25 replies to this topic

[zooxanthellae]

On Friday, November 25th, Fritz and I met up with Tim to explore the Lynches River and surrounding waterbodies.We had a few sites in mind that Tim and Dustin had collected from on another trip, and combined them with Fritz's data points from the 80's, and came up with an itinerary. Being Thanksgiving weekend, we all came from different parts of the state, and met at a gas station in Rockingham, NC.

 

From there we car pooled to our first location, Campbell Lake, near Patrick, SC. https://goo.gl/maps/4HHt5prgBnn

 

 

 

 

Our main target here was to find lake chubsuckers, Erimyzon sucetta. Due to the knee to waist deep mud discovered on the bottom of this lake, seining was not a viable option, and we resorted to dipnets. 

 

In the end we managed bluespotted sunfish, lined topminnow, everglades pygmy sunfish, sawcheek darter, and black banded sunfish. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next site was a 5 minute drive around the corner. It was a swampy area, with a surprising amount of flow, and quite a bit of SAV considering how late in the year it was. This site was absolutely loaded with pirate perch, with a few bluegill, everglades pygmy sunfish, eastern mudminnow, swampfish, blackbanded sunfish, lined topminnow, flier, and no doubt a few others that I am forgetting. 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/dMEJQNwWxfE2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not photograph anything except the flier here, as the rest were already duplicates. 

 

 

 

 

[zooxanthellae]

there was a lot more to this post, but I'm getting a "you've posted more images than you are allowed to" error. I'm trying to work through it now.

[zooxanthellae]

Our next stop was where SC 903 crosses the Lynches River, near Jefferson, SC.

https://goo.gl/maps/4pPLqB8Sxo72

 

 

 

Here we began seining in every conceivable fashion, without much luck. Tim was having no issues catching white suckers with his dipnet, and not wanting to be out fished by the new guy (street cred and all), we gave up on the seine and brought out the big guns.

 

 

 

I'm sure that I'm going to miss a few fish that we caught here, but from memory: brassy jumprock, white sucker, redbreast sunfish, warmouth, green sunfish, redear sunfish, mosquitofish, eastern silvery minnow, swallowtail shiner, whitefin shiner, piedmont darter, tessellated darter, and greenfin shiner.

 

 

 

Somehow we managed to lose the white suckers before we took any pics of them, but Tim assures me they are common in the area, so next time!

 

Our last stop of the day was at a known redlips spot. I had shot a few photos of redlips on a trip earlier in the spring, but didn't really like the way they turned out, so we stopped to grab one for a quick photo. The location was a spot that Fritz had sampled a few years ago, on Deep Creek, just north of the town of Ruby, SC.

https://goo.gl/maps/ndN1VWdsHq42

 

We made 2 passes with a seine, and caught a decent sized redlip shiner, as well as a few highfin shiners.

 

 

 

 

And lastly, Tim was nice enough to bring me some Carolina Darters that he had caught the day previous to photograph:

 

 

 

6 hours of driving and 3 new species for the collection, all things considered, not a bad day!

[Doug_Dame]

Very nice redlip. I thought they colored up like that in the spring, so apparently I'm confused. (Or the fish is, which seems unlikely.)

[mattknepley]

Nice! Great photos, both of the fish and the habitats. I especially like the bbsunfish and the Carolina Darter. Your Carolina looks a little different than the ones I have around here. Mine are more mottled in pattern, but much less freckled on the cheeks. Still have those same funky reflective/cloudy eyes, though. How did you access the water at that second spot, rope ladder? Those banks look steep and deep! Looks like a fantastic day.

The location links to Googlemaps are really nice, too. Glad to see SC getting such an exploration from NANFAns lately. Pretty soon there won't be a fish in the state that hasn't had its picture taken!

[gerald]

Interesting that Lynches River has greenfin rather than satinfin shiners, since it's part of the PeeDee drainage.  In NC, the PeeDee has satinfins only, while the Catawba and Broad drainages (Santee basin) have greenfins.  Maybe the upper Lynches was part of the Santee drainage not so long ago, and got shifted to the PeeDee.  Other than 8 vs 9 anal rays (which can vary in both species), how else do you distinguish these two the area of overlap?

[Dustin]

Very nice redlip. I thought they colored up like that in the spring, so apparently I'm confused. (Or the fish is, which seems unlikely.)

 Doug, that is the base color for redlip shiner.  When it gets colored, it is bright orange and yellow all over.

[sbtgrfan]

Awesome stuff. Good to know redlips do still exist in SC. I need to go up and get some...

[Dustin]

Did you just get the one redlip in Deep Creek?

[Casper]

Nice portrait photos using the black background.  I also really like the lead in environment photo showing the water tree reflections.

[zooxanthellae]

Nice! Great photos, both of the fish and the habitats. I especially like the bbsunfish and the Carolina Darter. Your Carolina looks a little different than the ones I have around here. Mine are more mottled in pattern, but much less freckled on the cheeks. Still have those same funky reflective/cloudy eyes, though. How did you access the water at that second spot, rope ladder? Those banks look steep and deep! Looks like a fantastic day.

The location links to Googlemaps are really nice, too. Glad to see SC getting such an exploration from NANFAns lately. Pretty soon there won't be a fish in the state that hasn't had its picture taken!

 

Thanks! The banks were pretty steep, but I think the picture is making it look steeper than it was, it is a panoramic taken with a wide angle lens, you can't trust it. It was fairly deep though, deep enough that we couldn't/didn't want to run a seine. Also, my goal is to leave no fish unphotographed! 

 

 

Interesting that Lynches River has greenfin rather than satinfin shiners, since it's part of the PeeDee drainage.  In NC, the PeeDee has satinfins only, while the Catawba and Broad drainages (Santee basin) have greenfins.  Maybe the upper Lynches was part of the Santee drainage not so long ago, and got shifted to the PeeDee.  Other than 8 vs 9 anal rays (which can vary in both species), how else do you distinguish these two the area of overlap?

 

Gerald, I feel that we have had this same conversation a few years ago, about the same two fish! Apparently I need to pay better attention! I have one excuse for IDing it as a greenfin, and his name is Fritz. 

[zooxanthellae]

Did you just get the one redlip in Deep Creek?

 

We managed 2, one juvenile and the one you see pictured here. There were many more highfins (or so Tim and I casually ID'd them as). It was our last stop, and the redlip was the only fish we were interested in from this location, so once we caught one to photograph, we stopped. 

 

Here is a gif of the creek where we caught them: (Edit: Image isn't displaying unless you click on it)

 

[zooxanthellae]

Nice portrait photos using the black background.  I also really like the lead in environment photo showing the water tree reflections.

 

Thanks Casper, that environment shot turned out really well! 

[rc6750]

Nice report. Animated gif is a nice touch too

[Dustin]

Awesome stuff. Good to know redlips do still exist in SC. I need to go up and get some...

 

Not sure if two fish indicates a thriving population.  We've been to this site many times with similar results.  Need to try that Thompson Creek spot again some time near the school.  Maybe in the spring when there's a chance we could catch them in color again.

[fritz]

Well, we only needed one fish for a photo and it was our last stop. So only made 2 short sweeps.  Doug D that's the spot we visited.

 

I forgot to look in the SC "bible" for the greenfin/satinfin distribution in SC but my recollection is that the latter was only taken in Thompson Creek by Cheraw and in the Pee Dee itself.

 

I do wish we had photo'd the "white sucker" since I think "The Great One" blew the ID. Most likely they were juvenile notchlip redhorse based on the lip shape.

 

White suckers have not been found anywhere near the Lynches

[fritz]

Just checked.  Only greenfin in Lynches.  Which may have been part of Catawba at one time since it also has Notropis cf chlorocephalus

[Dustin]

We caught what we thought were satinfins in Thompson Creek but were likely whitefins.  I know they are in the Pee Dee and Little Pee Dee but I have yet to see one.  I only remember greenfins, whitefins and fieryblacks as the Cyprinella of the Lynches.

[gerald]

Whitefins are pretty easy to distinguish (from satinfin & greenfin) based on snout shape / mouth angle, IME.   But satinfin and greenfin are pretty near identical in shape and meristics, if the 8 vs 9 anal rays is not always reliable.  Breeding male satinfins i've seen have a bit more blue-violet sheen than do greenfins, but that distinction has limited usefulness.

 

Looking at a SC hydrologic map, it's not hard to imagine how the upper Lynches and Black Rivers might have connected to the Santee system near Lake Marion, or maybe farther north near Camden.

[Chasmodes]

Great report and pics!  What is the first fish pictured?  Nice looking fish too.  And the flier is much prettier than I'd imagine.