NANFA-L-- And now for something completely different...

Todd D. Crail (tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu)
Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:58:35 -0400

Howdy folks. Bill Flowers had got ahold of me awhile back about doing a
Tippecanoe River trip there in Indiana for the Indy Fish Society. We
decided on this past weekend, and I drug my undergrad along for another
experience. Well, not necessarily drug... He's gone from "Don't care" to
"Grad School" in about 5 weeks. I'm pretty happy about this. He reminds me
of me at his age, hopefully he can avoid the trouble I had in my 20's trying
to find my place in the world.

Anyway, we met up with Bill, Bill Venstra, Charlie Grimes and a fella named
Joe, who's last name I do not know. We made some stops on Friday before
meeting up with the folks. Here's the stories.

------------------------------
Old Tip Town Public Access
------------------------------
Blake (the undergrad) and I cut off the Turnpike a little be early and
started out over by Warsaw at Old Tip Town Public Access. What immediately
struck me was a "midden" of breeder sized, "meat still on the scars",
commercial species of mussels all clumped right at the foot of the canoe
launch. I think there's been some illegal activity going on here. Within
the midden were two sheepnose, the first I'd ever seen. Man they were
sweet. Wish I'd had a permit.

There was a local woman there fishing. Man, was she a character and a half,
but she was really nice and interested in what the heck we were doing. I
showed her the different species of mussels, she was most impressed with the
green beak of the pimplebacks, the salmon pink of the round pigtoe and the
purple/white of the purple wartyback. I pulled up a large white
heelsplitter and she jumped. She didn't realize anything that big was in
there lol.

Anyway, we started seining after looking through the midden and ID'ing
everything. This was a good site for topminnows and Centrarchids. We
nabbed a full sized breeding male longear and got our retinas fused. But
then we got a really funny thing...

So we pull up this nice sized rock bass and it has a plastic worm hanging
out of its mouth. I thought someone had just broke off and the hook was
stuck. Oh no. There was no hook. The darned thing was still munchin' on a
Berkley Power Worm, had it half way down the ol' pipes. I should probably
call Berkley about that one lol. Anyway, we told the woman this, and she
told us she had lost two of those baits that day and showed us the same red
shad colored worms we just pulled from the fish. Unfortunately, the camera
was far away and we were in the mud, so I didn't bother to get a picture.
But it was funny enough on its own without any.

------------------------------
8' Seine - BB, TC
------------------------------
Sand shiner
Bluntnose minnow
Spotfin shiner
Grass pickerel (1)
Blackstripe topminnow
Brindled madtom (1)
Rock bass
Green sunfish
Longear sunfish
Smallmouth bass
Greenside darter
Dusky darter
------------------------------
Hand, Sight - BB, TC
------------------------------
Sheepnose (Fresh Dead)
Purple wartyback (Live, FD)
Pimpleback (FD)
Round pigtoe (L, FD)
Mucket (L, FD) - Are these A. ligamentina ligamentina? They look
different.
White heelsplitter (L)
Fat mucket (L)
Spike (Weathered)
Rainbow (W)

----------------------------------
Menominee Public Access US 31
----------------------------------
This is an access I want to go back and explore and dive. It was ground
water driven, and chill-eeeee. As we were walking in, I saw a big red
tailed redhorse sucker swimming right along the rip rap they used to armor
the canoe launch. It was too big to be a shorthead, had to be either a
river or greater redhorse. We watched it for a few moments before it
decided it'd seen enough of us.

We got in, started to seine and quickly found the washed gravel areas were
too high of discharge for a seine and moved onto a bar. The first fish we
nabbed was a gilt darter, that was pretty sweet to see this far north. The
rest of the list was pretty straight forward. I was suprised not to get any
Tippecanoe or Bluebreast at this site, but they could have been hanging in
water which the discharge was too great to get them. Again, time to get on
the neoprene and dive it.

The mussels we saw live were in nice recruiting populations, but the overall
abundance was kind of limited. This might change though if we were to dive
it. The water of the Tippecanoe is tannic, as well as partly turbid, so
visibility isn't all that great. We didn't bother with the buckets or
anything, as we were just scouting. But I will definately return to this
spot to dive.

If mussel species were found live (L), they found them in every other state
(FD, W) as well. Nice spot, needs re-looked at with more time and a sunny
day.

--------------------------
8' Seine - BB, TC
--------------------------
Spotfin shiner
Bigeye chub
Sand shiner
Mimic shiner
Northern hogsucker
Moxostoma sp. - Only saw it, didn't catch it.
Stonecat madtom
Smallmouth bass
Eastern sand darter (3)
Greenside darter
Johnny darter
Logperch darter
Gilt darter (4 males, 2 females)
Dusky darter
--------------------------
Hand, Sight - BB, TC
--------------------------
Clubshell (W)
Purple wartyback (L)
Pimpleback (L)
Round pigtoe (L)
Wabash pigtoe (L)
Flutedshell (L)
Spike (W)
Rainbow (W)
Toxolosma sp. (W) - May have been lividus, pinkish sheen
Mucket (L)
Elktoe (W)
Plain pocketbook (W)
Sharp-ridge pocketbook (L) (1)
Rabbitsfoot (W)
Kidneyshell (L)

------------------------------
Downstream of Lieter's Ford
------------------------------
Another place to go back and snorkel. We immediately got a mess of gilt
darter in shallow riffles, it would be interesting to dive it. The walk
from the van and riffle was pretty long and taxing. I should have brought
my wetsuit with me when I went back to get my mask, snorkel and camera. It
was just tooo danged cold there to go in bare skin. I couldn't get my
breathing under control and the sun was in and out behind clouds, so
visibility varied too much to bother with it.

Didn't look hard at mussels, nor record them, but added two species while
walking back and forth between van and riffle.

-------------------
8' Seine - BB, TC
-------------------
Spotfin shiner
Streamline chub (4)
Bigeye chub
Striped shiner
River chub
Silver shiner
Mimic shiner
Bluntnose minnow
Northern hogsucker
Blackstripe topminnow
Stonecat madtom
Smallmouth bass
Greenside darter
Rainbow darter
Bluebreast darter
Logperch darter
Gilt darter (11 - mostly males)
Dusky darter
Mottled sculpin (2)
---------------------
Hand, Sight - TC
---------------------
Creeper (FD)
Pyramid pigtoe (W)

-----------------------------
US 35 Bridge Public Access
-----------------------------
This is a great site for mussels and there's a lot of fish. This was our
first stop the last Tippecanoe trip we did. It's a series of runs of gravel
and cobble with sand bars and water willow. Really nice heterogeneous
habitat.

We seined it first Friday night, but were mostly looking for bluebreast that
weren't going to be in the population where we'd were potentially taking a
lot of people, and get a 10 pack of greensides for a genetics project
another student is doing. We got my 5 pack of bluebreast fairly easily in
the rubble up under the bridge... They really had a preference for flat
rocks. I'm totally stoked to have bluebreasts finally. I've taken too many
walks down Main Street in Temptation Town because they were listed, and the
time I was where they live in abundance in the upper Tennessee, the water
was too high to get into the habitat.

We also seined here second with the rest of the gang on Saturday. We had
seined some at Tippecanoe SP before heading over here, but that site was
pretty unremarkable. A bunch of trees had fallen in where Bill V and Mark
Binkley had gotten a mess of brindled madtom and spotted sucker.

Well, I take that back... There was one remarkable story from Tippy SP. So
we were finished up, and were seining one last place. As we were walking
along a sandbar, I saw a good sized brindled laying in the sand with a
shiner hanging out of its mouth. I just picked it up, thinking it was fresh
dead and would make a good preserve to show kids. The thing was alive!

The current hypothesis is that it had gotten a very large meal, was laying
in the shallows digesting it away from any predators (which it would have
been easy heron food), and with us walking around, got floated up onto the
sandbar. Who knows?

Okay, back to US 35 on Saturday... We poked around, got some different
stuff, added some more brindled to Bill's son's collection from the water
willow, saw some HUGE logperch, and nabbed a couple pirate perch. Other
than that... It was the same ol' same ol'.

Sunday I snorkeled the site to look at mussels. Blake fly fished while I
dove and got a lot of nice longear and river chub :) Zeebs were present
(quagga actually), but not overabundant, and only seen on rocks. I took a
25 pack in ethanol for another genetics project here at UT, destroyed the
rest. The most impressive thing I saw were different age classes of
rabbitsfoot. That's remarkable anywhere you see them. And... they're my
favorite mussel, so I always get excited to see them alive.

---------------------------------
8' Seine - BB, TC, BF, BV, Joe
---------------------------------
Spotfin shiner
Steelcolor shiner
Bigeye chub
River chub
Rosyface shiner
Golden/black redhorse
Northern hogsucker
Stonecat madtom
Brindled madtom
Pirate perch (2)
Rock bass
Green sunfish
Longear sunfish
Smallmouth bass
Greenside darter
Rainbow darter
Bluebreast darter
Tippecanoe darter
Logperch darter
Dusky darter
---------------------
Hand, Snorkel - TC
---------------------
Purple wartyback (L)
Pimpleback (L)
Round pigtoe (L)
Wabash pigtoe (L)
Flutedshell (L)
Mucket (L)
Elktoe (L)
Plain pocketbook (L)
Sharp-ridge pocketbook (L)
Rabbitsfoot (L with recruitment!)
Kidneyshell (L)
Creek heelsplitter (L)
Paper pondshell (L)
Giant floater (L)
Creeper (L)
Fat mucket (L)
Spike (FD)
Rayed bean (FD)
Clubshell (W)
Rainbow (W)
Toxolosma sp. (W) - May have been lividus, again, pinkish sheen
Sheepnose (W 1 w/ both valves)
Pyramid pigtoe (W)
White heelsplitter (W)
Threeridge (W)
Round hickorynut (W)
Deertoe (W)

--------------------------
Pulaski Public Access
--------------------------
This is a great site for all sorts of things. This is where I'd seen otter
last time, there's heterogeneous habitat, and in the future, I think we'll
just start here. I don't know that I have much to say about it, other than
it being logperch central. We got some really nice bluebreasts for Bill
Flowers. We were kinda beat up by this time, so we didn't venture much
upstream where the pools are nice and deep and woody, else we might have
done a lot more species. I also didn't record the mussels at this site.
This site is a day on its own snorkelling or diving with a surface line and
weights out in the main discharge. So many different habitats.

----------------------------
8' Seine - BB, TC, BF, BV
----------------------------
Central stoneroller (1)
Bigeye chub
Striped shiner
River chub
Silver shiner
Mimic shiner
Bluntnose minnow
Northern hogsucker
Stonecat madtom
Flathead catfish (1 juv)
Rock bass
Longear sunfish
Smallmouth bass
Greenside darter
Rainbow darter
Bluebreast darter
Tippecanoe darter
Logperch darter
Dusky darter
Mottled sculpin

-------------------------
And beyond....
-------------------------
We then took a VERY winding trip down to the river below the impoundments.
The first site below Lake Freeman dam was disappointing, a typical game fish
modified habitat, where there's an overabundance of predators coming over
the dam and you don't end up seeing any non-game stuff. All bass and
catfish. We then moved on downstream near Delphi at a another canoe access,
very near the confluence with the Wabash River. This had a nice cold trib
stream connected to it, which we went up some, but it sure wasn't worth
someone deciding we were tresspassing, as the river frontage had postings
all over it due to all the canoeists coming downstream.

We then hit a riffle out in the main channel and quickly got some bluebreast
and Tippecanoe darter, a seine load of streamlined chubs. It was nearing
dark, and I had hoped to get some footage, so we kinda packed it up, as the
Bill's had seen enough, and I went back to get my camera, mask and snorkel.
We bid goodbyes, and I made way back down to the river, while Blake did some
fly fishing and caught a mess of longear and river chubs. There was a large
population of deertoe and fragile papershell mussels, which would be
expected further downstream in big rivers like that. Lots of relict black
sandshell too. Didn't see any live ones.

On my way to the riffle, I cranked my knee into a big glacial erratic I
couldn't see because of glare and quickly discovered I'd not shut the
housing for the camera. It was acting all goofy, so I pulled the battery
before something shorted, and that killed any photos from the trip, which I
was planning on taking Sunday. Oh well. I stuck it in the hood here at
school and let it dry, I didn't break it. Next time I'll try and make
myself stop when I think I'm in a hurry and how much it's worth to me ;)

So I snorkeled without the camera, saw a couple fish, and then my knee got
to throbbing... Then something bit it. My blood trail was too good for them
to resist. Decided I didn't want to see if any bull shark had made it this
far north this summer ;) And so it ended.

Todd
The Muddy Maumee Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com
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