Rob Denkhaus
Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce Stallsmith
> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 9:01 AM
> To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Subject: RE: NANFA-- Orange Spotted Sunfish
>
>
> Todd's experiences below with orange spotted sunfish are
> similar to mine.
> About the only time I come across them is when a local creek
> hits flood
> stage in February/March and backs up into shallow roadside
> ditches. Then I
> can collect them with a 12" x 18" net (I have 2 small ones
> from this past
> winter...). Otherwise, they seem to hang in tough-to-collect
> places in the
> main creek channel. Interestingly, I gave 2 to a friend last
> summer for his
> outdoor pond. In less than a year they've gone from 'bout 3"
> long to about
> 6-7" and are terrorizing tadpoles and small frogs in his pond, to my
> friend's distress. So I've gotta go retrieve them sometime soon. A
> stoneroller has also become a monster in the same time period.
>
> --Bruce Stallsmith
> Huntsville, AL, US of A
>
> >Something that might be interesting... Around here, I've
> only run into
> >them in wide *slow* areas (like secondary channels around islands) on
> >larger streams/rivers, and then, *only* during high water. And then
> >I'll see 5 or 6 or more. I think their habitat during normal water
> >levels is just in areas that we can't/don't normally fish. It's too
> >wide, flat and quiet to seine or dip and too shallow to
> angle (dry flies
> >might be a good application?).
> >
> >I did run into a mess of them *once* in a smaller stream, but it was
> >deep and had *very* undercut banks. Sometimes my arms would be under
> >water and the seine poles still hadn't found the back :) Again, they
> >were in very slow pools. Netted and released one particular
> beauty...
> >7" male in full color. Unbelievable :)
> >
> >So maybe that's how you can look for them if you're in the range....
> >They're like the "reluctant to live in the river" kind of fish :)
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