We had a great time Saturday.

Irate, Dredcon, and I, meet up at 10:00 on the Pascagoula River, did a few seine hauls, and a little bit of dip netting and ended up with some:

salt marsh top minnows
sail fin killies
gulfkillies

we went on to a muddy little creek close buy, and caught:

Fat Sleepers

under another bridge we caught

robin (dredcon will have to elaborate)
some seed shrimp

Our third place, close to backbay
irate and dredcon caught:

sheephead
speckled trout
and a few more (I was talking to some of the locals)

The fourth and final spot was in my opinion the best, it was a small river about 20-30 feet wide and about waist deep. It had riffles, deep pools tons of vegetation, many different areas to sample. we walked up it maybe a mile or so, (it is difficult to judge, we were moving slow and starting and stopping).

we found:

speckled madtoms - tons of them, a few in almost every scoop of our nets
longear sunnfish
red spot sunfish
warmouth
shadowbass
spotted bass
bluegill
a bullhead about 8" - we think a black, we were unsure
creek chubsuckers
brook silversides
a juvenile shiner (can't remember what type)
tons of darters (irate or dredcon will have to name them, I’m not good with darters)

this collecting spot was great, and we should get some people up and hit it again, soon!!!!! (before it gets cold)

I need to study up on the scientific names of these fish.

we ended up the day with a great meal prepared by Mrs. Irate Mormon, and a great day was had by all,

so, what did you do this weekend?


Long live the Catfish Alliance!!!!!

That last site was killer - we could have spent all day on it. Tons of different habitat, wadable as far as we could see, nice substrate. Harry isn't kidding about the madtoms either - in one dipnet swoop I must have gotten 12-15 of 'em, they were as thick as flies!

Darters were P. nigrofasciata and E. swaini - maybe some others I have forgotten. The shiner was P. signipinnis - we only saw two at this location, but they are common in S. Missisippi.
LOTS of shadow bass too! At first it was "Hey, a shadow bass! Sweet!" Later "another shadow bass..." plop.

We also saw inland silversides at some of the brackish spots, also a lot of tonguefish.

Catfish Alliance uber alles!

hey pm me with the name of that river so i can check its flood stage

If you guys happen to go back there and happen to want to ship some fish out, I have a friend that has been dying for some shadow bass.

I think I have some extra shadow bass, I will get a count tomorrow.

it sounds like you guys had a blast. we may have to have a BIG catfish alliance trip next year.

It was a blast.

Here is another tentative species list, some fish waiting for finial ID

Site 1 - Pascagoula River

Fundulus jenkensi - saltmarsh topminnow
Fundulus grandis - gulf killifish
Poecilia latipinna - sailfin molly
Gambusia affinis - western mosquitofish
Menidia beryllina - inland silverside
Anchoa mitchilli - bay anchovy
Symphurus plagiusa - blackcheek toungefish
Gobionellus boleosoma - darter goby
Eucinostomus argenteus - spotfin mojarra

Site 3 - Sleeper Heaven (small salty creek)

Dormitator maculatus - fat sleeper
Fundulus pulvereus - bayou killifish

Site 3 - Escatawpa River

Fundulus jenkensi - saltmarsh topminnow
Fundulus grandis - gulf killifish
Gambusia affinis - western mosquitofish
Symphurus plagiusa - blackcheek toungefish
Trinectes maculatus - Hogchoker
Gobionellus boleosoma - darter goby
Gobiosoma bosc - naked goby
Prionotus tribulus - bighead searobin

Site 4 - Back Bay, Biloxi

Fundulus jenkensi - saltmarsh topminnow
Fundulus grandis - gulf killifish
Lucania parva - rainwater killifish
Cyprinodon variegatus - sheepshead minnow
Poecilia latipinna - sailfin molly
Symphurus plagiusa - blackcheek toungefish
Gobionellus boleosoma - darter goby
Gobiosoma bosc - naked goby
Cynoscion nebulosus - spotted seatrout

Site 5 - a nice costal drainage creek
All fish at this location were collected with dipnet, I bet would would have caught much more with a seine.

Pteronotropis signipinnis - flagfin shiner
Erimyzon tenuis - highfin chubsucker
Ameiurus natalis - yellow bullhead
Noturus leptacanthus - speckled madtom
Fundulus notti - southern starhead topminnow
Fundulus olivaceous - blackspotted topminnow
Fundulus notatus - blackstripe topminnow - I think I remember seeing a few
Gambusia affinis - western mosquitofish
Labidesthes sicculus - brook silverside
Lepomis macrochirus - bluegill
Lepomis miniatus - redspotted sunfish
Lepomis megalotis - longear sunfish
Lepomis/Chaenobryttus gulosus - warmouth
Ambloplites ariommus - shadow bass
Micropterus punctatus - spotted bass
Percina nigrofasciata - blackbanded darter
Etheostoma swaini - gulf darter


It was a great day, I am ready to do it again.

For the record, I should mention that I would have been lost without Sean and Harry - they knew all the access points. I would have driven all day long without finding a good site to sample. Also, Sean is one of those gifted navigators, which I am definitely not! The proverbial "both hands and a compass" quip applies to me fully!

no kidding, Sean took us the back way to wiggens. I had no idea where i was.

How far were you guys from Tupelo? Where do you typically collect in relation? My fiance lives in Tupelo and I'm down there almost once a month. I'm most likely moving there next spring/summer and would like to get out and see some fish from something other than the Tennessee drainage for once!

We were on the other end of the state from Tupelo. Fact is, I've only been in that part of the state once, and that was to sample Tennessee Valley fishes!

But the Catfish Alliance would love to do some sampling in that area, especially if one had already scoped out some nice-lokking sites