7 replies to this topic

[Moontanman]

Does anyone know of any studies of spawning runs taken by creek chubs? When I was a boy every spring the creek in back of our house, which was usually dry and fish free, would be filled with rushing water and creek chub fry. I remember using a small aquarium net and netting up thousands in just a few minutes. 

 

Once the summer came the creek dried up and consisted of a few small puddles and no fish. 

 

Anyone else ever see this? 

[centrarchid]

I have.  You look hard enough and you can find pools deep enough to serve as refuge.  Also look under rocks and sometimes even in crayfish burrows.

[Moontanman]

I have.  You look hard enough and you can find pools deep enough to serve as refuge.  Also look under rocks and sometimes even in crayfish burrows.

 

 

Interesting, do you mean the fish don't swim up stream to spawn? I remember a great many adults and then nothing but fry, but yes I could find the odd adult under rocks and such.

[centrarchid]

There may be some of that.  Locations I know, the surviving fish disperse from pool refugia in fall where they do a lot of growing through the following spring.  My buddies the Pirate Perch do the same.  A friend of mine and I working on Fringed Darter saw a lot of that pattern as well where several species used those refugia that might have been the best habitat for nearly a 1/8 mile up or down stream.  Some years more refugia were present than others.

[Moontanman]

That is interesting, it has been more than 50 years ago, but I remember the creek going so dry in the summer you could dig a hole a couple feet deep and find nothing but dry sand. I hadn't thought of the refugia idea, in this creek they were the only fish ever present but the creek did flow into a more permanent stream and that one flowed directly into the Poca River in WV. I was just a kid then but already intensely interested in local fish. 

 

The Poca River  was my old stomping ground, I helped my grandpa trap muskrats and I always had bank lines or trotlines set. When I was around 8 years old a gas well blowout pretty much killed the river with huge volumes of salt water. I understand now it has come back considerably with fish like freshwater drum, buffalo, and others that were long absent due to pollution. This picture is actually at a place I used to fish, I recognise the white house in the distance. 

 

[mattknepley]

This topic of "where da fishes go?" is always fascinating to me. Some of the streams around here disappear in the summer, for all intents and purposes, but eventually reappear and the fish come back too. Creek Chubs, like you guys mention, seem to be the dominant or maybe even only, fish in those waters. Other streams never quite dry up yet the fishes seem to be there or not there at different times of year. (This thread ties into a current one by Juhason in that regard.) This idea of movement (migration?) in smaller fishes is fascinating. And occassionally agravating when I'm swinging a net!

Glad to hear your Almost Heaven waters are making a comeback, Moon. I was only in WV a couple years, but it got hold of me. Haven't set foot in the Mountain State for almost fifteen years but still cheer in my heart when I hear good news about her and grieve when I hear troubling things...

[JasonL]

There are a couple headwater streams near me that completely dry up in the summer. I'm talking bone dry, no crevices or hidden pools and no ponds or fish sources upstream either. Every spring when flow resumes I'll find green sunfish, creek chubs and even a few yellow bullhead in these formerly dry areas. They are presumably migrating up from permanent water over a mile or two downstream. I think it is in their DNA to do this, probably some species more than others.

[Moontanman]

This topic of "where da fishes go?" is always fascinating to me. Some of the streams around here disappear in the summer, for all intents and purposes, but eventually reappear and the fish come back too. Creek Chubs, like you guys mention, seem to be the dominant or maybe even only, fish in those waters. Other streams never quite dry up yet the fishes seem to be there or not there at different times of year. (This thread ties into a current one by Juhason in that regard.) This idea of movement (migration?) in smaller fishes is fascinating. And occassionally agravating when I'm swinging a net!

Glad to hear your Almost Heaven waters are making a comeback, Moon. I was only in WV a couple years, but it got hold of me. Haven't set foot in the Mountain State for almost fifteen years but still cheer in my heart when I hear good news about her and grieve when I hear troubling things...

 If I lived there now the idea of a spawning run would be something I would be willing to investigate for sure. I remember brook lamprey runs in another small stream but it flowed directly into the Poca river...