Hi everyone,
With the days getting cooler, I've been trying to get out a lot lately before Ohio freezes over. I was in the habit of documenting my trips all the time when I had my camera in functioning condition. However, after it succumbed to water damage, I've been lapsing on recording what I've been doing. Well, I'm putting an end to that right now! Here's what I was up to on October 2nd.

Date: October 2, 2008
Location: Maumee River in Grand Rapids, OH. At the Grand Rapids Dam.
Water Level: Normal stream discharge, in cubic feet per second, for this time of year is about 400. The levels were at 200, so the river is a bit lower than usual.
Water Quality: The water in the Maumee River runs turbid pretty much year ‘round.
Water Temp.: about 70*F
Substrate: Mostly limestone bedrock. A few rocks and boulders are strewn in. The bedrock rises up out of the river in spots and creates islands with rapids around them.
Collected:
Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) – every year these fish are very abundant directly below the dam. This year however, it has taken longer than usual for these fish to arrive here. I think due to low water conditions, they hadn’t migrated this far upstream. We had a big rain a few weeks ago that brought river levels up, I think this triggered their migration. Last year the migration had occurred by August, this year it took to October to happen.
Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) – as can be expected, we found a few large ones below the dam.
Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas) – usually find a few of these directly below the dam, however, I never find them in good numbers.
Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides) – these fish are another species that seem to be highly migratory. It seems that late spring/early summer these fish occur in huge numbers directly below this dam. This latest rain has brought them in so thick that in certain spots, the water churns with them.
Striped Shiner (Luxilus chrysocephalus) – not an abundant species here. Only ever see a few individuals at a time.
Spottail Shiner (Notropis hudsonius) – this species is another seasonal resident near the dam. Earlier in the summer, these fish can be collected by the thousands below the dam. However, at this time of the year, they are increasingly less common.
Ghost Shiner (Notropis buchanani) – these small minnows seem to come and go with the Spottail Shiner. During their spawning runs these fish are incredibly common below the dam.
Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera) – these fish are frequently found below the dam, but I’ve yet to find them in large numbers. This could be due to the fact that when I sample below the dam, I’m spending more time seining through deeper pools instead of shallow runs where these fish are more commonly found.
Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus) – occur in similar numbers to the Spotfin Shiner.
Central Quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus hinei) – caught quite a few adults in the pools directly below the dam.
Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) – in the summer, these seem to be the most common Redhorse species in the river. I didn’t find any young of year Shorthead’s while sampling, all the ones I found were around 10” long or so.
Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) – caught quite a few young of year ones in our seine. However, when I started fishing hook and line, I caught at least 10 adult Channel Catfish (while using Emerald Shiners for bait) with the biggest being around 20” long.
Brook Silverside (Labidesthes sicculus) – these small silversides can be found easily below the dam. In about two hours of seining, only 20 or so were caught though. They never seem to be abundant there, but they’re always there when I go.
White Bass (Morone chrysops) – almost every seine haul we picked up had at least four or five young of year White Bass in it. The adult White Bass are in that river really thick right now. In fact, we would stop and watch the water between seine hauls and see shiners skipping across the surface as White Bass chased them onto the flats. Fishermen were leaving with stringers of 50+ fish. I brought out my fly-rod and had a good time catching them on streamers. It appears that the influx of rain that brought the Gizzard Shad and Emerald Shiners upstream to the dam in huge numbers has also brought sizeable schools of White Bass following the seasonal food abundance. It talked to Brian Zimmerman about this and he said he’s seem similar patterns here in the fall before. We talked about how most of the adult White Bass aren’t very large. We think that they could be mostly males. I wonder if there’s any documentation of fall runs of White Bass being mostly males…
Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieui) – while I was fishing using a live Gizzard Shad for bait, I caught a small (12”) Smallmouth Bass. I’m sure they’re taking advantage of the abundance of forage like the White Bass are.
Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) – I frequently find small ones in the pools below the dam, only in pools along the shoreline though.
Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
Orangespotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis) – these fish are the most common sunfish species in this stretch of the river. I’ve made mention of this before that in turbid water, the Orangespotted Sunfish seems to do really well. I’ve read that it could be attributed to their sensory organs that they have in their head (it’s been awhile since I’ve referenced this, so I can’t remember where in their head the organs are) that enable them to find food in muddy conditions. I found lots of young of year ones during this visit.
Greenside Darter (Etheostoma blennioides) – these are the most common darter in this stretch of the river. The can be found in nearly every location where there is some current. The Greenside Darters get pretty big in this river also. This could be due to the unusually high number of snails found on the substrate.
Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) – caught lots of small ones in the seine. When I started using Emerald Shiners for bait, I could barely keep these Drum off my hook. Every pool below the dam has high numbers of Drum in them right now. I didn’t catch any really large ones (most were about 15”), but I did get them in good numbers.

Notes: This site was sampled with a 8’ by 4’ seine. We (3 friends and I) were in the water for about 2 hours collecting fish. Then, I went back for 2 hours and fished with hook and line.

That's a pretty interesting observation on the white bass. I wouldn't have even thought or known of a fall run. I've always hit the spring spawning runs in Ohio. Sort of a side note, I was pretty amazed how much white bass numbers seemed to be increasing in Lake Erie several years ago. Seems awfully warm water for this time of year in northern Ohio!

Did you do most of your seining below the dam? We drove over the bridge there yesterday, and the water still seems really low, but I didn't get the chance to get IN the water.

That's a pretty interesting observation on the white bass. I wouldn't have even thought or known of a fall run. I've always hit the spring spawning runs in Ohio. Sort of a side note, I was pretty amazed how much white bass numbers seemed to be increasing in Lake Erie several years ago. Seems awfully warm water for this time of year in northern Ohio!

The spring is the way to do it for sizeable White Bass. However, with lower water levels in the fall, they become more concentrated in some areas and in my opinion are easier to catch. What were you working on that you saw a big increase in White Bass numbers? The water is warm. I didn't take the temperature directly, a website (maumeetackle.net) posts information on the river on a semi-daily basis. The owner of the bait shop took the temperature, but the water did feel pretty warm.

Did you do most of your seining below the dam? We drove over the bridge there yesterday, and the water still seems really low, but I didn't get the chance to get IN the water.

If I'm on the Maumee, then I would have to say I do most of my sampling right around the dam. The water is quite low and easy to get in.

Just my own observations on the size and frequency of encountering large schools of white bass in the central basin over several years of fishing. One would think that the shifts in forage base and increase in clarity over the last few decades would provided favorable conditions. I never really investigated it further to find any literature or commerical information. I've heard many stories of people fishing around the power plants for them but not much about large schools several miles out following bait fish.

Just my own observations on the size and frequency of encountering large schools of white bass in the central basin over several years of fishing. One would think that the shifts in forage base and increase in clarity over the last few decades would provided favorable conditions. I never really investigated it further to find any literature or commerical information. I've heard many stories of people fishing around the power plants for them but not much about large schools several miles out following bait fish.

With the increased clarity of the water it does seem that fishing has improved for a number of species in Lake Erie. If you think about how far away a fish can see your bait now as compared to when the water was less clear...

Hey Nate,

As Brian notes, this happens each fall in the Maumee. However, I'm pretty sure that they're resident fish that are congregating (else we'd see similar patterns in the other tribs, which we do in the spring, but not in the fall), and that they're not lake run fish. May explain the discreptancy in body size. You'll find similar congregations at Otsego and Weir Rapids, with diminishing abundances to the point of no detection downstream of Waterville. If it were lake run, I'd also expect at least some numbers there. As such, I think they're moving up from the pools upstream of Waterville.

Todd

With the increased clarity of the water it does seem that fishing has improved for a number of species in Lake Erie. If you think about how far away a fish can see your bait now as compared to when the water was less clear...

That is a good point. I went to Buttonwood access (downstream of Woodville for those not familiar), and didn't find any White Bass, although conditions would've seemed optimal. Do you think it's too late in the year for them to be feeding around the dam?

Do you think it's too late in the year for them to be feeding around the dam?

Not at all. What does move upstream are hordes of cyprinids from the Lake, like the spottail shiner you documented (and we consequently document annually in Swan and the Ottawa). It's the first barrier they come to in their late evolving chironomid munchfest, and is perhaps why you find the white bass grazing on them. Perhaps the wave of new food comes through, and the resident white bass just follow the cloud as it goes along. Would be a nice tagging study.

This reminds me that I need to get down on Tenmile Creek and in the ditches to see what moved up and stayed up this year. When I get a little better handle on the community changes, I'll have something to write about this dam removal we did. It's been an amazing year, it's been awfully cool to see things never documented in Sylvania appear en masse... Things you don't think of as migratory, such as logperch, as one example. The numbers of white sucker fry this year were mind blowing. And... There were finally large amounts of sucker nest scours that it seems the less tolerant cyprinids enjoyed. I hope to see a real boom in the number of redfin shiner next year. Wish I'd had time to quantify the baseline before we noticed the benefits of catostomids appear before our eyes That's certainly no reason to ignore it going forward, however!

Todd