Hello,
I recently got in the water to help document the presence of the Creek Chubsucker (Erimyzon oblongus) in the Blanchard River drainage. Here's a report of the trip:

Location: unnamed trib. to the Outlet Ditch of Springville Marsh, near Findlay, OH.
Water Level: USGS gage data showed stream flow in the nearby Blanchard River to be at 35 cubic feet per second and gage height at nearly 1.0 feet. This is almost exactly at normal levels for this time of year. The water in the ditch had the “perfect” amount for sampling. Lots of undercut banks and pools that had depth of nearly 1.0 meter.
Water Quality: The water was quite clear, except for an undetermined orange liquid on the sand and in the water. There was also some oil on the surface of the water which is cause for concern.
Water Temp.: 12.7*C
Substrate: The substrate in this trib. is made up of fine sand and gravel. There is dense vegetation which constitutes roughly 90% of the available cover. There is a very low amount of siltation on the gravel as well. This is probably due to the low riparian zone that only totals 5-10m on both sides of the stream/ditch.
Collected:

• Grass Pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus)
  - this picture is of the largest pickerel that was collected that day. We probably caught more that 20 Grass Pickerel in 2 hours of seining here. Most of the pickerel were very tiny (less than 10mm). I have seen them that small earlier in the year, it seems that there were two spawns of Grass Pickerel this year. The fish pictured here is an adult that was probably nearly 7 inches long.
• Central Mudminnow (Umbra limi) - We only collected 2 Central Mudminnow today. Normally they are quite abundant here.
• Orangethroat Darter (Etheostoma spectabile)
  - caught lots of these. We probably saw over 100 Orangethroats on the bottom of the stream. The fish pictured is a male.
• Johnny Darter (Etheostoma nigrum) – some of the largest Johnny Darters in the state live in this stream.
• Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) – only 1 was found in the stream. Normally these are restricted to the higher gradient (or at least where the river is larger) Blanchard River. It was odd to see them this far up one of the feeder streams.
• Central Stoneroller Minnow (Campostoma anomalum pullum) - found a lot of these in the ditch. Most of them were covered with Black Spot Grub.
• Creek Chubsucker (Erimyzon oblongus)
  
  - this is a picture of one of the largest Creek Chubsuckers I have ever seen in the ditch. It is probably 4 inches long. Over 20 of these fish were seen during our 2 hours sampling. One fish was brought back as a voucher for the Ohio State University Natural History Museum because this species has no record from this area at the museum. Lots of small ones were seen, indicating a good year class.
• Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) – often the most common fish caught in this stream.
• Silverjaw Minnow (Ericymba buccata) – only occurred underneath the bridge that we got in the water at.
• Redfin Shiner (Lythrurus umbratilis)
• Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)
• Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus) – very common in this low-gradient stream.
• Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)
• Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus)
• Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)
• Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)
• Northern Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis peltastes)
• Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)
• Tadpole Madtom (Noturus gyrinus)
• Yellow Bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)
• Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) – only 1 small one, probably 4 inches long.

Notes: Sampled via an 8 foot seine. Jason Ross of Heidleburg College assisted in the collecting. Sample time: 2 hours. Also, various crayfish were collected as well. One type seemed to be a fall spawning because it was holding a clutch of eggs...

Alot of female crayfish species are "berried/in berry" in late fall and winter.

That's interesting about grass pickeral having two spawns. I dipped up a tiny, almost larval redfin pickeral last week and was wondering about whether they spawned twice in a year. I always thought of them as early spring spawners.
Your orange liquid might be iron percolating up in a spring.

Were you there today Nate!?!? I stopped there on my way home from my pseudo-honeymoon in Yellow Springs to try and get some blackstripe topminners for Jake Schaefer. I wish I had brought a dip net, had to work a seine by myself. I stopped in the Mad to grab a couple redside and SRBD now that I have the Tate's Hell Protozoan of Death destroyed in all systems and can begin a restock. So I was already tired and there was just too much water and weeds for my out-of-shape butt to work on my own with that danged wind on top of it. I was gonna see if you were available this weekend

I also caught 3 age classes of creek chubsucker, which I thought was pretty impressive. I brought one of each to photo and voucher. I can't believe how many are there. They seem to be found associated in that myriophyllum looking plant. They only came up in the seine when it did as well. Will be nice to get that water a little lower.

I collected 1 black bullhead, if you're keeping a tally of species present. I didn't see that in the list.

Todd

I stopped there on my way home from my pseudo-honeymoon...

Did you get married? Are congratulations in order? If so, they are offered now!

Alot of female crayfish species are "berried/in berry" in late fall and winter.

That's odd to me, you'd think they'd want to spawn in spring when food is more abundant and conditions are more optimal for survival.

That's interesting about grass pickeral having two spawns. I dipped up a tiny, almost larval redfin pickeral last week and was wondering about whether they spawned twice in a year. I always thought of them as early spring spawners.
Your orange liquid might be iron percolating up in a spring.

I thought it was interesting that the pickerel spawned twice as well. Smbass was saying that pickerel in his swamp/backyard pond spawned twice this year as well.

Were you there today Nate!?!? I stopped there on my way home from my pseudo-honeymoon in Yellow Springs to try and get some blackstripe topminners for Jake Schaefer. I wish I had brought a dip net, had to work a seine by myself. I stopped in the Mad to grab a couple redside and SRBD now that I have the Tate's Hell Protozoan of Death destroyed in all systems and can begin a restock. So I was already tired and there was just too much water and weeds for my out-of-shape butt to work on my own with that danged wind on top of it. I was gonna see if you were available this weekend

I also caught 3 age classes of creek chubsucker, which I thought was pretty impressive. I brought one of each to photo and voucher. I can't believe how many are there. They seem to be found associated in that myriophyllum looking plant. They only came up in the seine when it did as well. Will be nice to get that water a little lower.

I collected 1 black bullhead, if you're keeping a tally of species present. I didn't see that in the list.

Todd

I was there on 11/19/07, last Monday. I made the mistake the 1st time I went there of using a seine going at it solo. There are too many weeds. I stayed by myself there for 2 hours the 1st time hunting N. Longears, I only found one. 2 hours of solo-seining for 1 fish, not a good turnover. Sorry to hear about your "Tate's Hell Protozoan of Death", hope you didn't lose too many fish, you had some gems. PM me about getting in the water this weekend if you want to.

About the Creek Chubsuckers, they are nearly impossible to get at during the mid-summer when there are low water levels. When the water in that stretch is up at around 1.0m or so, they are very abundant. I think there is some serious migration in and around that tributary. Although, I've not explored the water around the trib. too much. I hadn't noticed their association with any particular plant (but then again, I wasn't paying much attention to that detail). I did find them most numerous just downstream of the bridge there at CR 11 (just off CR 7). There is a series of small pools just downstream of the bridge that have small fallen bushes in them. I think one seine haul had 10 or so from one of those pools.

That's odd to me, you'd think they'd want to spawn in spring when food is more abundant and conditions are more optimal for survival.

Crayfish mate in the spring and late fall, and it can take up to 6 months for them to lay their eggs after mating, so these eggs are probably the result of this spring's matings. The ones that breed in late fall usually lay their eggs in early spring.