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Central WV Fish

Started by Guest_Gavinswildlife_* , May 26 2014 08:11 PM

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12 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Gavinswildlife_*

Guests

Posted 26 May 2014 - 08:11 PM

I was visiting with family this weekend on the family farm in Flatwoods, WV. This fish was caught in the little kanawha river, which borders the property.

I am thinking a Nocomis Chub, maybe hornyhead? The old-timers tell me that there used to be catfish, gar, and huge redhorses in the river, but with dams and various other factors, they are very visibly gone. I have seen Rusty-colored minnows, sculpins, and what I believe to be a stonecat in there. Any input is greatly appreciated!

Posted Image

I will try to get pictures of the crayfish and minnows on my next trip down in July.

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#2 Guest_Skipjack_*

Guests

Posted 26 May 2014 - 08:21 PM

It is a Nocomis for sure. I am not sure of the local variety, but you have it correct down to genus, so determining species should be doable. Time to get out the books.

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#3 Guest_Moontanman_*

Guests

Posted 26 May 2014 - 08:29 PM

I used to fish the Little Kanawha! It was in bad shape way back then...

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#4 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 26 May 2014 - 09:38 PM

Nocomis for sure... and like Matt said... first rule of identification (where were your feet, that is, what drainage were you in)... except for our upcoming convention location, most places only have one Nocomis per drainage.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#5 Guest_Gavinswildlife_*

Guests

Posted 27 May 2014 - 06:24 PM

It would have to be River Chub, according to the usgs factsheet range.

http://nas2.er.usgs....x?SpeciesID=577

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#6 Guest_Skipjack_*

Guests

Posted 27 May 2014 - 06:43 PM

Well, good job, you ID'ed it. I do like that about Nocomis, the Wolfe foot theory works particularly well with them. Know where your feet are.

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#7 Guest_smbass_*

Guests

Posted 31 May 2014 - 09:43 AM

There are some areas on the east coast where Bluehead over lap with a second Nocomis sp. and here in Ohio we have a few river systems with both Hornyhead and River chub but even in these streams Hornyhead are further upstream and in smaller water than River chub in general but there is a gray area of overlap. I actually have both in my home watershed the Kokosing River. Most of the time though there is just one species per basin.

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#8 Guest_Kanus_*

Guests

Posted 31 May 2014 - 08:06 PM

I'm not sure about WV, but in Virginia in the New/Kanawha drainage we have both bluehead and bigmouth chubs. They can often be identified by the size of the stream they come from. Bigmouths (a sister species to River chubs) generally occur in larger rivers, while Blueheads show up in smaller streams. There is some overlap, and they can then be identified by looking for scales on the breast between the pectoral fins. Blueheads are heavily scaled, while Bigmouths are naked or at the very most, 20% scaled.

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#9 Gavinswildlife

NANFA Guest

Canton, OH

Posted 10 January 2015 - 02:56 AM

This year I am making a commitment to look further into this river a bit more. Does anyone know where I might find any electroshocking or seine net data for WV streams? Later this year I want to find out exactly what species I am seeing in the river. This is upstream of the dam.

I had the pleasure of catching some beautiful Longears, Green sunfish, bluegill sunfish, River chub, rock bass, smallmouth bass, and largemouth bass in the same location this summer. There are visibly large amounts of small fish in the water. Does anyone think they may be able to go on a collecting outing here this year?

Gavin

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#10 Matt DeLaVega

Forum Staff

Ohio

Posted 10 January 2015 - 08:17 AM

EPA, ORNSANCO(if it is in the Ohio river drainage), DNR, universities. Ideally you would find out who the state non-game fish biologist is and go from there. These are just generic suggestions, as I can't offer any advice particular to WV.

Brian Zimmerman has a database that may include some WV data.

The member formerly known as Skipjack

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#11 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 10 January 2015 - 08:45 AM

You could also search the "dead fish in jars" database. This is a fantastic on-line resource that catalogs the preserved specimens that are in university and maybe other institutions collections. The cool thing about it, is that it also includes date, collector and location data. I just went in this morning and confirmed that you can query by just "West Virginia" and you get a .csv file that you can open with excel and it lists over 15,000 collections some from back in the 1800s some much more recent. Its a wealth of information. Once you have the file you can sort by other things... like county, or date, or whatever. Some of the newer collections have very clear locations (road names or even GPS coordinates). Check it out... http://www.fishnet2.net/

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#12 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 10 January 2015 - 03:32 PM

You could also search the "dead fish in jars" database. This is a fantastic on-line resource that catalogs the preserved specimens that are in university and maybe other institutions collections. The cool thing about it, is that it also includes date, collector and location data. I just went in this morning and confirmed that you can query by just "West Virginia" and you get a .csv file that you can open with excel and it lists over 15,000 collections some from back in the 1800s some much more recent. Its a wealth of information. Once you have the file you can sort by other things... like county, or date, or whatever. Some of the newer collections have very clear locations (road names or even GPS coordinates). Check it out... http://www.fishnet2.net/

Very nice! This might make a couple pet projects of my own much more fruitful!

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

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#13 smbass

Board of Directors

Posted 12 January 2015 - 09:45 AM

I actually made one collection in this river a few years ago. The highlights for me were tippecanoe darter and sharpnose darter. I'll see if I can look up what else we caught and if you want I'll gladly share. Send me an e-mail or PM to remind me.

Brian J. Zimmerman

Gambier, Ohio - Kokosing River Drainage