Our plan was to hit Whitewater River at Duke Power's Bad Creek facility, and after a little while truck on over to the Chattooga River at Burrels Ford on the SC/GA border. It was a splendid day, a little too hot for my blood but not bad; clear skies and fairly low humidity. Nature seemed to smile on us the whole way up and back.
We got to Bad Creek and parked at the Foothills Trails access lot. We fairly ran to the access trail, which at 6/10 mile is just hilly enough to remind you that you are in the mountains, but not rough enough to preclude seines, dipnets, buckets, and other less essential paraphernalia from being toted along.
Mountain Laurel is one of my favorite trees/bushes and it is in full bloom right now.
Where the access trail meets the Foothills Trail proper, one is greeted by the Whitewater River.
Although water levels are down across SC, they seemed to be ok here. Kerry immediately set to trying to catch fish and snakes with my dipnet and photographing some monster-size spiders; while Erin imagined herself all manner of wild animals splashing in the river. I of course set to seining.
In no time at all I was rewarded with dace! Almost every kick set in ankle deep riffles turned up one or two Longnose Dace, Rhinichthys catatacae. What a cool fish. Their body shape and colors are something else, especially the bright orangish-red mustaches they are sporting this time of year. Yes, my pictures suck, but they are good enough to give you an idea of what kept turning up in my net.
I was so excited! These fish are at their southeastern extremity in SC, and only appear in a few streams. They had eluded me for many years up to this point.
A couple dace had me wondering. I'm pretty sure they are just younger Longnose, but I keep wondering if they weren't Western Blacknose Dace, R. obtusus. They were smaller, had yellowish not reddish fins, the nose didn't seem quite so long, they had a more distinct stripe, and their eyes seemed lower on their heads than the fish I knew without doubt were Longnoses. But none of those apparent differences were obvious enough to set them apart at the time. Here's another cruddy pic; can anybody id it one way or another? I'm thinking of the fish at bottom center (immediately below the chub) and also the one at top center. In the bucket they are the two closest to two o'clock.
Other fish netted include Yellowfin Shiners, Bluehead Chub, Creek Chub, and a y.o.y.-sized trout. I believe there are Brookies, Rainbows, and Browns in Whitewater, so no telling which one it was.
We intended to spend about 30 minutes at Whitewater; we spent three fantastic hours!
With the sun starting to get a little low, we headed out for the Chattooga. Nature wasn't shy, and among our sightings were four deer and a Barred Owl who'd just made a kill on the roadside. We were hoping for a black bear, but nature wasn't that obliging...
The Chattooga was very low. We forded the river from SC to the Georgia side, something of a tradition, and didn't have to swim any of it. Even Erin, who is a twerpy-sized eight year old, never got in water deeper than her waist. Usually I am adamant about her wearing a life jacket there; that was not a concern today. We gathered enough river rock to wet my wife's appetite for more (thus ensuring more mountain trips!) and headed out.
Our last stop was at Moody Spring on the side of SC 107, still a good ways up in the mountains. Legend has it that it that a ghost hitchhiker inhabits the area, but I have my doubts. Still, we stopped to enjoy some well-earned "huanted water" on the way home.
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