8 replies to this topic

[gbeauvin]

I had been planning to wait until next weekend, but I was at Academy and a cheap dipnet insisted on coming home with me (5' handle, 1/4" mesh).  Yeah, it's dirty.  I didn't take a picture of it till we got back.

 

 

So... after some spring cleaning, Baby Girl and I changed into swimsuits and waterproof sandals, and headed towards the Indian Creek greenway!  I've never actually been on this greenway (I've been on the OTHER indian creek greenway), so we drove around for awhile and in the end parked in a parking lot down the road aways from a trail access point.  A short jaunt down the trail and lo and behold, a bridge!  Must be the creek.  We find some wee tiny fish in a little puddle just short of the creek, but they look like they'd fit right through the holes in my minnow net, so we go on to the main creek.  There's a shallow stretch (mostly ankle to mid-calf deep) and we net up our first couple of minnows.  When we got the camera out, though, we discovered the batteries were dead!  I apologize for the cell-phone photos, but I figured any picture was better than no picture!  I put these two little guys in our photo tank (aka ziplock baggie) and snapped a few pictures.  I also took a picture of one we caught a little later in my hand, in case that made for better ID.

 

 

 

These guys are all over the place in the shallows.  Further upstream I saw them almost wedging themselves between rocks, twisting sideways and such (I wondered if they were spawning or just doing minnow things).  Then I saw something larger darting around in the water quickly.  Crayfish!  That one got away, but it turned out there are plenty more in a whole array of sizes.  Watch out, they pinch!

 

 

Still in the shallows I see a few slightly larger fish, and endeavor to net one.  Success!   I drag baby-girl back up from the deeper pool (where she saw a snake!  oops!) since she's got the cell-phone with a camera.  I take a pic in my hand, and it's definitely got some red in the caudal and i think maybe also the dorsal.  Then I transfer it to the baggie, but all the color washes right out.  Could it be a scarlet shiner?  A flame chub?  Either way, back into the creek it went!

 

 

Baby girl wants to go upstream, so we walk that way... we sweep the net along the bottom in some deeper water to no avail, but then i see a larger fish near the bank.  Baby girl has gone upstream in search of a swimming hole while i stalk the elusive 'bigger' fish.  There's a long stretch of landscape fabric along the bank, and the bigger fish went under there.  I try a blind scoop with the net, no joy.  There are plenty of little minnows around, so I grab one and verify that it's the same as the first minnows we captured, so no need to re-photo.  I keep stalking around the edges (from the middle of the stream) and eventually come up with two fish we haven't seen yet.  They don't look like the fish I was chasing originally, but they're new!  One of them falls back into the stream while i try to transfer it to the photo bag, but the second goes into the bag (I believe they were both the same species).  I drag Baby Girl back downstream since she's got the cellphone camera and snap a few pics.  Is that a wee sunfish?  She really likes this one, says it's her favorite we've seen.  She asks to hold this one .

 

 

After netting a few more minnows, we decide to head back.  Going through a pool just off the main stream to get out of the creek, though, I see movement of some larger fish.  I scramble to the bank and wait for them to come back, but they don't.  I do see some smaller fish moving around though, so i try dragging the net along the bottom, and come up with another fish -- I think this one is a Darter?  That made my day, since I really want some darters in my aquarium when I get around to setting it up.

 

 

We pack it up, and walk back to the car (well, she walks and I squeak.  @%# knock-off crocs).  5 species located (if not identified.. yet), and my daughter had a good time.  I'll call that a win!

 

 

I can repost in the "fish ID" forum, but any identifications would also be welcome here in this thread!

 

-Rick

 

P.S.  Click on any thumbnail to see a bigger photo.

Edited by gbeauvin, 21 May 2016 - 08:46 PM.

[gbeauvin]

Oh, and in case location helps with identifications, Indian Creek is a tributary of the Tennessee River, in Huntsville AL.

 

-Rick

[Michael Wolfe]

1. First picture looks to be a creek chub to me (not a sure about the second photo or the fish in hand)
2. nasty nighttime fish eaters
3. stoneroller (the one you said has orange in the caudal fin)
4. green sunfish
5. female snubnose darter of some type, but I would want to look at a range map before guessing.

[gbeauvin]

Thanks!  The two snubnose that fishmap lists for my watershed are "snubnose darter" and "blackside snubnose darter".  Which characteristics indicate that it is female?

 

thanks,

 Rick

[Michael Wolfe]

Just coloration.  This time of year I would expect to see more color on the males... a little green on the nose and maybe some turquoise underneath, etc.

[mattknepley]

Nice stuff. Funny how those dipnets follow you home like stray puppies. But that critter ain't nowhere near dirty yet!

[fundulus]

The snubnose appears to be a blacksided, from the solid black spot at the base of the caudal. Tennessees have the black spot but with a clear "window" in the middle. And it's a female, just coming out of season.

[gbeauvin]

Thanks for the IDs everyone, I can't wait to get back out there.  I'm planning to pick up a second (and probably third) dipnet so each kid can have their own, and maybe a minnow trap before our next outing.  Are wire 'funnel traps' effective in smallish creeks and small streams?  I thought about a seine, but re-reading the regulations led me to believe that they can only be used in lakes and larger rivers.

 

thanks,

 Rick

Edited by gbeauvin, 26 May 2016 - 11:20 AM.

[fundulus]

The laws in Alabama are loose for seines, and collecting in general. I think the legal limit is 20 feet long for seines, which is a serious piece of equipment to handle. Wire traps will work for some species, like small sunfish. I set out three in a spring run last week and much to my surprise I caught about 10 fairly big sculpins, which are eating machines. If you're lucky you won't catch sculpins... they'd certainly eat almost anything else in the trap much smaller than them. But try it, you never know what will happen as long as no one steals your traps.