We arrived in Chattynoo and-in-Casper's sted an hour before Casper was going
to arrive. After a few unrepeatable exclaimations from Ryan in his suprise of
how phenomenally COOL the Cement Pond (tm) is, we decided to head down the
road to a railroad bridge access Casper had shown Jeff and I last year. We
talked to the landowner up the street, super nice guy... Wondered what he
might catch down the hill, just moved in last fall and has a 7 year old
begging him up and down to fish it. I told him there would probably be all
sorts of sunfish to catch, and commented that I was envious of his newly
acquired property.
We saw a lot of sunfish-in-first, as the area was pretty poolish with a lot of
cover. Chased after a northern studfish, but to no avail, he slipped our net.
We got to a riffle down the stream and I mentioned to Ryan that he should be
ready to see his first wild redline darters. We lift the seine, only to find
that we'd interrupted a chestnut lamprey breeding cluster, which was pretty
danged cool too. We also caught a huge male, fully tuberculate stoneroller,
which of course, was impressive.
On we went, changing the depth and discharge, and watching how the fish
species responded to different niches. Less current, shallow water, snubs and
bluesides... More current, deeper water, redlines, logperch... With rainbow
and greenside darters spanning the gaps in between. Man I love Tennessee!
A farmer who owns the land on the segment of stream we were walking came by.
His dog met us first, super nice dog. Once he got down there, the dog got
less interested in us and jumped in downstream. Silly thing swam all the way
back to us in the current. Farmer was really nice, I was trying to describe a
"lamprey" to him. He caught us between riffles, so I hoped he'd walk down to
the next one with us so I could show him the darters. He had other stuff to
do, so he moved on.
Saw the same stuff-in-the next riffle, adding in some cyprinid species. It
was getting about time to head back, when we decided to do one last haul over
a sandy glide. When we picked up the seine, I just started a maniacal
laughter... There was a snail darter in our haul... A juvie, but still a snail
darter. Unfortunately, there wasn't a camera, so I kinda surveyed the
situation, and made the decision to just leave the habitat unmolested, and
seine it the following morning. I poked into Fishes of TN that night and saw
that their habitat was the sandy glides, which there was a much larger glide
directly down from the riffle, so I was pretty certain we could repeat the
catch, perhaps with a full adult specimen.
We went back the next day with El Snorkelmeister with us. Talked to the
farmer again, and this time showed him pictures in Fishes of TN. He about
jumped out of his truck when he saw a picture of a banded darter. Casper
mentioned to him that we found snail darter, and he just chuckled, "thought
they were extinct". We tried to convince him to come down with us (mentioned
he'd fished that creek there for 60 years, so it's probably and old family
farm) but he had other stuff to get too. Hopefully Casper catches back up
with him and gets him in the water. As Casper said... "He sure has a friendly
face."
Saw some about 50 toads getting their business on in a pool. We seined up
some logperch he'd been looking for to add to the Cement Pond (tm). Also
caught a mess of warpaint shiners, which are probably the genotype to try if I
ever bother with that species again. The mountain genotypes are just too
danged sensitive.
Anyway, we got to the glide. Took us 4 sweeps and we had our specimen. He
was right-in-a breakline between an organic strewn pool, a certain amount of
back eddy over the sand, and right off the main current's discharge. There
was plenty more habitat like that, I'm sure there's a mess of them in there.
Needing to get on the road, and not needing to molest the habitat any more
(esp since the fish was in near or total breeding color), we didn't test it.
I'll let someone with a permit do that :)
Todd
________________________________
From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org on behalf of matt ashton
Sent: Thu 4/20/2006 11:44 AM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Stellar results, Agnatha-cam, Jeff you rule!
You guys found a snail darter in South Chick behind Caspers house and didn't
tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man that is an awesome picture of a spawning
male. Todd if you don't mind I really would like that and any other you have,
I have horrible pictures from this past summer and my presentations are
suffering from it. Can I also get some info on you like where, when, how,
habitat, stuff like that.
"Crail, Todd" <tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu> wrote: Okay I got a big mess here at
home with new animals... I am SOOOO not ever
keeping warpaint shiners ever again. They brewed up something nasty right as
I was leaving and the Lady Friend had to dip out dead fish all week. Sucks.
And it looks like I need to get ahold of ol' Jeffro :)
BUT!
If I had to summarize what I was seeing in the last two weeks in one photo...
This would be it.
http://www.farmertodd.com/nanfa/springfling2/DSCN3360.jpg
Also found some of these behind El Snorkelmeister's house in South Chick
Creek, and not behind Hooters:
http://www.farmertodd.com/nanfa/springfling2/DSCN2955.jpg
And... If you would like to download a 4.5 mb film that will be worth your
while, you can Right Click "Save As" to prevent your client from blowing up
and look-in-what Derek was watching this week, excepting, this time in the
wild:
http://www.farmertodd.com/nanfa/springfling2/DSCN3452.MOV
Sorry for the direct links... I think the password on the NANFA site was
changed (working on that right now) and they won't let me browse directories
at my website any more.
Okay, more later.
Todd
The Muddy Maumee Travel Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml
