pre-spawn? Are the males found in deeper water?

Knowing nothing about redlines, I have to say this seems odd. Male darters of most species move into spawning area, and establish territories, prior to the arrival of the bulk of the females. If you were kicking riffles, I would expect more males than females right now.

#17 Guest_drewish_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 09:38 PM

We were kicking a submerged "island". Found the madtoms in deeper water between the shore and the "island", so we concentrated there since they were the primary target. The true riffles were too fast for seining.

#18 Guest_Skipjack_*

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Posted 27 March 2007 - 09:39 PM

We were kicking a submerged "island". Found the madtoms in deeper water between the shore and the "island", so we concentrated there since they were the primary target. The true riffles were too fast for seining.

Thats where the males were.