Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Southcentral Oregon, October 2007

Started by Guest_daveneely_* , Oct 22 2007 05:21 PM

Reply to this topic

8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_daveneely_*

Guests

Posted 22 October 2007 - 05:21 PM

I had a lot of stress to burn off and an "unexpectedly free" weekend, so I headed north to the Klamath Basin. Oregon's regulations are kind of weird, (spearguns OK for many nongame species but dipnets are not?!) so I noodled these guys by hand (the tui chub in the Gallery was caught via fly rod). Glad I brought a dry suit, the snow-line was only about 1500-2000 feet further up the mountains, and it was downright cold, even with clear skies and bright sun... The only other folks out were a few duck hunters, who must have thought I was insane - I got some really weird looks!

The big lakes in the basin (Upper and Lower Klamath Lake, and Agency Lake) have a really high concentration of Spirulina algae; the close-up below gives an idea of what visibility was like. This makes trying to grab sculpins pretty difficult, and it took a long time to get lucky and get a couple of Klamath Lake sculpins. Slowly flipping rocks while working a hand underneath was the ticket.

Luckily, there's a nice spring tributary that dumps crystal-clear water into Upper Klamath Lake at Hagelstein Park, with lush aquatic vegetation; some of the marbled and slender sculpins were completely buried in the silt; if you moved your hand slowly you could get them to move a little, then go for the grab! There were shoals of 1000s of fathead minnows here, with a few blue chub and tui chub mixed in. I also saw a couple of small suckers, they looked like Catostomus snyderi but in deference to the couple of Federally protected suckers that are also here I didn't disturb them.

Not that many other folks get excited about sculpins, but these guys are pretty cool...

More in the Gallery: http://gallery.nanfa.../Dave Neely/OR/

Attached Images

#2 Guest_fundulus_*

Guests

Posted 22 October 2007 - 07:25 PM

Those sculpins are very different looking from the typical Cottus spp. in the mid-South. You'll be happy to hear that a few of my students really do get excited about sculpins when we find them, especially big ones.

#3 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

Guests

Posted 22 October 2007 - 10:05 PM

Beautiful scenery. I spent a summer in Oregon once. Lots of rain, but nice.

#4 Guest_smbass_*

Guests

Posted 03 November 2007 - 09:40 PM

Great pictures as always Dave! It is nice to see some west coast natives for a change.

#5 Guest_mzokan_*

Guests

Posted 03 November 2007 - 10:02 PM

Nice fish Dave, I hope to catch some sculpins here in north Georgia, if I can find any outside the trout streams

What species is it that lives in the Chattahoochee?

#6 Guest_daveneely_*

Guests

Posted 03 November 2007 - 10:47 PM

Nice fish Dave, I hope to catch some sculpins here in north Georgia, if I can find any outside the trout streams

Thanks!

What species is it that lives in the Chattahoochee?

That's Cottus chattahoochee (see attached pdf). Unfortunately the editors nixed my proposal to name it the Hoochie-coochie sculpin...

They get pretty far down in some creeks so you should be able to find some outside of trout water; there's actually a record within a km or so of the Alabama border! Some really neat areas around there.

cheers,
Dave

Attached Files

Neely_et_al_2007.pdf 1.08MB 71 downloads

#7 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 04 November 2007 - 12:47 PM

That's the beauty of common names Dave, nobody really can tell us their wrong... I wll always call them that form now on...

Oh, and to everyone else, don't you just love NANFA, not just a hobby club, not just a scientific group, not just a bunch of fish hugging nature nuts, but all of that rolled into one with each of us having access to the others experienc eand expertise. {sermon over, please resume your random postings}

Thanks!
That's Cottus chattahoochee (see attached pdf). Unfortunately the editors nixed my proposal to name it the Hoochie-coochie sculpin...

They get pretty far down in some creeks so you should be able to find some outside of trout water; there's actually a record within a km or so of the Alabama border! Some really neat areas around there.

cheers,
Dave

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#8 Guest_NateTessler13_*

Guests

Posted 04 November 2007 - 04:49 PM

I've got to say, that last picture in your first post on this tread has to be the oddest looking sculpin I've ever seen. I've been flipping through the pages of a book called "Freshwater Fishes of Cananda" and have seen some really different looking fish. I'm quite used to the stuff we get out here in the Great Lakes drainage by now. It's good to see stuff from the west, it seems so foreign to the people in the east.

#9 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

Guests

Posted 04 November 2007 - 07:08 PM

Oh, and to everyone else, don't you just love NANFA, not just a hobby club, not just a scientific group, not just a bunch of fish hugging nature nuts, but all of that rolled into one with each of us having access to the others experienc eand expertise. {sermon over, please resume your random postings}

Brother are you right. And there are individuals like the Bruce-ter, Fritz, and Dave, who straddle these worlds and integrate them. You won't find this in any other fish group.