NANFA-- Some mid-winter seining

Mark Otnes (markotnes_at_email.msn.com)
Sun, 27 Jan 2002 09:44:59 -0600

I got out on Friday and tried some mid-winter seining in the upper Ottertail
River in Minnesota. There were a few Iowa Darters out and about and I saw a
couple of chubs that I think were hornyheads. I took my 4X4 seine through a
shallow mucky area kept open by springs and I came up with a nice sized
Central Mudminnow. In the same area I got a some small cyprinids that I
believe were Blacknosed Shiners. I also got one small Horneyhead chub.
Other than that, there wasn't much activity in the river yet.

Most years in February, perch and northern pike start coming into the river
apparently from Height of Land Lake which is just a half mile or so
upstream, but there was no sign of them now. Height of Land Lake is also
very susceptible to winter kills as it is weedy and shallow and I've seen
huge numbers of fish driven from the lake into the river during winters with
a lot of snow cover. There isn't much snow this year though, so apparently
they're all doing well in the lake.

That's about all of the fish new hear this time of the year. Take care,

Mark Otnes
Fargo ND

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