Here's the mussels from the Wisconsin River.




Not sure what any of those are, but they sure looked interesting.

Here's where I stopped earlier that day:

Date: May 7, 2007
Location: Wisconsin River, south of Spring Green, WI.
Water Level: Regular levels for this time of year. No recent rain. Most areas were easily wadeable here.
Water Quality: Water was turbid in a small feeder creek, but in the main river the water was slightly stained to clear.
Water Temp.: low 60’s*F
Substrate: Main riverbed was entirely sand. The feeder tributary was entirely mud with a few rocks in it.
Air Temp.: mid 70’s*F.
Collected:

• Bullhead Minnow (Pimephales vigilax)
• Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)
• Sand Shiner (Notropis stramineus)
• Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)
• Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides) - very abundant on the sandy flats.
• Johnny Darter (Etheostoma nigrum) - these occurred in the only area resembling a riffle in the small feeder creek.
• Mud Darter (Etheostoma asprigene) - this was one of the targeted species. I only found one, this small one in a backwater area underneath an undercut bank. (These photos were taken by Brian Zimmerman)

Notes: Sampling was quite difficult due to the fact that I was going at it solo. The river is very wide and sandy here. Some minnows looked like they could have possibly been River Shiner but I didn’t have a camera in the water to take good photos. The spot was supposed to be loaded with Eastern Sand Darter and even have Crystal Darter, but I wasn’t able to find any, probably because they’re hard to find when you’re by yourself. I’ll get them next time though. When I was walking through the woods between good access points, I came across this frog…

Not too good with my amphibians and bivalves. Any ID help would be appreciated.

I've heard that sturgeon can be quite tasty when prepared right. Sturgeon are some of the coolest fish, definitely not trash fish.

SAD Nate Sad. Last weekend Uland and I had a wake up call. How sad it is that two thirty something men get so excited over a non descript silvery minnow. How old are you? early twenties. Look what you have to look forward to!

SAD Nate Sad. Last weekend Uland and I had a wake up call. How sad it is that two thirty something men get so excited over a non descript silvery minnow. How old are you? early twenties. Look what you have to look forward to!

In my thirties and getting stoked over NDSM's...sweeeet, can't wait. I'm sure I'll be knee deep in NDSM's by then though, so I'll be able to join the elite club.

In my thirties and getting stoked over NDSM's...sweeeet, can't wait. I'm sure I'll be knee deep in NDSM's by then though, so I'll be able to join the elite club.

I think Matt is referring to our first time seeing Notropis boops (Bigeye Shiner) on our recent trip. We were indeed very excited to see this fish. In hind sight it is pretty funny that we hooted and hollered over such a plain fish.

I'll bet you'll have seen many NDSM's by your mid-thirty's and perhaps many Bigeye Shiners by that time at the rate you're going. And for the record: anyone that told you that it's an elite group that gets excited over NDSM's in their mid-thirties......is a liar