32 replies to this topic

[fundulus]

Probably the best interstate exit off of I-59 there is for Collinsville. look for the police station and EMS garage in the town center (College Street?) and you're right at a good stretch of Little Wills Creek for everything Casper mentioned. The RR tracks cross just upstream from there.

[Casper]

Oddly there have been run ins with the authorities / Police there in the recent years.  Isaac and i were questioned and i have heard 2 other accounts from collectors, including a film team.  Unsure if that is suspicious but yes i have enjoyed the Collinsville many times when i was younger, snorkeling in a small pool by the hair salon and then downstream at the twin churches and narrow bridge. That is a fun community, lots of Latinos, and friendly, but i do not understand why the police are so quick to respond to seiners in the recent years.

Many NANFA  folks know of this site now.

I think it was a team with myself, Bruce, Dave and probably Stephen, maybe a couple others, that first documented it to NANFA in a posting back in the list days.  I remember standing on the bank and knowing i was looking at a Rainbow Shiner by its markings as i had recently IDed them myself after one mysterious low light evening along a spring feeding the Conasauga.  They were glowing in the dusk light!.

Another neat site is documented in Scott Mettee's Bama book, down near Centreville.  Close to the Twixt 'n Tween BBQ.  People, university students and collectors have been going to it for years. The last time i visited, and that was several years ago with the Florida Spring Swing Gang, clear cutting was occuring upstream in the hilly watershed.  I would be curious on its impact.  It is an old church picnic site, streamside... not deep enough for a baptism.

 

You know, a sad thing experienced often when wandering, you often come across a church or old swimming hole and they are now filled up from errosion, be it mud, silt or gravel in some cases.  It is depressing to see and hear stories from the locals of how these shallow mirred runs use to be deep swimming holes or baptismal pools.  This seems to have occured a lot over in central south Tennessee.

[Irate Mormon]

There is a hole there, just deep enough for a good dunking.  At least, there used to be.  Baptist churches are frequently good places to find fishes, especially if they are named ________ Creek Baptist Church.

[Matt DeLaVega]

There is a hole there, just deep enough for a good dunking.  At least, there used to be.  Baptist churches are frequently good places to find fishes, especially if they are named ________ Creek Baptist Church.

 Think I have been there. White church. Almost a two lane rd. Church on opposite side of road from creek. Tiny creek. Maybe a broken down bridge across creek, covered in moss. Went there with Dustin, Fritz, and several other notable characters about 8 or 9 years ago. Maybe not?

[Casper]

Described to a T, that might well be it.  But the flowing waters never been deep enough for a thorough dunking, let alone a communal baptism.  I knew not that MDV had ventured that far south.  To have really been there he would surely partaked of TnT.

There is also a wonderous site nearby that oddly has noses of blue.

[Irate Mormon]

Dr. Who - I had not heard of that blue site before.  If I'm ever in that area again I'll have to check it out.  I really have problems taking fish from Centreville because it is a well known and heavily (?) sampled area, plus studies were being done on that pop by Rick Mayden (I think?) and his folks.

[Matt DeLaVega]

If that site is a large pond, spring fed with 6000 gallons per minute, then yes.

[Casper]

You know i asked the University samplers then, i think Bearnie K was they on a coincidental wander, i showed him my 24" AR Saddled Darter to confirm the iD.  Anyway i inquired if they had seen a drop in population over the years and with confidence he said not.  Fish have lots of babies and the stream is long.  Their demise will come from habitat, loss not men with seines.

[Michael Wolfe]

Their demise will come from habitat, loss not men with seines.

 

This is almost always true.

[Irate Mormon]

In that case, I'm gonna order that 100 footer from Greg Faulkner that I've always wanted.  Keep an eye out for my upcoming ads in the Trading post!

[QuoVadis]

I have been seeing Rainbow shiners lately on my LFS stock list, so you may be able to special order them from your aquarium store.

[Doug_Dame]

In that case, I'm gonna order that 100 footer from Greg Faulkner that I've always wanted.  Keep an eye out for my upcoming ads in the Trading post!

 

Cam Swift has brought his "big net" to at least one event that NANFA is involved with, the annual BioBlitz at Georgia's Reinhardt University. I believe he said it was 150 ft. It's a monster. Needs a crew. We used it in a lake, Cam used to use it for estuarine sampling, if I remember correctly.  

[Irate Mormon]

Hauling a seine is a lot like work.  I had to ditch both of mine on one ill-fated trip some years ago.  One of the seines was really nice.  I can't say I've had the urge to buy another one, however.