So thursday evening I met Matt(scenicrivers) for the first time and we did some seining and dipnetting before it got dark.

Species list for Harpersfield Dam area of the Grand river on 8-2-2007 6:30pm:

Greenside Darters
Rainbow Darters
Fantailed Darters
Bluegill
Smallmouth Bass
Rockbass
River Chubs
Common Shiners
Right handed Snails
Crayfish
Hellgrammites
Assorted Macroinvertibrates

And very tiny mussels






It was nice to actually have a person to seine with that knows what's going on.

Tom

Man, I'm so glad you guys connected. I feel bad that I don't have time to get out.

Your tiny mussel appears to be a pea clam (Sphaeriid clams) which is something Pisidium sp. I didn't realize this until the other day, the Coribiculacae of North America or Something or Other appeared on my desk, and that the Great Lakes are the center of diversity for that family. However, you almost need a microscope to tell them apart

Did you guys see any of the larger Unionids? Once you get downstream and around the bend, and about 1/4 of mile west, the Unios pick up again. But that's probably 3/4 of a mile downstream from the last parking lot. I'd be curious to see if you got into some madtoms down there.

Todd

Man, I'm so glad you guys connected. I feel bad that I don't have time to get out.

Your tiny mussel appears to be a pea clam (Sphaeriid clams) which is something Pisidium sp. I didn't realize this until the other day, the Coribiculacae of North America or Something or Other appeared on my desk, and that the Great Lakes are the center of diversity for that family. However, you almost need a microscope to tell them apart

Did you guys see any of the larger Unionids? Once you get downstream and around the bend, and about 1/4 of mile west, the Unios pick up again. But that's probably 3/4 of a mile downstream from the last parking lot. I'd be curious to see if you got into some madtoms down there.

Todd

We did not get too far down.
I have over the past several weeks noticed larger mussels around the dam.

This was a good trip. I would like to get to some of the smaller tribs with Tom. If anyone else in NE Ohio would like to hook up with us and try some of these areas, let us know. My only problem is that I need to do this during the week.

One thing that we saw a great abundance of were smallmouth bass (2 inch range). there were a few back water areas that we saw 30-40 in one small area. I do know that I would like to get one of Jonahs Ultimate Dipnets & an 8' seine. That would be handy. Sometimes that extra 4 feet would be nice.

Some thing that I told Tom that would be fun to do is sample portions of Lake Erie. I have access to a 100 foot seine. But this requires probably 10 people to run it efficiently. I do know that we would catch quite a few goby's and carp but who knows what else we could catch. I think that there is not a limit to the size of seine on the lake itself, but I would need to check. Doing this would also require a Sunday trip, for travel.

I'm up in Bowling Green, I'd be glad to lend a hand (or two) to help move that 100' seine. I've got a good buddy or two that I'm sure would want to help out as well. Set up a date (before Aug. 27th) and I'm in.