I live in the southern part of West Virginia. In between the New River and Greenbrier River. I've went several times in December and January, but wasn't able to see much of anything. Any tips or suggestions?
Can't find any minnows in Winter
Started by
Guest_factnfiction101_*
, Jan 23 2012 06:40 PM
14 replies to this topic
#2
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 23 January 2012 - 08:02 PM
Here are a couple of threads that discuss possible answers... I remembered these and found them with a quick search in the forum on the word 'winter'...I live in the southern part of West Virginia. In between the New River and Greenbrier River. I've went several times in December and January, but wasn't able to see much of anything. Any tips or suggestions?
http://forum.nanfa.o...h__1#entry87508
http://forum.nanfa.o...h__1#entry84851
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#5
Guest_creekcrawler_*
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Posted 30 January 2012 - 03:13 PM
Was just out for the first time in a long while here in northern Ohio this weekend.
Howling winds, temp at freezing.
Everything seemed to have hunkered down for the winter - couldn't find anything until
I went to the weakest riffles and kick up some stones.
Howling winds, temp at freezing.
Everything seemed to have hunkered down for the winter - couldn't find anything until
I went to the weakest riffles and kick up some stones.
#7
Guest_nativeplanter_*
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Posted 31 January 2012 - 11:02 AM
I've had luck going through leaf piles that accumulate in eddys and along the shoreline during the winter.
Ditto. Michael Wolfe taught me that. Scoop up the leaf pile with your net and pick through it. The cold fish won't flop much under the leaves, so you can't rely on movement to know if anything is there. I was surprised at how many are in the leaves, but I should not have been. After all, they need to go somewhere, and that's a nice, protected spot to chill out.
#8
Guest_gerald_*
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Posted 31 January 2012 - 07:20 PM
You get minnows in leaf piles? I find sunfish, mosquitofish, pirate perch, baby pickerel, catfish, swamp/sawcheek darters in leaf piles in winter, but almost never minnows, except maybe creek chubs in tiny headwater streams. Once I found shiners under a big flat rock in an icy stream, but most of the shiners, dace and chubs I've caught in winter were in slow-flowing pools under branches or tree roots along the banks.
#10
Guest_exasperatus2002_*
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Posted 31 January 2012 - 08:57 PM
As a kid growing up on the Perkiomen creek, montgomery county PA. While looking for bait, I always found the black nosed dace under rocks in the winter. Less energy output needed to stay under a rock then in the current.
#11
Guest_UncleWillie_*
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Posted 31 January 2012 - 09:01 PM
I haven't done a ton of winter sampling around here, but I used to a lot in the urban streams when I lived in Knoxville. These streams were very shallow, had a surprising amount of cobble and not diverse in ichthyofauna. However, I could scoop up messes of blacknose dace and creek chubs when sweeping through the leaf piles. It was quite surprising. Other minnows like spotfin shiners, tended to stay in the deep pools and never caught a single one in leaf piles. Sooo... does that mean that brown minnows like leaves and silver minnows don't? 
hehe.
hehe.
#12
Guest_gerald_*
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Posted 01 February 2012 - 01:29 PM
You say hehe but I think you pretty well nailed it: shiny = open water. The other trend I notice is body cross-section shape: more laterally compressed minnows are less likely to hide under rocks or leaves. There's a strong correlation (in minnows) between laterally compressed shape and shiny color.
I could scoop up messes of blacknose dace and creek chubs when sweeping through the leaf piles. It was quite surprising. Other minnows like spotfin shiners, tended to stay in the deep pools and never caught a single one in leaf piles. Sooo... does that mean that brown minnows like leaves and silver minnows don't?
#13
Guest_davidjh2_*
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Posted 01 February 2012 - 04:58 PM
I caught a pretty good variety of fish in leaf piles on the Delaware river. I caught Banded Killifish,Spotfin Shiners(I think I know they were shiners), assorted baby Sunfish, tadpoles of various frog species, Caladonian Shrimp 20 or 30 a scoop and I think I even came across the occasional Tessellated Darter. Unfortunately the spot I used to go to is hard to access since they tore down a bridge over a canal and never replaced. I could drive down half a mile and park but since I only go during lunch it would take too much time. I am thinking about taking a trip down there soon on the weekend.
#14
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 02 February 2012 - 09:59 PM
I think we did... it was about 4 years ago. Michael can tell for sure.
Yes, ma'am we did... they were mostly stone rollers, bluehead chubs, creek chubs, rosyface chubs, and yellowfin shiners... but that is pretty much everything in the streams here. And I did it again this past weekend (except we dropped the one rosyface before getting a firm idea and never saw any stonerollers at all), in a smaller tributary of the same stream.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#15
Guest_davidjh2_*
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Posted 03 February 2012 - 02:57 PM
I just came back from lunch and I spent it looking for fish on the Delaware river. Some really good news is that they're finally replacing the bridge that leads to my favorite winter collecting spot. I went to a spot I recently found a few miles upriver and caught 2 what I think are Spotfin Shiners and a Eastern Banded Killifish. I also caught a bunch of Scuds that I'm hoping turn into a breeding population.
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