Hi Folks, been wanting to get some of this online for a bit. I'm going to do something a lot more formal on my website, but for now, this will do. I'm going to continue to add things on the thread. Ultimately, this first post will end up a link.

Some video first, my appologies to those without broadband. Right Click, Save As!

Mississippi River collecting with Travis Haas (madtom15), Markus Zokan (mzokan), Dave Neely, Eileen (Markus' Lady Friend), and another fella from their school who's name slips my mind right now.

A seine haul with the big bag seine:
Mississippi 01.wmv (4.8 mb)

A nice catch of shovelnose sturgeon and others:
Mississippi 02.wmv (6.3 mb)

Some bighead carp in a slough where we caught a mess of Hiodon later:
Mississippi 03.wmv (2.3 mb)


Big Creek with Travis at Sam A. Baker State Park (just upstream of confluence with St. Francis River.

Stirring sediment to draw fish. Easily seen species are bleeding shiner, hornyhead chub, central longear and logperch.
Big Creek 01.wmv (3.8 mb)

More of the same, with a cyprinella (probably a spotfin) more prominent. Then some gilt darter. The one was going beneath
my hand, I appologize I couldn't get a good angle on this guy. Hanging downstream with one hand holding a big honkin' camera ain't easy
Big Creek 02.wmv (4.5 mb)

Sunfish city. Both longear and green sunfish. I thought this green was going to bite the camera. Notice the black spot on his dorsal fin, those of you who say that's solely a bluegill characteristic. And no, it's not a hybrid either.
Big Creek 03.wmv (2.4 mb)

Just the rigth amoutn of sun on this guy! I wish I could have gotten a better angle, but you, ahem, get the idea. Unbelieveable!
Big Creek 04.wmv (3.8 mb)


Weeping Willow Spring Stream, just upstream of confluence with Crane Pond Creek, Big Creek watershed.

This stream was TINY. That's why I had the crappy on-land footage left in there. Bleeding shiner, creek chub, hornyhead chub.
Weeping Willow 01.wmv (2.3 mb)

Can you find the sculpin before I get him to move? Nice mountain madtom footage too.
Weeping Willow 02.wmv (5.3 mb)

Rainbow darter doing his pretty rainbow darter thing.
Weeping Willow 03.wmv (3.9 mb)

More soon... I gotta go to bed

nice videos.
and i dont have to get wet.

for those who dont know how to download and view these shorties...

from windows xp right click on the file and "save target as..."
and select where you want the file downloaded to.
then just simply double click on the file once it has been downloaded to your computer.
the file opens in "windows media player" and begins playing.
stop, pause, repeat, whatever you wish.

i have dsl and these files downloaded in just a few seconds each.

love the shovel noses, longears.
i gotta fire up my u/w video camera!

Nice videos, did you or Neely ever ID those Hiodon?

I never saw them in the light lol. I imagine Dave figured out what they were when he bagged them.

I finally had a few moments to get to these pictures. I'll upload a couple to the forum, but there's plenty more here:

http://www.farmertod...m/NANFA/MO2007/


Chris Scharpf mans the table at the 2007 American Society of Ichthyologists and Herptologists






Cuivre River


Longnose Gar, Lepisosteus osseus


Red Shiner, Cyprinella lutrensis


Slenderhead Darter, Percina phoxocephala


Mississippi River


Ignorant People - Longnose Gar, Lepisosteus osseus?


Pink Papershell, Potamilus ohiensis


Big River


Steelcolor Shiner, Cyprinella whipplei


Bleeding Shiner, Luxilus zonatus


Bigeye Shiner, Notropis boops


Greenside Darter, Etheostoma blennoides


Missouri Saddled Darter, Etheostoma tetrazonum


Gilt Darter, Percina evides

That video is incredible

What kind of a camera are you using to get these underwater videos? I tried taking some underwater videos with a waterproof digital, and all I got was a mess.

With the yellowish cap would the Cyprinella be Cyprinella spiloptera?

Nate, the camera is a hi-def sony video camera in an Ikelite housing. $$$

Stills that have been taken underwater (these pictures were all shot in a 2 1/2 gallon) have been taken with a Coolpix 4800 in an Ikelite housing. A little more palatable on price, but still a bit more than the underwater cameras everyone is using. The onboard video on the 4800 is decent, but only at low resolution.

Tricolor, it's either spiloptera or whippeli. Both were present, but I would guess these are spiloptera due to the smaller stream size. However, the confluence was only about a mile downstream. In any case, you're not going to know without having it in your hand. It's not as distinct as say certain Mobile drainage species

Todd