I was fortunate enough to have a Saturday afternoon open. A friend of mine, Mike (paoutlaw13), wanted to get in the water and collect some darters. Without traveling far (being on a tight budget), we decided to go to the Blanchard River (in northwest ohio) and a small tributary to a tributary of the Blanchard River. Here's how it hashed out:

Location: Blanchard River in Findlay, OH.
Water Level: 16 cubic feet per second. A gage height of 0.75 ft. (Average flow for this time of year is about 30 cubic feet per second)
Water Quality: The water was clearer than usual because it was pretty low. There is still plenty of siltation of the riffles and the bedrock at this section of the river however.
Water Temp.: 20.5*C
Substrate: Bedrock bottom with pretty good sized rocks in the riffles and runs. Many tree roots were underwater, which made for good madtom habitat.
Air Temp.: 70*F
Collected:

• Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)
• Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)
• Redfin Shiner (Lythrurus umbratilis)
• Silverjaw Minnow (Ericymba buccata)
• Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)
• Central Stoneroller Minnow (Campostoma anomalum)
• Suckermouth Minnow (Phenocobius mirabilis) – including one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.
• Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) – I found it a little odd that they were in the riffles and not in the pools that we sampled.
• Central Quillback Carpsucker (Carproides cyprinus hinei) - found quite a few of these from this year’s hatch in the pools below the riffles.
• Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum) - lots of small young of year ones were found in the pools below the riffles.
• Northern Hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans)
• Yellow Bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)
• Brindled Madtom (Noturus miurus) - that's a shot of one of the "regular sized" Brindled Madtoms that Mike and I encountered. The next 2 pictures are of a mammoth one that we caught right alongside a large log in shallow water. This same log produced about 6 madtoms... Mike and I almost called this Madtom a small Flathead Catfish at first, although this picture doesn't show it, there was no distinct adipose fin and the caudal fin was quite rounded.
• Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)
• Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
• Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)
• White Crappie (Poxomis annularis)
• Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)
• Northern Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis peltastes)
• Hybrid Sunfish (Lepomis hybrid)
• Johnny Darter (Etheostoma nigrum)
• Greenside Darter (Etheostoma blennoides) - lots of big adult Greenside Darters were found alongside large Rainbow Darters in good numbers in the riffles here.
• Fantail Darter (Etheostoma flabellare)
• Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)
• Blackside Darter (Percina maculata)
• Logperch (Percina caprodes)

Notes: We collected 26 species here in about 2 hours of seining with an 8' seine. Not a bad stop.



The second stop of the day was at a tributary to a tributary of the Blanchard River...here's how that went..

Location: an unnamed trib. to the Outlet Ditch of Springville Marsh, near Findlay, OH. (trib. to the Blanchard River).
Water Level: The water in the river was very low. Below summer averages. There weren’t any pools with depths greater than 2’ deep here. Most of the water here was so weed choked that it made sampling difficult.
Water Quality: The water was very clear, no recent rain to disturb the soil. The abundant plants probably provide some filtration for the water as well.
Water Temp.: (not measured)
Substrate: The substrate here is mostly sand with some fine gravel mixed in. There is a lot of vegetation in this ditch. Oftentimes when walking upstream, we weren’t even stepping on the sand bottom, but rather on the numerous plants.
Air Temp.: 70*F
Collected:

• Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus) – no large ones, all young of year.
• Redfin Shiner (Lythrurus umbratilis)
• Central Stoneroller Minnow (Campostoma anomalum)
• Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)
• Silverjaw Minnow (Ericymba buccata)
• Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus)
• White Sucker (Catostomus commersoni)
• Creek Chubsucker (Erimyzon oblongus) – at least 50 young of year were caught here. Indications of a good spawn year.
• Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)
• Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
• Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)
• Grass Pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus) – only 3 were caught in an hour of seining.
• Orangethroat Darter (Etheostoma spectabile) – had a hard time finding these, they were buried in the vegetation.
• Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)
• Johnny Darter (Etheostoma nigrum)

Notes: This is the lowest I’ve seen the water in the area. Sampling was barely possible. We weren’t able to locate any deep pools which usually hold a variety of fish here at different times of the year. We tried to catch Central Mudminnow here too, but had no success.

It's good to see that there are brindled still present. When Ed and I went to the Canoe Launch back in May, we didn't find any, and it was curious that there weren't any mussel valves left there, as well.

It's amazing to me that the creek chubsuckers persist in such a small segment.

It's good to see that there are brindled still present. When Ed and I went to the Canoe Launch back in May, we didn't find any, and it was curious that there weren't any mussel valves left there, as well.

It's amazing to me that the creek chubsuckers persist in such a small segment.

It does seem that the Brindled are hit or miss for the last few times I've went there. This time however we caught at least a dozen in a small stretch of stream. The last few times I was hard-pressed to catch more than 1 or 2. I'm surprised about the Creek Chubsucker too. Didn't find a single adult one, I'm sure they've made their summer migration to deeper pools already though because this stretch of creek was almost dried up. Have you noticed a migration pattern in them?

Have you noticed a migration pattern in them?

I actually have yet to catch one. We hadn't sampled far up enough for them. What would be cool is to get a permit for the bag seine and work some of those pools prior to the connection with the Outlet. Through the park from the closed road to the Outlet, it is GOREGOUS. The landowners aren't the friendliest though. One guy set his dogs on us. He was in for a real suprised when he found out I'm fluent in Dog, and settled them down immediately. He would probably need to be spoken with prior to entry in that portion. He's a retired farmer, and he's got nothing better to do than watch his back yard.

Is the adipose fin on madtoms always very clearly fused to the rest of the body? I found two 'madtoms' earlier this year in a stream that seemed too small for bullheads but when I saw that the one that I considered keeping had an adipose fin that appeared too detached from the body to be a madtom and its caudal fin was fairly squarish. Is there anything else that distinguishes them? How big a stream do bullheads need in terms of depth to be producing young like I saw?

Is the adipose fin on madtoms always very clearly fused to the rest of the body? I found two 'madtoms' earlier this year in a stream that seemed too small for bullheads but when I saw that the one that I considered keeping had an adipose fin that appeared too detached from the body to be a madtom and its caudal fin was fairly squarish. Is there anything else that distinguishes them? How big a stream do bullheads need in terms of depth to be producing young like I saw?

http://forum.nanfa.o...amp;hl=flathead

Skipjack posted a good photo of a young flathead he found in a riffle not long ago. Might this be the fish you're talking about?
And in a way....sometimes Madtom adipose fins aren't always keel like but I've yet to see one look like and ear lobe (or other catfishes).

I was thinking juvie flathead as well. You'll find them in riffles and fast water, which is confusing. The first time I ran into them, I was on Trautman's Riffle (past home of the probable extinct Scioto madtom), and that caused a little bit of a ruckus, with that white margin and all

Todd

It was very similar to that... I seem to remember a slightly different dorsal fin (more erect) and more barbels, but the adipose fin looked like that anyway, as did the tail.