We are doing wildlife management on a little over 80 acres in central Texas--land with only seasonal natural water. Though I fished (and enjoyed fishing) as a child, my main interest now is in managing the land so that when the creek has water in it, that water is as healthy for wildlife as possible. Because of the location, land use and development in the drainage basin, and climate, this is difficult but not (we're finding) impossible. In the first two years we owned the place, the only fish we saw were Central Stonerollers. The next year the creek had water in the warm season, we had other varieties but I could not tell what they were. I'm not a fish expert, and we have a lot of other work to do on the land to help it recover from years of abuse.

This year, with abundant spring and summer rains (overabundant, actually) we have streamflow (low, but flow) and clearer water longer than ever before. I have finally been able to get clear pictures of some of our fish, and with the help of a fish expert identify two species from photographs. A longear sunfish is guarding a "nest" just above the board footbridge, and we also have 4" largemouth bass babies. There are other small fish (nothing over 5 inches long that I've seen) in various parts of the creek and one of its tributaries (which is now down to non-flowing pools.) They range in size from <1/2 inch to 3 inches.

I don't think there's a hope in heck of getting the landowners upslope to change their management to benefit the creek (there are townsfolk downstream who think the creek should be channelized for a mile or so to prevent flooding...they refuse to see the connection between increased development and increased flooding and aside from the little kids, they don't value the creek there--where it's permanent--as a fishing resource or anything else) so I'm stuck with a seasonal creek that gets too much of its flow from surface runoff during flash floods. So all we can do is try to improve the stream's ability to handle this kind of thing, and provide nursery areas for young fish in wet years like this one. (Last year, the second very dry one, the creek was bone dry months on end.)

What I'd like to find is help to ID fish I can get a clear picture of, and ideas for improving the stream's capacity to maintain some water and some habitat (for all wildlife, not just fish) in the face of climate, development, and land management upslope. I need to know what fish we have, and what that says about water quality, and what pollutants (in particular) are things to look out for in this kind of small-stream situation. I would like to learn more about fish in general, but have limited time--I'm also trying to learn about everything we've got on the place. What we've done already is work to maintain streamside and stream vegetation, increase such vegetation, remove non-native invasive vegetation (staged so that replacement with natives doesn't leave anything bare too long), improve grass coverage (as part of prairie restoration plan) on the open grassland to increase the "sponge" effect and thus reduce surface runoff and improve subsurface water retention, and build gabions to slow surface runoff and reduce erosion. I would be interested in any other interventions that are possible for two over-sixty people to do by themselves (IOW, we have limited physical, as well as financial, resources. )

It's probably heresy to say it here, but fish aren't the primary end point of what we're doing--we can provide permanent water for nonaquatic wildlife with the rainbarns and storage tanks, but that's not enough for creek flow. So our emphasis is on other wildlife, but I do want to improve things for our occasional aquatics as well. And I love it when we have enough water that we have little minnows flashing around.

What I'd like to find is help to ID fish I can get a clear picture of, and ideas for improving the stream's capacity to maintain some water and some habitat (for all wildlife, not just fish) in the face of climate, development, and land management upslope. I need to know what fish we have, and what that says about water quality, and what pollutants (in particular) are things to look out for in this kind of small-stream situation.

Brother, you are in the right place!