I had off from work today and decided to check out some new water. I headed toward the susquehanna and found a creek with suitable terrain for my preferred style of collecting. I started close to the mouth and worked up stream sampling various types of environments. The water was crystal clear and I could easily see big schools of suckers and minnows of all kinds. I netted lots of very small Northern hogsuckers as well as small lepomis of sorts scooping and picking through a pile of leaves that had collected in and eddy. I also caught some spottail and spotfin shiners in the same area with slower water. I got them by holding the dip net still on the bottom and waited for the minnows to swim over or into the net. This was pretty hard since I had to have my hands under the water and it was really cold! I need to get an umbrella net and a seine post haste. After working the slow water for a bit I headed up into some nice riffles with some good sized loose rocks.



Here I came across my first mature greenside darters. I had caught one juvenile on a recent outing but these fish were awesome. The first one to turn up seemingly was a female. Some color but with small fins. The second one I netted was big and brilliant. Rich teal green showed in my net as I brought it to the surface and I knew immediately I got something nice.



It was quite the moment as I admired it's vibrant elongated fins. Pictures are one thing but to encounter one in the wild is a whole different ballgame. I definitely want to try snorkeling when the area when it warms a bit. I also came across creek chubs, tessellated darters, a fair amount but not lots of macro inverts, a 3" gorgeous wild brown trout and what I think might be central stonerollers but I don't know. They were anywhere from 2.5 to 5" with a proportionally small conical head on a fatter but not compressed large body with orange-rayed fins and irregular faint mottling. These definitely were fish I had never seen before. Maybe a chub I am unfamiliar with. Here are a few pics.




Despite hearing they are great aquarium fish, I could not confirm an id even with my Peterson's in hand so I let them go for fear of them being a larger, less desirable aquarium species. However, I know where they live!

Being very new to the hobby, this has all been quite exciting. While I started collecting purely to catch aquarium fish, today has impressed upon me the merits to simply sampling and releasing as well. Taking note of environments and the environments that exist within them that support a myriad of creatures is something I love to explore. Seeing things that makes me wonder how and why is what life for me is all about.

Bart

Edited by bart, 10 February 2009 - 01:10 AM.

Very cool report.
Good job conveying the excitement of being on the water. Nice looking darter too.

Nice Bart, may I ask what creek you found the greenside in?

Dean

Dean, pm sent.

Thanks Mike.

Edited by bart, 10 February 2009 - 08:51 AM.

Some pics of Mr. Greenie.

Nice color. You're hitting on what I love the most. Exploring a new stream, especially in the spring, pulling up the net, seeing a flash of color, and hey, what's this?

I still remember the first time I netted a banded darter in full colors in the Red River. Pulled up the net, not expecting much, and saw color, lots of color. Gorgeous. Dark blue with brilliant emerald stripes.

Is it just me, or does that greenside look a little unusual? In particular the side bars are solid rather than even a hint of the "W" pattern that's more typical. But it could just be stress; certainly the dorsal fins look right.

I know Todd is itching to reply about the 'unusual pattern'. It's different compared to what you typically see Bruce. I'd like to see a photo comparison of a Grand River specimen and a Tennessee drainage specimen too.

I know Todd is itching to reply about the 'unusual pattern'. It's different compared to what you typically see Bruce. I'd like to see a photo comparison of a Grand River specimen and a Tennessee drainage specimen too.

OK, if anyone is interested I'll keep the next greensides we find at Estill Fork. We caught a bunch two weekends ago, but let them go.

What are the easiest ways to tell a banded darter from a greenside?

Any thoughts on my brown mystery fish? After reviewing pics online I feel pretty confident it was a female central stoneroller and a very slimy one at that.

It's a white sucker. Many differences between greenside and banded, most obvious are snout shape, pectoral fins, and body shape.

As a for-instance, here's a banded darter. It's very similar to a greenside at first glance, certainly to the one that began this thread. Banded really do have solid bands on the side, while greensides will have a broken pattern of bands that look like "W's or "V"s. Photo is by Nathan, through Google...

I'm pretty sure it isn't a white sucker. I've caught them before. This didn't have the squarish head suckers usually have and I think the snout it had was way too short to be a white sucker. Despite the view in the second shot it did not have the standard sucker lips. Definitely subterminal but more like a chub or dace. When the head transitioned to the body there was a distinguishable hump or rise like some big darters have. The dorsal fin shape seems different too. I wish I had a better profile shot of the fish. Water droplets distorted it a bit. I may have to go back and get more pics in an externally dry photo container. I found them all in a reasonably small riffle so it shouldn't be a problem.

I think your correct Bart I don't think that was a white sucker, I think your original id of a stoneroller is correct.

Yeah I turned up another stoneroller today. It was small but looked more like the pics I'm familiar with. I also found my first cutlips minnows. Cool looking fish but I don't know where to get tiny fish eye-patches so I released them post haste. Maybe they'd be good with pirate perch? Yarr, it ate me eye! I told my buddy I was collecting with about their eye eating tendencies and said it was a good thing I was wearing glasses.

Any hoo, also got my first banded darter....WOO-HOO! I'll post a pic if I get a good one. It's a fair sized male and definitely a banded. Lots of greenside darters and no tessellated darters. Still waiting on the fantail and shield. We were collecting in Stony creek, just north of Harrisburg where the creek meets the river. I have sampled lots of places so far and I always, bar none get more darters at the last riffle before the creeks join the river. I always test and I catch very few darters as I go up the creek. Is this common?

We trout fished in Clark creek afterward and there was a massive algae bloom. Never seen that before in this location. Long filaments that looked like grass made fishing impossible. Is it weird to see algae like that in the winter? There was no algae in stony creek.

Bart

Many diatoms and algae have their first bloom in February in response to stronger daylight. Hopefully the filamentous algae you saw isn't a permanent resident at the density you saw.