4 replies to this topic

[Chasmodes]

Potomac River Tributary, Maryland

 

A buddy of mine, Howard, and I decided to wade and fish a creek in the hot weather rather than cook ourselves on the river in my boat.  I made the best of it, fishing some of the time, dunking my camera underwater and hoping what I'd get some of the time, and the rest of the time looking for arrowheads that were invisible to me.  

 

My camera wound up finding some cool stuff, some that I saw and took pictures of, other fish that I didn't even know were there.  So, here we go (I tossed in a couple scenery/fishing pics too):

 

The fishing was good, with Howard catching 22 smallies and a few panfish on plastic worms, while I caught 18 fish on a buzzbait while fishing part time.  Howard nailed the big fish of the day, a decent smallmouth bass:

 

Mine were all "dinks" in the 10-13" range, but spunky like this little feller:

 

Now to the underwater pics:

 

Three Greenside Darters (Etheostoma blenniodes) posing for my first shot.

 

Closeup of two of these guys:

 

More greenside darter pics:

 

 

I took a few pics of a root system in case I wanted to use that look as part of my fish tank decor (DIY roots)

 

and found a few fish that I never saw, like this unidentified minnow:

 

More to come...

[Chasmodes]

And a rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris)

 

And his buddy, probably is a redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus)

 

After catching some smallies, I went back to a riffle and found some more photogenic fish, including this smallmouth maybe looking for a greenside darter lunch...

 

Closeup of the darter:

 

Howard also decided to join in on the fun and help me attract some photo fish models, kicking sediment upstream and creating a minnow feeding frenzy.  Although it probably looks like Godzilla approaching to them, they obviously aren't afraid  

 

One of the minnows is thought to be a bluntnose (from my ID thread), although it's hard to tell in a fuzzy picture:

 

Two more unidentified minnows from the frenzy that I think are beautiful...anyone know what they are?

 

Or this one?

 

Thanks to some of our members help in a potential ID, this seems to be either a northern hog sucker or a white sucker.

 

Anyway, hope you all liked these pictures.  I know the quality wasn't great seeing that I just plunged my camera down for the most part.  Recent rains kept the water clarity down more than usual, but not too bad.  The water rose 6" during the half day that we fished.

 

On the way back, we found this guy in the middle of the road taking a drink.  I scrambled to get pics, but all I could get was one through the windshield.  I tried to roll down my window and lean out for a picture, but he flew away out of sight.  It was only the second scarlet tanager that I've ever seen.  Howard and I agreed that topped off the day.  We both had a ton of fun.  Where else could you catch 42 bass and enjoy this kind of wildlife when just about every other body of water in the area is flooded?  The answer:  this creek  

[Matt DeLaVega]

Boy between scarlet tanagers and red headed woodpeckers, I just cannot decide which is the most beautiful bird in the country. The two are almost tied at the top of my list.

[Chasmodes]

Yep Matt, I agree, those, bluebirds and the Baltimore Oriole for me!

[Josh Blaylock]

Looks like a great day out in the water.  I'm jealous, it's been so rainy and flooding in KY, I've barely been out this year.  Good photos too.  Your 2 grazing shiners look like N. volucellus, but I'm not sure where in the Potomac drainage you were.