This last Sat Scott Fonte & Herschel (Troutperch beeman) came east from central NY to join me at some local sites. The weather was great but the water was high so I was a bit nervous about what our efforts might produce. Scott and Herschel were going to meet me off I88 at 10 am for a full day of collecting. They were hoping to get some Greenside Darters, Northern Rdbelly Dace and Redside Dace. Unfortunately the local site for N Redbelly dace had only yielded them in the fall and was a bit of a ride from Schoharie Creek where the Greensides are found around here. Also I've only found Redside Dace in one spot locally. There was a couple dots for N Redbelly dace in my Inland Fishes of New York State book just above the Schoharie site and Fox creek site we planned on sampling, so I got out early Sat morning to see if I could find a Redbelly site nearby. I found a creek in the area but it was rain swollen and fast but I usually find N redbellies in streams that run off swampy bog type ponds so I drove around and finally found the swampy pond. The land was posted but there was a spot that the pond/swamp was on each side of the road. So I parked, grabbed my 4 foot siene to do a quick dry foot scoop to test the waters. As i got to the ditch near a culvert I saw a large school of minnows and as they darted away I saw the yellow flash of their bellies and fins so in I went shoes and all and sure enogh up I came with a net full of jewels just starting to color up. There were also plenty of golden shiners, fathead minnows and young Pumpkinseed sunnies. I had just enough time to get to our meeting place secure that we'd at least get one target fish. We met up and went directly to the Redbelly site and in about 30 minutes had all we wanted.

Next we headed down Rt 30A to Schoharie creek which was even higher then last Tuesday when I took some personal time left work early and went fishing. There were no riffles! Hence no greensides collecting yielded only some Spotfin shiners, fallfish, Bluntnose minnows, blacknose dace and longnose dace. So we headed to Fox creek south of RT443 which is a bit smaller and also has greensides. The water here was high and fast but had some shallower riffles. We had to work at it but did finally get a fair number of young 1.25-1.75 in. greenside darters, a couple fantails and a bonus in asmall side run about 2.5 feet deep some nice rosyface shiners just starting to color up.

Now on to a small trib of the Fox creek about 30 min away for Redside dace. Of course 30 min is a lot of time so we felt compelled to stop at little Fox Creek Park where it falls in a series of 5 or 6 falls. We seined the pools below the fall found a little snapping turtle and some very nicely colored common shiners. Then on to the target stream. The redsides are tough to get at in the spring at high water as they tend to stay in the deep pools under overhanging brush. I can usually last long enough to get 4 or 5 but one man with a ten foot siene in neck deep water isn't much of a match for these agile dace. But with reinforcements we were able to get enough Redsides for both visitors. We also found more colorful common shiners, longnose dace, blacknose dace, fatheads, creekchubs, fantails and tesselated darters even one nice young pumpkinseed sunnie. A quick drive back to Herschels car and they were off to home with all the target fish plus a surprise or two. It sure is nice having some other fish nuts to drag a seine with. Looking forward to more NY collecting.

Mike,

I had a great time Sat. It sure was nice hang out with some like minded fish geeks! I look forward to getting together again. Most of the fish made the transition to tank like very well and were eating that night. We did end up losing quite a few of the greenside darters I think maybe the water warmed up in the bucket to fast. After they were transfered in the the tank they were fine. Thanks again for sharing your great spots with us.
Herschel