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madtoms

Started by Guest_Sunfish catcher 321_* , May 29 2014 09:31 PM

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11 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Sunfish catcher 321_*

Guests

Posted 29 May 2014 - 09:31 PM

Does anyone have any idea in what river in north ill has tadpole madtoms.

#2 Guest_Skipjack_*

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Posted 29 May 2014 - 09:34 PM

You may have better luck looking in large farm drainage ditches.

#3 Guest_Skipjack_*

Guests

Posted 29 May 2014 - 09:41 PM

Oh, and half the fun is going out looking for them. You never know what you will find until you sample a stream. You may find what you are looking for, you may not. You may also find that you come across what you are looking for and more. Really, you just need to stop asking questions, and just get out and do it. Not that anyone minds your questions, but don't let not knowing hinder you from exploring. Go out and find some fish.

#4 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 30 May 2014 - 07:23 AM

Oh, and half the fun is going out looking for them. You never know what you will find until you sample a stream. You may find what you are looking for, you may not. You may also find that you come across what you are looking for and more. Really, you just need to stop asking questions, and just get out and do it. Not that anyone minds your questions, but don't let not knowing hinder you from exploring. Go out and find some fish.

I agree with Matt. Get out there and see what you find!

Case in point - back in 2012 I was a complete fish noob. I found tadpole madtoms in drainage ditches small enough to hop over. Go underneath bridges and carefully flip rocks and you should be able to find them.

http://bencantrellfi...per-slough.html

Posted Image

To get started, use the INHS fish species maps. The data is old, but it will at least point you in a good direction.

http://wwx.inhs.illi...hyology/ilfish/

#5 Guest_jblaylock_*

Guests

Posted 30 May 2014 - 07:58 AM

Bookmark this: (that goes for all fish people). So far this is the best website I've seen for fish information.

http://fishmap.org/

#6 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 30 May 2014 - 09:17 AM

Thanks Josh -- I just "pinned" a link to Fishmap.org in the Collecting & Sampling section of the forum.

http://forum.nanfa.o...atershed-lists/

#7 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 30 May 2014 - 10:00 AM

Bookmark this: (that goes for all fish people). So far this is the best website I've seen for fish information.

http://fishmap.org/

I agree it's a great site, but I'm still a die-hard fan of point data. In states like Illinois where a lot of water bodies are severely degraded, it's helpful to be able to narrow down your search to particular creeks. For example, here are the fishmap.org and INHS maps for tadpole madtom. I find the latter to be more useful. Of course, the good thing is that the fishmap site will continue to be improved, whereas the INHS data will just get older and older.

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#8 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 30 May 2014 - 10:26 AM

While we are tossing out alternatives, I would like to put in a plug for www.fishnet2.net as a great resource. This is a database of what I like to poke fun at and call "dead fish in jars". These are the actual ichthyological specimens that have been collected and stored. These usually have some very good location data. For example if I put Chattahoochee Sculpin into fishmap, it tells me they are found in the upper and Middle Chattahoochee (duh). But if I put Cottus chattahoochee into fishnet2, I get nine locations that all have some type of locality description (like a creek name 7 miles west of a town name) and seven of those actually have latitude and longitude coordinates (well that is mostly because it is a newly described fish).

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

#9 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 30 May 2014 - 11:10 AM

Awesome! Here's the kml file for tadpole madtom and Illinois downloaded from fishnet2.net and opened in google maps. The description for each point pops up when you click on the point. This just made my day.

#10 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 30 May 2014 - 12:36 PM

Just make sure you look at all the columns on that, not just the points. I mean, some of those specimens were collected before you were born! Or even before I was born! Or even before Fritz was... Well maybe they are not THAT old. But water quality has changed a lot in some places in the last 40 or 50 years. So look at those original collection dates. And remember it's still called 'fishin' not 'catchin'.

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