It was very warm here this past Monday so I visited a small creek that flows into the Meramec River. I was hoping to find blackstriped topminnows, srbd, and central stonerollers. I did find some small blackstriped topminnows but struck out on the other two. In addition I found numerous Rainbow, Fantail, Banded, and Greenside Darters. I also came across quite a few Mottled Sculpins, a few northern studfish, orangethroat darters and slender madtoms, and one rosyface shiner. All were returned to the stream immediately with the exception of two blackstriped topminnows, a mottled sculpin and a slender madtom.

On Thursday I visited the Bourbeuse River expecting to find little or nothing since the river was up and very muddy due to recent heavy rains. My son and daughter accompanied me on this trip. Since the water was fast and we could not see the bottom we just stood on the side and drug our dip nets through the weeds on the bank. I was surprised to find at least a dozen fish in our nets each time we pulled them out of the water! We found bluntnose minnows and generic looking shiners in large numbers. But we also found a few orangethroats, two brook silversides, a johnny darter and a northern hog sucker. I hadn't ever seen a norther hog sucker and have seen very few brook silversides. We kept a few of the minnows and the Johnny Darter and returned the rest to the river. I some how missed getting a picture of the Johnny Darter and the shiners. I'll try and add them soon.

Blackstriped Topminnow





Bluntnose Minnow
The stripe is much more pronounced in the aquarium.





Mottled Sculpin
I felt sorry for this little guy. I'll fatten him up in the coming weeks.





Slender Madtom
This little guy is actually much darker than pictured here.

Nice trip report Mark. You did a great job on the pictures and incorporating the ruler.

You'll be surprised what you find in the vegetation along the shoreline during high water. Everything, in essence, is trying to escape the raging current brought on by the flood. You can be very productive right along the shoreline, but it is dangerous. I was catching Common Carp, Bigmouth Buffalo, and Freshwater Drum in an area that is usually a parking lot, but due to the flood was under water last year. Make sure you check up on the USGS website to see real-time water data to determine how much an area was affected by the latest rainfall to make sure you don't end up getting "flooded out".

Thanks Uland. This is my first attempt at using a "squeeze box". I need to work on the lighting and possibly try some different background colors. One thing that frustrates me is the lack of depth of field in my pics. I'm using an inexpensive 4 mp and can't adjust the aperture. But it does have a macro setting and is much less frustrating than trying to take pics of fish in the aquarium.

Nate, I agree that the USGS website is a great resource. Visiting the river under these conditions allowed me to see some fish that I may not normally get to see. But I think what you said about the river being dangerous bears repeating. If the water is up, fast, and you can't see the bottom, stay out and avoid sampling around steep banks.

Mark

Very cool Mark, thanks for posting this! The Meramec is one of my favorite watersheds in the world and I hope to get into the Bourbeuse and Gasconade here before too long. Just haven't had a chance to get that far west yet.

We're heading out to St. Louis next weekend, I'm hoping to get into the Meramec at some point. Dunno what our schedule will be like, and hopefully the water isn't too raging any more. Be nice to get in there at Route 66 SP, but if it's haulin' still, I guess I have to headwater it more. Prolly go down to St. Francois SP, the gravelly bars there should be easiest to sample. Be nice to get some gilt and saddled darters, since the plague wiped me out this summer.

Todd