Just got back from a couple days in the mountains. The trip was focused on trying out the new GoPro4--to which I realized after the trip that I left on 30fps....which essentially made all of the clips pointless since I meant to film in 60fps. Regardless, I got a couple of decent shots which I'll try to post.
In Allegheny Co. NC, I was finally able to find E. kanawhae (Kanawha darter) in pretty high densities. A few trips looking for them in VA have been fruitless. One 30' stretch yielded ~20 fish. The males were fired up and courting females. Aside from finding the target species, the New was otherwise very unproductive. Other species we saw were Fantail daters, BND, and White shiners. Sculpin were in low abundance.
Next stop was the Clinch in VA. Probably my favorite river. At the mouth of one of the creeks and working upstream of it we spotted:
Tangerine darters
Greenside darters
Logperch
Snubnose darters
Gilt darters
Speckled darters
Redline darters
Bluebreast darters
Warpaint shiners
TN shiners
Streamline chubs
Stargazing minnows
Stonerollers
River chubs
Whitetail shiners
SMB
Longnose gar
There were probably many more species of cyprinids that went unnoticed as my focus was filming darters. The Snubnose were as thick as flies on a carcass. They paid no mind to the camera as colored up males chased females. Males of virtually all the species listed above were colored up. Gilts were a little less than I've seen them before, but I did see males sticking by females. Tangerines fed happily and very close to me on an accidentally crushed mussel. They are easily the wittiest and most evasive species when they want to be.
I realize the frustration of only getting a written description of what was seen. I will try to get a clip or two up soon. We'll see how nice the computer cooperates today.