All,

I would like to announce a special event that the Southeastern Wisconsin Native Fish Club is having this month. On Saturday, July 18th, we will have a FREE afternoon of Sampling Native Fish with the Crew of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources! At 12:00pm on Saturday, July 18th, we will be meeting the Wisconsin DNR at the Mukwonago River in Mukwonago, WI for a sampling event. DNR crew will show us how they sample fish, and we will get to sample with them! My DNR contact tells me that we might be able to take fish home, too! I will post another announcement if we are able to. Otherwise it will be a Catch, Photograph, and Release (CPR) trip. As I mentioned, this event is FREE and open to the public, but we ask that you register to attend. To register, please contact me, Brian Torreano at (262) 268-7489 or at bt@btdarters.com. When you register, you will be given detailed directions to the meeting site.

This is going to be a great event! Won't you join us?

Brian

All,

Thought you would like to see some pictures from our July 18th sampling trip. The pictures in this set were taken by Pat Bowne. Thanks, Pat, for use of the pictures! I'm withholding the specific collecting site as we caught some threatened and endangered fish.

Here's a list of all of the species we saw that day. The list of the first 24 was fish that we sampled while electroshocking with the DNR. The second list of 4 species was from a separate sampling and dip-netting event that some of us did on a separate part of the river, after the electroshocking event. So we saw 28 species in total that day! Wow!! Here's the species list, and the pictures are below. Enjoy!

Electroshocking:
Black Crappie - Pomoxis nigromaculatus
Blackchin Shiner - Notropis heterodon
Blackside Darter - Percina maculata
Blackstripe Topminnow - Fundulus notatus
Bluegill - Lepomis macrochirus
Bowfin - Amia calva
Central Mudminnow - Umbra limi
Common Shiner - Luxilus cornutus
Fantail Darter - Etheostoma flabellare
Grass Pickerel - Esox americanus
Green Sunfish - Lepomis cyanellus
Iowa Darter - Etheostoma exile
Johhny Darter - Etheostoma nigrum
Largemouth Bass - Micropterus salmoides
Logperch - Percina caprodes
Longear Sunfish - Lepomis megalotis - state Threatened species
Northern Pike -Esox lucius
Northern Starhead Topminnow - Fundulus dispar - state Endangered species
Orangespotted Sunfish - Lepomis humilis
Rainbow Darter - Etheostoma caeruleum
Rock Bass - Ambloplites rupestris
Stonecat - Noturus flavus
Warmouth Sunfish - Lepomis gulosis
Yellow Perch - Perca flavescens

Additional Species Sampled While Seining and Dip-Netting:
Banded Darter - Etheostoma zonale
Sand Shiner - Notropis stramineus
Spotfin Shiner - Cyprinella spiloptera
Tadpole Madtom - Noturus gyrinus

Trip Pics:

"This is a backpack electroshocker." - John Lyons


"Got one!". John Lyons is on the left, and I am on the right.


The two collectors. Isn't this area picturesque??


Here's the rest of the group looking on from the foot bridge.


Here's a state Threatened Longear Sunfish that we sampled. John says that these fish look like they were just dipped in paint. I couldn't agree more!


Here's a Blackside Darter (Percina maculata). I think that I'm upgrading this species from my second-favorite fish to my favorite. I really like their pattern!


An Orangespotted Sunfish. I really like these guys' color and pattern. Gotta love that red eye, too!


An average-sized Stonecat. Slimy, but neat!

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures! Please don't forget about our Southeastern Wisconsin Native Fish Club (SEWNFC) meeting next Saturday, the 15th. Again, our speaker will be talking about the new "invasive" species legislation and how it will affect aquarium keepers. The meeting will run from 6:00pm to 8:00pm and is at Critter Supply Central pet store in Cedarburg, WI. Their address is:

Critter Supply Central
7481 Highway 60
Cedarburg, WI 53012
Store phone: 262-376-2969

Please call me directly with any questions about the meeting. My number is (262) 268-7489. Thank you for your kind attention!

Brian

Nice report Brian. I envy their backpack shocker. They are custom made by a guy in WI, I think a former DNR employee. Much cheaper than the name brand and work pretty well. Where are their gloves?!?! Fisheries person joke...

Beautiful report. That looks like a blast and that longear is stunning!

Very nice, Brian.
the color of your longear is unusual to me ours looks so different here in ohio.
our orangespot sunfish have almost the same color pattern as yours some have red eyes
othere have just a little red.backpack electroshocker i gotta get one of those.if its legal.
did'nt even know there was such a thing as backpack electroshockers.
is there any side effects to the fish after being shocked?

Edited by CATfishTONY, 09 August 2009 - 01:28 AM.

Thanks for the kudos, guys! Very funny, Matt!

Tony,

One side effect of the shocker is that not all fish recover. Of all of the fish we sampled, though, I think all recovered. The fish that took the longest to recover was a large Bowfin. John and I caught him early in one of our "sets" of shocking and he was too big to put in the bucket. John wanted me to show him to the group, so I had to keep him in my net while we continued shocking. As he was directly in the water and not the plastic bucket, he got a little more voltage than the rest of the fish. After we got to shore and showed him to the group, though, he did recover. It took about 10 minutes, though.

Brian

.backpack electroshocker i gotta get one of those.if its legal.
did'nt even know there was such a thing as backpack electroshockers.

Sure if you've got a spare 5-10 grand sitting around regardless of the permit needed to use. They are a standard way to effectively sample most fish in moderate to small streams.

Hey it's just one of those things. If pictures are involved, gloves are usually on. It's a great way to get an inadvertent OSHA/safety violation.