This past Thursday, April 23, was supposed to be the last sunny day for a while in east Tennessee, so I did the only sensible thing I could think of which was to skip work and go to the Conasauga. It turned out that the forecasters were wrong, Saturday turned out to be a very nice day; only weather people can do their jobs so wrong and not be fired. Air temp 66, water 58 and the flow was a little higher than I'm used to. Usually I go a little later in the year to help Casper with his snorkel tours and the flow has moderated by then. This is the Conasauga River.
This is the tail of the Snorkel Hole looking downstream.
A small stream enters the Conasauga.
Bronze Darter. Most of these were at the head of the pool where the flow was the heaviest, the big males were spectacular but very skittish and hard to approach. I got close enough to this mid-size one though.
Alabama Shiner, the males are just getting started. I only saw a few like this but many that are just starting to color up.
Alabama Shiner, larger one.
The real stars of the day were the Coosa Darters; fishes gone wild, they were spawning everywhere. I needed a cigarette afterwards. Beware fish porn and ovipositors.
This is how it starts. Male to the left, female right.
This is right before the end. I looked, but never saw any eggs and they kept this up as long as I was there. They were seeking out crevices or interstitial spaces between rocks. Note the green band on the male's dorsal fin, this fish was around 2" long.
Coosa Darter. This is a different pair, this male is pushing 3", note that the green band has gone dark except for the green "insignia" on the first ray of his dorsal fin and the intense green edges to his caudal fin. I hope you enjoyed these images.
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