Howdy folks,

Went out with NANFA Members Susan Chambers (schambers), Jeff Grabarkiewicz (fatpocketbook), and a young feller we're teaching the ropes to, Long Hair Phil.

We started out on the Muddy Maumee at Side Cut Metropark in hopes of getting each of the different lower Maumee suckers. It's been high water and they're still up in the old Erie and Miami canal sidecut, which allows us access to some species that are generally hard to find. Unfortunately, a pulse was coming through, and wasn't enough of a pulse to push fish up in the shallower water. So we had a little bit of trouble finding what we were looking for, and gave up rather easily. I also shorted out my shutter in the first 5 minutes of photography, so I only have limited pictures. Hopefully the others will post theirs.

First a couple people and site photos Susan gave me (and any consequent photos with the date/time stamp). I sure am glad to have her and Phil along with us, because Lord knows Jeffro and I never end up with any people pics


The structure you see here is the old gate to the Maumee and Erie Canal. You can see how turbid the river gets with any kind of pulse (it's flowing mud). It's never really "clear".


(Right to Left) Todd Crail, Jeff Grabarkiewicz, Phil Mathias


Bluntnose Minnow, Pimephales notatus


Spotfin Shiner, Cyprinella spiloptera

And a couple that I got before I got my shutter wet:


Quillback Carpsucker, Carpiodes cyprinus


Smallmouth Bass, Micropterus dolomieu

List'll be at the end.

We then packed up and head to Sharon Mills in Michigan, which is just unbelieveable. It's an old grist mill that's now a park and museum. It's really a beautiful site, and it changed how I thought about dams with regard to ecology. Based on this system, I can't categorically say dams are bad for fish in healthy systems, and it's completely reversed my thinking about what dams do to mussels. Other factors play a much more critical role in the loss of biodiversity (like local extinction upstream of the dam due to pollution or channelization). The dam is merely a post-event factor in recolonization. I still don't like dams tho, most of all, because they kill people, and typically that's children.





Our first seine haul yielded this hoss:


River Chub, Nocomis micropogon

I hope one of the boys got a good shot of the rosyface shiners that were parasitizing it's nest! I have some of them here and hope to get good shots, but I don't know that I'll have time before they color down. We also caught a beautiful dominant male hornyhead chub, which I also have here. I think Jeffro got shots of that one. Unfortunately, the situation there wasn't prime for photography, it was harsh on the back the way we were setup. In the southeast, I usually have a gravel or sand bank to lay on and photograph... Up here you've got a clay bank and then it's water. So it kinda sucks for marathon photography.



We also caught some breeder male striped shiner (L. chrysocephalus), but I was really hoping to find common shiner (L. cornutus). Anyway, here's the subdominant fish we photographed. I say subdominant, because we caught a super male a little while later. I made Phil take about 40 photos lol.


Striped Shiner, Luxilus chrysocephalus

What is truly amazing at Sharon Mills, however, are the mussels. This stretch of river has 1) a big mill pond making all sorts of goodies for them to eat 2) stable geomorphology and 3) beautiful underlying geology with many groundwater springs and unsorted glacial material.

Jeff and I finally wandered around the corner (we were so caught up by what we saw at the mill we hadn't bothered) and were we missing out. It's flat out sick downstream. To survey 10 meters of river, you'd spend 3 days trying to get a good count. You'd have to take transects and extrapolate. In that 10 meters, I imagine there are well in the thousands of individuals. Just clearing the old material would be a chore. I broke surface in one approx 20-30 cm2 area and found 5 species (3 of them state listed in MI) represented by over 40 individuals, with almost complete eveness among species. What's sad is that the fauna was depauperate zoogeographically. So the richness is low.

He'll have photos from this and a mess of lure and siphon pictures from underwater (yes Jeff and Phil dove in MI before May 15th lol). Most curious was a orange colored lure on a wavy-rayed lampmussel. It was obscene.

I'll start with the mussels and work backward on the list...

River Raisin - Sharon Mills, Bucket, Snorkel - All species live

Elktoe (SC)
Slippershell (SC)
Purple Wartyback (SC)
Spike
Wabash Pigtoe
Plain Pocketbook
Wavy-Rayed Lampmussel (SC)
Round Pigtoe (SC)
Creeper
Rainbow (SC)


River Raisin - Sharon Mills, 8' seine, 12' seine

Central Stoneroller
Striped Shiner
River Chub
Hornyhead Chub
Rosyface Shiner
Bluntnose Minnow
White Sucker
Northern Hogsucker
Golden/Black Redhorse ("Tail Slate Gray", couldn't catch them to ID, big spawners!)
Blackstripe Topminnow
Brindled Madtom (SC)
Rockbass
Northern Longear
Smallmouth Bass
Greenside Darter
Rainbow Darter
Fantail Darter
Johnny Darter

Maumee River - Sidecut Metropark, 8' seine - Very limited sample area

Common Carp
Spotfin Shiner
Emerald Shiner
Ghost Shiner
Bluntnose Minnow
Quillback Carpsucker
Golden Redhorse
Rockbass
Pumpkinseed Sunfish
Orangespot Sunfish
Bluegill Sunfish
Smallmouth Bass
Greenside Darter
Johnny Darter
Logperch Darter

Todd

Edited by farmertodd, 11 May 2008 - 02:36 PM.

Nice dude! Great summary. Here are some more photos. I wish I would have taken a better dorsal profile of the hornyhead chub. I also do have some rosyface body shots but they will need a little work.


Plain Pocketbook (Lampsilis cardium), female, River Raisin


Pumpkinseed Sunfish, Maumee River


Creeper (Strophitus undulatus), River Raisin


Wavyrayed lampmussel (Lampsilis fasciola), female, River Raisin


Hornyhead Chub, male, River Raisin


River Chub, male, River Raisin


Rock Bass, Maumee River


Rosyface Shiner, River Raisin


Round Pigtoe (Pleurobema sintoxia), River Raisin


Striped Shiner, River Raisin


Motley Crue (Phil, Todd, Susan)


Red, White, and Crue (Phil, Todd, Jeff)

Wow! Awesome pictures, Jeff! That was a fantastic place, I was sorry to leave. It was gorgeous there. The number of mussels was insane. We only caught a couple of darters, but they were there, I could see them under water.

I wish my eleven year old would have been there to see it all, but he'd have seen the water snake and been on top of Todd's van until we took him away. Sigh. He's a city kid like his Dad. We saw three of these snakes. Either that or we saw this one twice:

Jeff, man, great photos. That round pigtoe is the real deal.

The hornyhead's horns aren't out so much yet, so don't kick yourself too hard for missing that shot.

I was just fartin' around with the D70 tonight to see what I could get in my fish room with overhead and flash. It's got nothin' on sunlight, but for ID it works...



Couldn't get him to sit still long enough to get a good head shot. I need to figure out some way to get the water to move like in the big tanks. My 100 gallon glass is too thick and scratched to photo in tank, it confuses the camera

Still. It'll have nothin' on the outdoor shots. But I also enjoyed the convenience of sitting in a chair and taking the picture tho lol.

Todd

Wow! Awesome pictures, Jeff! That was a fantastic place, I was sorry to leave. It was gorgeous there. The number of mussels was insane. We only caught a couple of darters, but they were there, I could see them under water.

I wish my eleven year old would have been there to see it all, but he'd have seen the water snake and been on top of Todd's van until we took him away. Sigh. He's a city kid like his Dad. We saw three of these snakes. Either that or we saw this one twice:

Ya, we saw some of those snakes too. I told Long Hair not to touch them though (he was chasing them around). The last thing I wanted to do is drive home because somebody got a snakebite. Overall, its a great spot. Between the fish, mussels, inverts, snakes, etc. One of the best in SE Michigan for sure.

It's just an old Nerodia sipedon. Not venomous, but handling one is a character-building experience!

Those mussel shots are out of this world.

We didn't need to build any character at $3.80 a gallon.

I was glad Jeff was on him because I was having a "Dad" moment lol. They give me enough crap already.

I just watched and enjoyed the snake episode. The snake in the picture had crawled into a seine we'd left lying half in the water. It was cool, but I didn't feel any need to touch it. I wish I'd gotten a better picture, but I couldn't get my camera out in time.

I LOVED the mussel shots. I'd never seen them in the wild before, and I was totally geeked about them. I tried to describe them to my family, and I couldn't. I was about to try and draw a picture, but now I don't have to.

Edited by schambers, 12 May 2008 - 03:51 PM.

It's just an old Nerodia sipedon. Not venomous, but handling one is a character-building experience!

Those mussel shots are out of this world.

Ya, as Todd said, I just didn't want Long Hair all upset because he got bit by a snake It was way too nice a day to drive home for that.

Great pics, looks like you had a blast. I am looking forward to the Kokosing in less than a month. Hope to see you all there.

Susan, there's video of both species here:

http://www.farmertodd.com/mussels.asp

It's not as clear as Jeffro's stills because of compression, but you can give your family the full effect. You can also then see how big those plain pocketbook lures are when they're trying to attract a host.

Sadly, I'm going to be doing research in TN when the Ohio outing is. This happened last week, and I've guarded my schedule viciously. I'm not pleased I will miss it, but what are you going to do?

Todd

I'm glad the River Raisin lives up to its reputation as a mussel stronghold. And the fish are killer too!

Jeff, man, great photos. That round pigtoe is the real deal.

The hornyhead's horns aren't out so much yet, so don't kick yourself too hard for missing that shot.

I was just fartin' around with the D70 tonight to see what I could get in my fish room with overhead and flash. It's got nothin' on sunlight, but for ID it works...



Couldn't get him to sit still long enough to get a good head shot. I need to figure out some way to get the water to move like in the big tanks. My 100 gallon glass is too thick and scratched to photo in tank, it confuses the camera

Still. It'll have nothin' on the outdoor shots. But I also enjoyed the convenience of sitting in a chair and taking the picture tho lol.

Todd

Out of all the times I've seen Roseyface Shiner, I've never seen them with any Rosey on their face. Great shot, Todd!

Susan, there's video of both species here:

http://www.farmertodd.com/mussels.asp

Cool, Thanks!

Thanks Nate Yeah, you gotta 1) see them right now and 2) see them over a chub nest. Else, there's really not a whole lot to them.