20 replies to this topic

[keepnatives]

Josh and I again went out to check possible sites to sample for next year's convention. Saturday the 22nd we went to New Castle to check out the Great Island Commons park.  We made a point to get there before low tide and unlike our previous tide pool endeavor  we used our perfect dip nets. My handle which I believe I purchased at the 2004 SC NANFA Convention had finally broke this January in the Florida panhandle. Eleven hard years not bad. While I awaited my new and improved Perfect dip net I decided to do a quick repair job and try to reunite the 2 halves by inserting a length of pvc tubing and screwing it inside the aluminum handle pieces. It worked flawlessly.  I carefully worked my way down the seaweed covered rocks to the tidal pools still partially receiving flow from the ocean, about just above my waist when bigger waves came in unless I was standing on one of countless rocks or ridges.  I was soon rewarded with our first tide pool fish, a grubby sculpins.  Not long after wards my first gunnel about 6 inches. Then I caught a couple smaller gunnels about 2 inches.  The dip net was working well.  Soon I had 3 larger gunnels one of which was red and about 11 2-2.5 inchers. Unfortunately 3 ended up missing.  My first guess was the 4 sculpins but none appeared fat enough.  I wonder if it is a coincidence that 3 small gunnels were unaccounted for and we also had 3 large gunnels?  Hmm...  Also had 6 or 7 cunner all about .75-1 inch brownish to reddish to greenish.  The biggest surprise was the first 2 juvenile lumpfish which finally totaled 6 all .4-1inch. about 45 minutes into the tide pool I noticed Josh was not in sight so I moved back up to the shore and saw him nearer the beach dipnetting a large sandy flat with small scattered columns of seaweed.  So I went over to join him but by the time I got there he moved further on so I sampled the area and added 4 ninespine sticklebacks.

 

Sunday we did some more northern red belly dace searching starting with another location on Trask Brook which was the stream we found them a couple weeks ago we found them here as well. We then sampled sites on the Sugar river and a tributary of the Sugar river.  No further red belly dace but found creek chubs, common suckers, long nose dace, black nose dace and a dace that seemed between those 2. Also found a yellow bullhead, common shiners, fall fish, juvie redbreast sunfish, beautiful brook trout.

 

We also found an albacore, as in submarine, we took the $7 self guided tour and found it well worth the price.  Best news it's about a quarter mile from our hotel and we can get a group discount.

 

Unfortunately I've had some issues getting my photos transferred to my laptop.  Hopefully

 I'll figure out the solution and not lose another batch of photos.

[Isaac Szabo]

That tide pool stuff sounds fun.

[FirstChAoS]

Sorry I didn't update in a while, I had an odd mix of busy, unmotivated, and feeling blah. I have four days worth of trips to give details on.

 

On August 8th we checked out a couple sites on the North Branch River (In Raymond I think, not sure).

 

The first spot was rich in those legless scaly creatures convention goers love.

 

 

It also had fish.We found 38 fallfish, 5 common shiners, 3 longnose dace, and 2 largemouth bass. (If I remember right our odd trend of finding largemouths in riffles continued this trip). 

 

We tried a second spot on the North Branch and found many more fish.

 

12 fallfish, 2 golden shiners, 2 creek chubsuckers, 6 swamp darters, 2 chain pickerel, and 1 lepomis too small to identify.

 

I am getting better at IDing silvery colored minnows. With Mike's help I can tell the scale shape of a fallfish from a common now. Goldens still confuse me, but I assume the one with the crowded face with the eye at the tip here is the golden.

 

 

 

[FirstChAoS]

 

 

 

Next we checked out the spot I found for swamp darters, Here we found 6 banded sunfish, 2 swamp darters, and 2 redfin pickerel.

 

 

 

the photos do not do this swamp darter credit. The fin markings looked more orange than brown to the unaided eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FirstChAoS]

We checked out an island off of Portsmouth but with the tide coming in we only got a couple tiny Striped Killifish, so we tried the boat landing at Odiorne Point. With a rising tide our luck was much reduced but we found 3 grubby sculpin, 1 mummichog, and 1 eel.

 

 

 

 

 

[FirstChAoS]

The ninth was our first trip to Trask Stream to officially survey it. The very cold side stream I normally enter through was reduced to a puddle from low water conditions. I had Mike use his seine to rescue the Creek Chubs trapped in the puddle.

 

Here we found an overwhelming 120 Creek Chubs, 50 Northern Redbelly Dace (a relief as my last visit their only found two), 80 blacknose dace, 20 common white suckers, and 75 common shiners.

 

 

 

We then tried a spot on Little Sugar River where we found 15 longnose dace, 35 blacknose dace, and 3 slimy sculpin

[FirstChAoS]

On the 22nd we went to great island commons. A pretty little park in New Castle I chose for a variety of habitats I read up on at a snorkling site.  It was a spot of impressive scenery.

 

[FirstChAoS]

At Great island common we made our way through the treacherous and slippery rocks coated with Bladderwrack Rockweed. Every step was a slide towards disaster. Mike made it to the water first, I was about to give up and find a  spot further down the shore (and said as much) when I found an easier way in. By then mike found a very productive hole and got 7 cunner, 8 lumpfish, 14 gunnel 3 of them large, and 4 sculpin.

 

 

 

 

After slipping and sliding in the water with no luck catching anything and a bit nervous to move all the way to Mike's productive fishing hole, I decided to follow what I said and head further down the shore to seek out eel grass beds for pipefish. Sadly despite finding eelgrass washed up on shore I found no submerged beds and no fish (but alot more invertebrates like shrimp, crab, and amphipods). Mike soon joined me and found 4 Ninespine Sticklebacks. 

 

However the place was rich in wildlife. I saw a brown furry creature running over the rocks I couldn't get a good look at to identify (my guess is either a very large wood chuck or an unusually fat mink or otter), cormerants, a variety of gulls, Eiders, and Semipalmated Plovers.

 

 

 

From this image where my camera messed up and aimed too low to get the duck, I sort of wonder if we missed the eelgrass beds as they were out deep in this spot. 

 

[FirstChAoS]

From here we went back to portsmouth and found an albacore.

 

\

 

The Submarine Albacore. We toured it, it was fascinating but very hot and cramped with doorways barely made for human passage.

 

 

From here we tried to find a couple brook trout creeks, and one we didn't find, the other was tiny and lacked parking. So we went on to the spot I found before on the Lamprey to give it a better survery with better minnow identification,

 

Here we found 75 fallfish, 20 common shiner, 2 redbreast sunfish, 1 common white sucker, 1 longnose dace (odd as the habitat seemed very suitable to them), and 1 yellow bullhead. 

 

On leaving we relocated another spot on the Lamprey we found that was good but we forgot to mark the first time.

[FirstChAoS]

on the 23rd we went to Trask Stream but in a different location. It was very rocks and had a few sudden depth changes. But it was rich in fish, here we found 1 brook trout, 30 Northern Redbelly Dace, 50 of an oddball rhicithys we call a "nobody nose dace" as it resembles a Longnose with some blacknose traits (I suspect Longnose but am not sure), 40 creek chubs, 60 common shiner, and 1 white sucker.

 

here are the photos of the redbellies and a sucker

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Brook Trout

 

 

 

[FirstChAoS]

Here are pictures of the "nobody nose". I suspect they are longnose as blacknose have a much blunter snot and young longnopse often have a lateral stripe. These fish were too big to be yound and had a nose slightly blunter than most longnose. But longnose nose length and shape differs geographicly so a slight oddball wouldn't surprise me much,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here we tried the Sugar River. Our first spot was a bit steep so I stayed behind while Mike Jumped in. Here he found 30 common shiner, 20 creek chub, 25 rhinicthys he found too small to ID, and 10 small silvery dacelike fish which could be redbelly but were too small to ID,

 

The next spot on the Sugar River we tried was nice but quite deep. Here we got 24 Common Shiners, 1 Fallfish, and Mike saw one definate Brook Trout swim by, 

 

Our next stop on the Sugar River was bye a dam near a Wildlife Management Area. We only got 2 fallfish and 2 common Shiner here.

 

Our last spot was on the sugar river (found it on a map to make sure) in a shallow sandy area. This spot was very very rich in fish and I wanted to stay collecting here.

 

Common White Sucker were abundant here and had orange fins. We found 30 of them, 27 fallfish, 15 common shiner, and 8 creek chub.

 

I was surprised by the lack of tesselate darters here as this river does flow into the Connecticut and the habitat seemed perfect for them. 

[fundulus]

If you guys found any striped killifish, Fundulus majalis, along the NH coast that's pretty good since you're at the extreme northern limit of the range, sometimes they're referred to as erratics on that coast.

[mattknepley]

That's some great work, guys! I'd love to see some lumpfish!

[FirstChAoS]

If you guys found any striped killifish, Fundulus majalis, along the NH coast that's pretty good since you're at the extreme northern limit of the range, sometimes they're referred to as erratics on that coast.

 

Well, ranges of fish in the north Atlantic have been increasing dramaticly northward, 

 

If anyone wonders what I did the weekend between the last convention collecting. Well, one day I went to had a friend fix my car. (he couldn't as a part needed replacing not fixing). While waiting for him to finish I walked to a marshy brook near his house to take pictures, The pickerel is a chain pickerel (only one in this drainage)< the sunfish and minnow cannot be seen well enough for me to know for sure but I am tempted to call the minnow a fallfish,

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well as fish their was painted turtles.

 

 

The next day I went fishing with a couple friends at the Connecticut River. We all caught pumpkinseed and bluegill. I got a couple good size hornpout and a big bass. One friend got a white perch that I wish I got a picture of. 

 

''

 

 

[Isaac Szabo]

Thanks for all the scouting work you guys are doing and for sharing the photos. You are getting me excited about the convention!

[Matt DeLaVega]

Blacknose dace? Or do you think those were longnose?

[FirstChAoS]

Blacknose dace? Or do you think those were longnose?

 

I am leaning towards longnose despite their intermediate looks. But their oddly intermediate appearance adds uncertainty. They have a stripe like an eastern blacknose dace (but juvenile longnose can have stripes) at adult size, a nose less blunt than a blacknose, and a sloped body shape like a longnose. If they had an orange strip on the side I'd swear they were western blacknose, a species not found in NH.

 

Mystery Dace

 

 

Longnose Dace

 

 

blacknose dace

 

 

now comparing the images it looks more blacknose. Do they hybridize?

Edited by FirstChAoS, 29 August 2015 - 12:11 PM.

[Michael Wolfe]

thats funny, I was going to say now looking more at these pictures, they look more longnose!

[Matt DeLaVega]

I have seen some pretty longnosed blacknose dace. I thought yours looked more like blacknose dace, but I am not sure and have never seen an eastern BND.

[keepnatives]

I keep going back and forth first blacknose but they look more long nosed then the blacknose I usually see.