Restoring longear sunfish

I live in the French Broad River drainage in NC.

My question is if you have a medium size coolwater stream that already has a few green, redbreast and bluegill sunfishes, and it is believed that longear sunfishes were native to that stream at one time, could you sucessfully reintroduce longears to such a creek?

I live in the French Broad River drainage in NC.

My question is if you have a medium size coolwater stream that already has a few green, redbreast and bluegill sunfishes, and it is believed that longear sunfishes were native to that stream at one time, could you sucessfully reintroduce longears to such a creek?

Where does French Broad River Drain into? If it is a tributary of another river and other tributaries have longear, it is likely that they may migrate "back" into the French Broad River. Unless they are in a tributary and poor water qualtiy, a dam, or something is hindering migration from one system to another.

I know in Ohio it is competely illegal for anyone other than ODNR Div. of Wildlife to put fish in a stream. Your DNR may be able to conduct a sampling survey of the complete watershed to see if there are other populations and might be able to work on restoring (if they come to believe they were in the French Broad River) the population. Many DNR agencies do not have an aggressive stocking program to restore native populations, they spend many dollars on popular game fish. Maybe a University would be willing to work with the local DNR to look into this.

The river that I am currently conducting a state scenic river designation study on once had longear. But they have not been found in the watershed for over 30 years. Ohio EPA has conducted 10+ fish surveys in the past 20 years and Cleveland Museum of Natural History has been conducting a very extensive survey of the watershed for the past 2 years (60+ sights) and still no longear found. The Ashtabula River's Harbor area was extremely polluted this definately limited migration for some fish, but fall 2007 a 60+ million dollar environmental dredging of highly polluted sediments was completed and restoration efforts have begun. Who knows they might naturally come back to the Ashtabula.

The French Broad River forms the Tennessee River just east of Knoxville. There is a large reservior (Douglas) inbetween the where Gambusia is talking about and the lower end of the river. There is also quite a long stretch of river upstream of the impoundment before the Fernch Broad is in it's headwaters. Needless to say its a long river, going from Knoxville to Asheville and beyond and doesn't exactly flow as the crow flies. In the French Broad below Douglas Dam, longears are present. I'm not sure about above the dam. The non-game aquatic people for that region of NC are Steve Frahley and T.R. Russ (a pretty good friend of mine from grad school).

As far as longear reintroduction if they are truely gone from the system - there are far bigger fish to fry (ha ha ha) in that area of western NC like sicklefin redhorse, endemics of the upper Little Tennessee, Pigeon River around the paper mills, etc.

Looks like the longear are totally gone. It's been theorized they were native to the French Broad drainage at one time.

Plus there are three working dams on the French Broad itself to prevent migration upstream to where I live.

Just curious if longears can be restored to a stream with other species of sunfish present.

Just curious if longears can be restored to a stream with other species of sunfish present.

It may be possible. I do not think that other sunfish would be detrimental on their reintroduction. I have been on fish surveys where we have found longears, green sunfish, bluegill, rockbass, etc... in the same of stream.

They are definately native to the lower reaches and take it for what it's worth but Natureserve documents them as current in the drainage in NC.

It may be possible. I do not think that other sunfish would be detrimental on their reintroduction. I have been on fish surveys where we have found longears, green sunfish, bluegill, rockbass, etc... in the same of stream.

I found all those species plus Micropterus spp. in the lower French Broad at one site. I'm not sure the redbreasts are native though.

I like the French Broad river. I used to cross it and hang out in Asheville a couple times a month or so, and it always struck me as one of the prettier rivers I've seen, and I've seen 'em all. I never got a chance to slog around in it and see what it held, but it looks to just positively scream "Darter City" to me. I wouldn't have pegged it for a big sunfish stream, but I guess I should have.

Lower FBR, and I mean like only a few miles about the end of the line, has 80+ species collected over the last 10 years (Layzer and Scott 2006). Not 80 at the same time but still that is alot. It's also HUGE there (~200 yards wide). Caught some nice smallmouth last year while waiting for water levesl to receed and some huge gar, drum, and suckers are always cruising around. I've been knocked down a few times while wading. Really thought it would be neat to spear or bow fish on some of the shoals.

NCWRC biologists have said that it's possible longears were native to the western drainages in NC but they are gone. Now you usually find only greens and redbreast (some say the redbreast is not native west of the Appalachians). You can also find redears, bluegills and warmouths in the Asheville area where I live.

I suppose very few longears could be in the lower reaches of the FB and Pigeon rivers at the NC/TN line.

Lower FBR, and I mean like only a few miles about the end of the line, has 80+ species collected over the last 10 years (Layzer and Scott 2006). Not 80 at the same time but still that is alot. It's also HUGE there (~200 yards wide). Caught some nice smallmouth last year while waiting for water levesl to receed and some huge gar, drum, and suckers are always cruising around. I've been knocked down a few times while wading. Really thought it would be neat to spear or bow fish on some of the shoals.

Is this below Douglas Lake?

Yup a considerable way (in river miles) below Douglas. Like I said, pretty much all the way down you can go. The further you get away from Douglas aquatic communities drastically improve.

Thanks