Got the itch last week so I took Friday off and hit the road with Lance Merry.  We drove down to north central TN and started fishing around noon.  First spot was a tributary of the Green River in KY, but we were just south the border in TN.



Sampling data showed elegant madtoms here, but we couldn't them.  However, we were very happy to see an active chub mound that had Tennessee shiners and scarlet shiners spawning on it.  Redtail chubs are the local Nocomis species.  We saw a few in deeper pools, but they seemed to be done with the mound.



I rigged up a Tanago hook with a piece of locally sourced earthworm.  It didn't take long to catch a male scarlet shiner.



Followed by a male Tennessee shiner.  I'll be replacing my lifelist photos for both of these species with these new ones.



Lance can't resist photographing an active chub mound, so he put on his mask and snorkel and got to work.  I'm honestly not sure why his ass was in the air.  Maybe it needs to breathe too?



While Lance was taking photos, I poked around in the riffle and found some orangefin darters.  This one isn't bad, but I caught a spectacular "super male" that came off the hook before I could snap a photo.  Bummer!



Once Lance was done, I took a turn using my waterproof point and shoot camera.  My photos aren't bad, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Lance's.

We packed up and drove across the stream in my Subaru.  It made me a bit nervous but we came through the other side no problem.  However, we didn't make it down the road very far because of these two guys.  And I do mean guys, because they were both males!!  



Our next spot was about 5 miles upstream where the bottom switches from gravel to slab bedrock.  This is a location where I've previously tried, and failed, to catch blackfin suckers.  Once again I saw a few and even had one nibble my bait, but when I tried to set the hook, there was no fish on the end of my line.  My only consolation catch was this boss rainbow darter.

Lance had no desire to bushwack through the poison ivy like I did.  Thank God I'm immune to it (for now).

After some difficulties finding a worm to use as bait I was able to catch my target here, a male cherry darter.

I also caught this shiner.  It looks like a juvenile striped shiner.

Next we went to a public boat launch on the Barren Fork.  I found darters in the pools next to one of the bridge pilings.

Our last fishing spot was just upstream of Rutledge Falls, also in the Duck drainage.  Before we fished we walked down to the waterfall to take a look.  We don't have these in Illinois!

We were again looking for colorful flame chubs, but at this spot we couldn't find any, colored up or not.  I caught a few darters that I haven't been able to ID.  Hopefully someone on here can point me in the right direction.

Snubnose darter #2.

Snubnose darter #3.

Snubnose darter #4.

Rosyside dace were looking good at this spot as well.  This was the last fish of the trip.

We were anxiously watching the weather forecast because a big line of thunderstorms was fast approaching.  We decided to cut our trip short because the streams were likely to be blown out if it rained hard.  We had about an hour before the rain started, so we drove a few minutes over to another waterfall.

Lance is a big fan of aquatic plants, so he thoroughly enjoyed this spot.

The first set of falls was man-made, but further downstream we found some natural falls.  It was a nice end to the trip.

If you can help with the snubnose darter IDs, please say which number (#1, #2, #3, #4) you're talking about.  I'm pretty sure I got the cherry darters correct, so I didn't include them as ones I need help with.  Thanks ahead of time!

I found this range map in Phylogenetic and Coalescent Strategies of Species Delimitation in Snubnose Darters (Percidae: Etheostoma) by Harrington & Near, 2011.  So far I'm looking at E. planasaxatile and E. duryi as possible contenders.

Great shots and write-up!  Can't help with snubby-ID (NC has only one, barely) but the "poison ivy" i see looks like box elder maple.  Their leaves are very similar, but arranged opposite in the maple and alternate in P.I.  Box elder can have either 3 or 5 leaflets per leaf; P.I. always has 3. Of course real poison ivy might be under the box elder.

Thanks guys.  Yeah, the poison ivy was closer to the ground.  Probably can't make it out in that photo.

What year was that range map from?  I think some of those have been split again.  A couple years back, Brian and I found 2-3 different snubnose species in the same location, in KY.

It's from 2011.  I've dug through a lot of old sampling data, but it's not doing much good.  I see E. planasaxatile, duryi, simoterum, and etnieri at the least.  But you're right, there have probably been multiple splits and lumps over the years, and maybe it's not settled yet.  Are there any newer publications?

Nice catch Ben!!

Unfortunately, most of the folks that are really competent with that area, especially the snubs, like Todd Crail, Matt Ashton, Dave Neely, etc., no longer frequent the forum.  If you have their email addresses, I would suggest that route.  If you don't, let me know and I will get them for you.  We could speculate, but it would be just that.  For what it's worth, I agree that number 1 is a saffron darter.  I'm not sure I have ever seen numbers 3 and 4 and I have been all over that area.  

I don't know my duryi from my planasxatile, but I know a good trip report when I see one! Great pictures, Ben. (Well, except maybe for that one featuring Lance's snorkeling exhaust manifold.) Looks like a great time. That teal on a bass is pretty different, huh?

I second Matt's comment.  Great report and pics, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I caught a musky in PA in a large sized creek that had teal fins.  I'd never seen anything like it before and have not since.  Unfortunately, we were wading and our cameras weren't waterproof or digital back then, so no pics.  That is one fish out of three others that I wish that I had a picture of, it was spectacular.

Every other musky that I've ever caught in MD or PA had orange fins.  Anyone have an idea what causes weird coloration like this?  Diet perhaps?

Is it just me, or do those rosyside dace seem to have even bigger mouths than more northern populations?

Looks like a great trip!

I found those big mouths interesting as well.  Here's one from VA near the TN border from a few years ago.  Very different looking fish.

Glad it wasn't just me. Those are certainly different looking than our Ohio population. The second one in your first post is a beast!

I saw the red color in the water and thought I had found the biggest flame chubs ever.

Glad it wasn't just me. Those are certainly different looking than our Ohio population. The second one in your first post is a beast!

Clinostomus salmoides Largemouth dace.

Very cool, I always enjoy your trip reports Ben! While I can't help you on the ID's, I immediately thought, "there is no way that is a rosey side" when I saw the pic. Looks quite different from our NC RSD -- interesting!