This past Saturday I helped Casper and his son do a seining demo on South Chickamauga Creek, outside of Chattanooga, TN. Casper lives right next to the creek and the Audubon Acres nature reserve, and had been asked to do some fish stuff as part of a full day of activities that the reserve had scheduled.

The event wasn't well-attended, despite the great weather, and we only had a handful of people show up. Fish were surprisingly sparse, and a couple of seine sets only resulted in a handful of juvenile redline darters, a nice warpaint shiner and some river chubs. We tried several hauls across a deep boulder-strewn pool, but got nothing of note. As we walked towards the head of the pool, I saw a big dark sucker (buffalo?) dart into deeper water, but despite Coby's fast reaction to get the seine down we missed it. We set up below a raceway, and I as I started to kick, a bunch of large longnose gar moved between me and the bank and I was able to herd most of them into the net. We got five nice gar and a large channel cat; the male gar were running milt and the one female was still very gravid.





After the obligatory photo session with the gars (gar porn?), we started back towards the opposite bank, when I noticed some movement in a fallen tree -- somewhere around 80-100 gar were packed into a small area, holding position among the tree branches and below a small raceway immediately below. They were so preoccupied that I was able to slowly wade in among them and grab one by hand.

Fun game - how many gar can you spot in this photo?


We left the gars to their business, worked downstream, where we started slowly picking up more species, including some interesting stuff: a male mountain madtom whose nest we probably disturbed, a nice blueside darter, and this snail darter who posed briefly before being released.


Anyway, a fun day was had by all. Species tally stands at 23, a surprisingly low number give the size of the stream, the quality of the habitat, and the effort we put into kicking riffles and hauls. I suspect that working rootwads and dragging some of the pools a little more thoroughly would likely boost this to 35-40...

longnose gar
stoneroller
spotfin shiner
steelcolor shiner
bigeye chub
striped shiner
warpaint shiner
bluntnose minnow
Northern hogsucker
redhorse (YOY, ID uncertain)
channel catfish
mountain madtom
mosquitofish
blackspotted topminnow
redbreast sunfish
longear sunfish
spotted bass
blueside darter
redline darter
Tennessee darter
banded darter
logperch
snail darter

Very nice pictures. I can't beleive all the gars piled up under those logs. Good that you got a snail darter too!

The nature perserve is a nice little area to do some birding, learn about some fish, and has some interesting stories, from native American's, to de Soto, to the civil war. Sounds like a typical species list for me for that stream, minus lamprey sp. and greensides which I would find frequently further downstream.

So good to see you back in TN, Dave.

Todd

I was much relieved when Dave was able to help. My back was still killing me and i surely could not have agressively pulled the seine. What a sight to see all those Gar. I have heard of these mass spawning and have seen a few pics but never had hoped to witness it in my own backyard. Very cool. I was tempted to harvest one for a repeat BBQ session but was ashamed to do it during their sexual bliss. Dave was able to pick one up but i dont think he could have gotten it to the grill bare handed. I reckon the biggest we saw was about 4'. An interesting behavior was the way they were raising their noses out of the water repeatidly. Milt was seen flowing from several of the male Gars we picked up, flowing like milk. I dont recall seeing any eggs and am curious about them being poisonous caviar.

I'm not sure why we did not see as many fish as i usually do. Perhaps the Gar's scent was driving some away but i doubt that. I have seen Dusky, Rainbow and Greenside darters but never caught a Snail Darter so close to home. A year or two ago Todd and Jeff or Ryan while visiting seined up one just a bit further downstream. It's a neat stream but its best days were long ago. Work is being done to improve it, and it has improved, but vitually all its watershed is urban and farm lands to our south.

Overall the South Chickamauga Celebration Day went well with canoe trips, riverwalks and indian & folk music. It was promoted in the newspaper and over talk radio. The thinking is to have more activities assembled in Audubon Acres next year and promote the event to A Acres membership as well. Im kinda glad not too many people saw me falling flat on my back and then rushing to the creek to rub off the stinging nettles and then tumble and be washed downstream. What a fine way to introduce myself. "There is a fella who obviously knows what he is doing!" I'm grateful for Dave and Coby pulling the seine and i was quite content hobbling and carrying a plastic bag filled with our latest catch.

Here's a pic looking upstream to the swinging bridge. The bank to the right is very steep. The left bank features a nice wide gravel bar. Wide runs, a nice rocky riffle and flowing pools lay downstream to the railroad bridge. It has a interesting varied habitat and is not as silty as one would think. I sure would like to have seen it 200 years ago.

Edited by Casper Cox, 29 May 2008 - 06:35 PM.

I know this is an old thread, but where did you get that greenish/blue seine in the picture? I like the looks of it, Dave or Casper? I don't know who it belongs to.

Thanks,

Blake

Blake,

The sein appears to be dipped in a coating. In the nylon net catalog it is called plasti-net (page 24), I do not have my Memphis net catalog here, but they have something similar. I use it on all my nets, it reduces abrasion and uv problems. At first the net is stiff, but after using it a few times, it get s very flexable.

David

That seine is just soaked in green Rit dye.

'bout time for those gar to run again. Casper? Can you see down into the waters yet?

Todd

It's fun reading this post again and yes it nearly time for another annual Celebrate South Chickamauga Creek Day. This year it will be held on Saturday, May 16, from 11am til 3pm. I will stay longer if more people attend and i am assured they will by the organizers. Anna George and Dave Neely from the Tennessee Aquarium will be bringing along both seiners and spectators too as Anna is involved with the Endangered Species Day FWS that same day. My son Cobalt will also be helping out and if any of you regional fellas or females want to visit, so much the better and i hope you will. If you do you can stay overnight at the house, apartment or teepee and we can make a trip over to a nearby river for a Sunday Snorkle. The Conasauga or the Little Sequatchie come to mind and are nearby. We could also take a rinsing snorkel Saturday after the Creek Seine in the front yard. I set up a LIVEFISH TV link from the cement pond to the living room and been enjoying the show each morning. Lots of spawning activity with the Stoney Rollers pit digging, River Chubs carrying stones, SRBD, and all kinds of shiny minners. The water is crystal clear and my girls have already been jumping in during these first days of summer heat.

A couple weeks ago the Buffalo were spawning just upstream and yes if we are lucky we could very well see the Gar spawning. We might add one to the fireside grill that night, maybe some fresh dried morels too.
I will add more details if they are provided but its only 3 weekends from now so it would be nice if some of you could make it. It will be a fun weekend.
,
This picture is a compostion of 3 shots of the Buffalo Spawning in South Chick a couple weeks ago. Forgive the quality as the water was murky and i could not get close even with the zoom. It was still impressive with several pods thrashing in a 300 yard stretch.

Edited by Casper Cox, 28 April 2009 - 05:24 PM.

Wish I had time to come down Casper!