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Greetings from Tennessee / Georgia


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#1 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 02:00 PM

Hey Yall.
After a while, I finally decided to join the forum. I have enjoyed reading everything over the last couple of months, but decided I'd better join so I can start posted on subjects that I know a bit about.
Anyhoo. I am currently a senior in Wildlife and Fisheries MGT at the University of Tennessee. I was born and raised in Athens, Ga. I will be working for GA DNR this summer - snorkling the rivers. Our focal species (endangered in GA) are the tangarine, olive, wounded darters and blotched chubs. We will also be doing some mussles work. We will be doing mostly snorkling, and some shocking and seining.
My tanks are: 46 Gal w/ blacknose daces, striped shiners, fantail darter and snubnose darter.
12 Gal w/ pair of Florida flagfish
10 Gal w/ single crayfish sp?
Sorry for being long-winded. I will be checking the forum for the next few weeks, but will be in the field for the summer. I may be able to check back in every weekend and see what I've missed. I'll be sure to post pics if anyone would like on some of the work we are doing.
Cheers!
-Willie

#2 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 02:14 PM

Welcome Willie. Had you gone to any rare fish meetings in Tennessee the past few years? Do you know what region and who you'll be working with in GA? There are some recent TN Tech grads that are assistant regional biologists with GA DNR.

#3 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 03:47 PM

I have not been to any rare-fish meetings in TN. I have met a few of the TN Tech students at a few Wildlife Society meetings, but can't recall any names. This summer, I will be based out of Social Circle, GA. We will be doing all of our fish work on the Toccoa River. It's the Toccoa in Ga, but is the Ocoee in Tn. I will be working for Brett Albanese. I will also be doing some mussell work a few weeks in different river systems and I think I will be working for Jason Wisniewski. I'm getting pretty excited about it.

#4 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 04:47 PM

Jason is a great guy to work with you will really like your time with him. He and I had the same graduate advisor at TTU but he had left several months before I arrived (early 2005). He came out with me for a day in extreme N. Georgia on S. Chickamauga Creek to help me look for snail darters. He really knows his mussels. I haven't been in that part of the Ocoee but if it is like the Hiwassee you will be in a great spot. Unfortunately the lower Ocoee as you go towards TN and into the state are heavily impaired from logging and old copper mines.

#5 Guest_jsciacca_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 06:18 PM

Jason is a great guy to work with you will really like your time with him. He and I had the same graduate advisor at TTU but he had left several months before I arrived (early 2005). He came out with me for a day in extreme N. Georgia on S. Chickamauga Creek to help me look for snail darters. He really knows his mussels. I haven't been in that part of the Ocoee but if it is like the Hiwassee you will be in a great spot. Unfortunately the lower Ocoee as you go towards TN and into the state are heavily impaired from logging and old copper mines.



I actually live right down the street from TTU. if you are talking about jason(red hair, loves kayaking, from Arkansas), great guy my wife and his girlfriend work together at the library here.

Edited by jsciacca, 09 May 2008 - 06:19 PM.


#6 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 07:09 PM

Don't think we are talking about the same guy. Jason Wisniewski is from Pennsylvania, graduated from TTU 2004/2005 and has been in Georgia since leaving TTU.

#7 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 07:46 PM

ashtonmj,
That's great that you know him. I have only talked to him on the phone. I have yet to do much work on the Ocoee, but I have done a little bit of work when Dr. Etnier was looking for some snail darters on the Hiwassee. I can see why Brett Albanese is trying to do more snorkling to find the Olive darter (rather than shocking) - the only place we have found them is in chest deep water with a current that will knock you down if you are not holding onto something. Maybe we'll find them if we can grab hold of a rock or something.
So you did your graduate studies at TTU? I am hoping to go somewhere for some grad work. I was thinking about going to UGA. UT has gotten a huge cut in funding (the entire school) and soem of my buddies who got are working here have very small -if any- funding for their work.

#8 Guest_jsciacca_*

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Posted 09 May 2008 - 09:19 PM

nope. The jason i'm thinking of is a grad student now. Sorry.

#9 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 10 May 2008 - 10:42 AM

Yes I was a grad student at TTU from 05-07. Good plan on the olive darter and larger Percina in general. Nice to see other people are figuring out it's too damn hard to shock and more effective in many cases to snorkel. Olive darter in the Emory River are impossible to shock, but if you hold onto a boulder for dear life you can see them. I'll send you a quick PM about the Hiwassee River, I bet I spent a month or more underwater if I add up all the hours I snorkeled there. If you know any TWS people at TTU have them get you in touch with some fisheries people, or your TU chapter of AFS should know students of the TTU AFS chapter.

#10 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 10 May 2008 - 01:06 PM

Hey Yall.
I was born and raised in Athens, Ga. I will be working for GA DNR this summer - snorkling the rivers. Our focal species (endangered in GA) are the tangarine, olive, wounded darters and blotched chubs. We will also be doing some mussles work. We will be doing mostly snorkling, and some shocking and seining.


Hey Uncle Willie... I live in Athens... If you ever need an extra hand dragging a seine or carrying buckets let me know, I would be more than happy to help you out...
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#11 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 10 May 2008 - 06:49 PM

I just wanted to add that I meant to say that we were looking for snail darters in the HOLSTON River - not the Hiwassee. I just wanted to make that clear -sorry bout that.
Ashton, I have sent you a PM. Our UT AFS group is tiny. We didn't even get it started until two years ago. I'm hoping to keep my options open with what I want to do with grad work (if I can find funding).
Michael Wolfe, Good to have some Athens folks. I haven't spent much time there in the last few years because of school. But this summer I will be back there on weekends. We will be based out of Social Circle, Ga, but during the week we will most likely be camping.
I have gotten spoiled with all of Tennessee's great fish, but I am looking forward to getting into the fishes of Georgia (even though most of our work will be only several miles from the TN line). As a kid, I always saw little fish in the streams, but never knew what they were - so I'm excited about returning to Ga now that I am much more ebijucated :blink:

#12 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 10 May 2008 - 07:01 PM

Yeah ours wasn't much bigger and if I recall we helped you guys get off the ground since we've been a chapter for a while.

#13 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 10 May 2008 - 09:27 PM

We have very few people, and it isn't even enough to have our own meetings. We have to do our meetings during the Wildlife Society's meetings. That's good because we inform a lot of other folks, but not many end up joining in addition to AFS.

#14 Guest_butch_*

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Posted 12 May 2008 - 12:15 PM

You may remember me from other forum....welcome to NANFA! Wait till you meet Irate! :biggrin:

#15 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 12 May 2008 - 11:02 PM

My cat can beat up your cat. No, wait - that was somebody else :-(

Anyway, welcome to the club (?) - oops, that costs 20 bucks.

#16 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 13 May 2008 - 01:06 PM

butch, I do remember you from another forum. I have since become less active there - this is the right place for me :smile: Thanks for the welcome.

Irate, thank you for the welcome. I am glad to finally join everyone.

#17 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 13 May 2008 - 01:48 PM

I'm late in line, but welcome Willie. :)

August should be the perfect time to see them. That's about when they'll develop into their medusa phase. I haven't seen them in those particular reservoirs (although that's a long standing population of interest), but I've seen them many times up here in Ohio in a couple places. I really need to get video of that this year. Maybe I should mark off my calendar now lol.

Todd

#18 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 17 May 2008 - 04:18 PM

Long Story here....
Well, I have finally made it back to Georgia (Athens).
I will be here until mid-August. Staying at my parents' place until work begins, I went out to my creek today that I have walked since I was 5 years old. It borders our northern-most property line.
Sadly, with all of the developement, the bottom has turned from gravel into sand very quickly in the last few years. With little fish (only the occasional yellowfin shiner and crayfish) being seen in the last few years, I walked the creek hoping to see some life.
I saw multiple schools of fish sticking in the deep fast-running area where stumps or logs had made a deep area. I had no net, or anything to catch them with to get an ID. An idea popped into my head - I scooted over to the nearest pool that is separated from the stream by a sandbar, and scooped up a handful of silt. Tons of worms riggled about. I returned to the nearest school, picked the worms out and released a few at a time so that they would drift into the school.
A feading frenzy took place - in no time, the fish began coloring up in the wonderful feast. Yellowfin shiners - the fins began getting brighter and only three (the largest ones) got a hint of red down their backs. Also a few began to get a little bit of white tint to the tops of their heads.
Sorry for such a long post, but I got really excited at the site and I was actually going to ask if anyone else had good yellowfin shiner spots, or other interesting schoolers (Michael Wolfe :grin: ) near Athens. I would not be wanting to collect until nearer to August because I only have a 13 gallon tank right now (with 2 flag fish), that they could call home. I have a 46 G tank in TN that I would love to stock with these beauties.

Edited by UncleWillie, 17 May 2008 - 04:24 PM.


#19 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 18 May 2008 - 07:46 PM

Long Story here....
Well, I have finally made it back to Georgia (Athens).
Sorry for such a long post, but I got really excited at the site and I was actually going to ask if anyone else had good yellowfin shiner spots, or other interesting schoolers (Michael Wolfe :grin: ) near Athens. I would not be wanting to collect until nearer to August because I only have a 13 gallon tank right now (with 2 flag fish), that they could call home. I have a 46 G tank in TN that I would love to stock with these beauties.


Sure, I know a couple of places... one obvious one is under the Elder Road Covered Bridge... I have gotten some yellowfins there as well as some juvenile bluehead chubs. The water quality if not great there (too much farming in the area) but I usually have a pretty good time. And I have another couple of places on the west side near my house... very small stream, but we have gotten yellowfins and tourquoise darters in the past... makes a real nice easy, hardy, represent your watershed kind of tank.

Let me know when you want to go...
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#20 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 19 May 2008 - 05:27 PM

Sure, I know a couple of places... one obvious one is under the Elder Road Covered Bridge... I have gotten some yellowfins there as well as some juvenile bluehead chubs. The water quality if not great there (too much farming in the area) but I usually have a pretty good time. And I have another couple of places on the west side near my house... very small stream, but we have gotten yellowfins and tourquoise darters in the past... makes a real nice easy, hardy, represent your watershed kind of tank.

Let me know when you want to go...


Sounds great. I live on the west-ish side of town too(Tallassee). I might have to see what's happening later on in the summer -if that is a good time to go. I will be quite busy until then.

I started my work with the DNR today. Most of of weeks will be spent camping out on the Toccoa (fish work), or in hotels in south Georgia (for mussels). My weekends will be fairly open. But, I'll send you a pm about it later in the summer.
Cheers!



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