21 replies to this topic

[Casper]

I have been asked to bring my NANFA friends to the Saturday gathering June 27.  Here is the flyer.

We generally play in the creek most of the day, seineing, dipnetting & cool water wading and doing a little show & tell with our catches, enjoying picnic hospitality and socialing.  We are straddling the TN GA line here, beautiful private property with no license concerns.  Afterwards we can take a dip in the cement pond and have some evening BBQ at a local joint.

I have space available next door for those who wish to stay overnight and Sunday we can snorkel the Conasauga, Hiwassee or other clear creek nearby.

 

[Casper]

Less than 2 weeks away.  The South Chick organizers have a lot more activities featured for this year.  I hope these 95 degree temps break, otherwise i suspect we will spend the whole day laying in the cool creek water.  No where better to be on a hot summer day!

[fundulus]

It could be... but I can't promise that Unmack will be with me.

[Casper]

Will the ex-president make it?  A few will.  No Aussies though.  Cooler temps and a chance of rain make for a refreshing day.

[Michael Wolfe]

Four from Georgia will be making our way up there. We will make sure to stay on our side of the line.

[Casper]

I'm glad to hear that Michael and will much enjoy the 4 of you Georgities participating.  I am disappointed that there will be no Tennessee NANFA members but i expect a lot of local South Chickamauga Creek Greenway Alliance members.  It should be a fun day and a bit cooler than the heat wave we have endured the last few weeks.

 

We had talked about a Sunday Snorkel and look what is occuring... a bit of an interesting tease via Ed Scott while guiding a recent CNF trip to the Hiwassee this Tuesday, June 23.

Amazingly... this late heated June, River Chubs building mounds and Tennessee Shiners in their hyper transluscent orange glow.  The Hiwassee is a bit of a man altered oddity with its chilling water from the early morning minimal flows of the controlled dam release before they crank up raging current in the afternoon to run folk's AC units.

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[Isaac Szabo]

Awesome. I hope that's still going on if you go there this weekend.

[Casper]

A rain front blew through the night before and cooled the recent hot summer

temperatures making for a fine picnic day.  A few sprinkles fell and distant thunder

but nothing making for worried nerves, it seemed all was enjoyed by the 50 or so

folks who attended.

I got started about 9am, placing the 4 directional signs at key turns, staging the

display aquarium and setting the remaining OK Moonpies out along with a chilled

gallon jar of triple filtered cement pond mint tea.  Michael, Alejandro, Keith and

Kathy soon arrived and we got ourselves situated for the activity commencement. 

The seine team headed to the water and after about an hour of easy seining we

caught a good variety of species.  With the "Come and Get it" lunch call we climbed

out of the creek, quickly transfered our catch to the aquarium and headed for the

lunch line of grilled hotdogs and hamburgers complimented with all manner of bean,

potato, pasta and garden salads.

 

 

2nd round of the seine team, myself, little eager Honey, Kathy, Alejandro, Keith

and Michael.  We added a few more species with these seine pulls, pushes, rushes

and drags.  A few stumbles, a lot of kick shuffles, a couple falls, and a spattering of

blood but no busted shins.

 

 

 

Checking the contents for Logperch and Star Gazing Minnows.

 

 

 

The team and some of the picnicers peering at the catch, displayed so that folks

could see the life they are preserving in South Chickamauga Creek.  22 species noted this day.

 

 

 

A few casualties while distracted with the lunch line offering.  I began to add bagged

ice which did the trick.  This trio of dead are some kind of suckers, Redhorse likely. 

Common and cute when happy and free.

 

 

 

Young Honey with her fresh caught Toad, quickly rejected after it plentifully pied on

her.  Wash them hands lest the warts become!

 

 

 

Kathy split at the state line.  Half here, half there.

 

 

 

While Michael processed the fish for photos we took a rinse in the cool cement

pond.  As the sun shadowed the last one still in was Kathy so i pushed her into the

corner and poured a cup full of fish food in front of her masked eyes!  Wild swirls of

fish feeding frenzy, keep you fingers out of the whirl!

After the refreshing mint bath we changed into dry clothes and headed south to a

favored stop where i treated them to some delicious BBQ for lending their

assistance to a fine day.  Returning home i was well worn from the active day and

settled into my lazy chair when the phone rang,  Bryce: "What time do you want to

meet at the Hiwassee tomorrow morning?"

 

Motivating Words for even the Weary.

 

 

 

 

[Isaac Szabo]

Good work! Looks like a fun day. Awesome shot of the chub carrying the rock!

[Matt DeLaVega]

Yeah, Awesome gathering, and that chub shot is so cool.

[fundulus]

I really have to go back there just to see that state line marker....

[mattknepley]

Man, I'm used to missing out on the fun, but adding mint tea to the equation was just cruel! I love me some iced mint tea, sans filtration even! Looks like you all had a good time. Love the chub pic, too, and am especially glad to see another young ichthyolochick in attendance!

[Michael Wolfe]

A few photo tank portraits from Saturday... My highlight was this little six inch dude and his teeth.

 

of course there were redlines

 

and juvenile redhorse

 

and logperch

 

and maybe the second best fish of the day was a very nice stargazing minnow

 

and of course, I am not going to let an opportunity pass by to show you a great Nocomis!

[Matt DeLaVega]

Do you have a species on that redhorse yet?  Golden maybe? I am trying to get a grasp on them.

[Michael Wolfe]

I dont know what to count... but the full size photo is on the gallery archive... I think I could count rays and scales and such?  They were too little and delicate to try taking lip pictures... 

[Isaac Szabo]

Great photos of some cool fish, Michael!

I'd say golden is a good guess for the redhorse. You can separate golden from black by counting lateral scales. I might try it later when I'm on the computer (I'm on my phone right now).

[Matt DeLaVega]

It looks like the goldens I have seen. That is only a gut feeling though, nothing more.

[Casper]

Nice pictures Michael.  I don't know what to make of that Redline.  It looks quite odd to me.  I keep thinking i should place a circular dark color of carpet in the collection bucket which should help retain fishy colors.

 

Jim Ledbetter, the canoe / kayak guy, sent me a few photos yesterday.  Here are a couple.  I wish i had gotten everyone together for a group shot, it was a nice group this year.

 

 

 

More folks gathered around the viewing tank, the picnic pavilion and creek beyond.

 

 

 

The viewing tank... you can read 82 on the thermometer.  Too hot.  You can also see the bag of ice that i had added a few minutes before.  Water is Life or... Hot Water is Death.

 

 

 

Michael got this one of me teasing the Green in the Cement Pond.

[Isaac Szabo]

I feel confident calling the redhorse a golden. I counted around 40-42 lateral line scales and 8-9 pelvic rays. Both of those indicate golden as opposed to black. Also, the caudal peduncle is fairly stout, another characteristic of golden.

[smbass]

Just to add one more character to help confirm the golden, dorsal ray count of 12-14 in combination with the already mentioned lateral scale row count makes it not a silver. In the Ohio river basin (TN and Cumberland included) no red tail and you have three choices of Golden, Black, or Silver. Silver has a higher dorsal ray count (usually 15-16 but can be as high as 18) than the other two and then # of scales in lateral series separates golden and black. Lips can be used for all three as well but on a tiny one as mentioned this is difficult.