Re: NANFA-- Cool trip out in Eastern Fulton County

Harry Knaub (harryknaub_at_suscom.net)
Mon, 24 Mar 2003 22:55:06 -0500

Nice pics Todd. I like the face markings. A handsome fish, indeed.

Harry Knaub
York, PA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Todd Crail" <farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 11:30 PM
Subject: NANFA-- Cool trip out in Eastern Fulton County

> Greetings All,
>
> Sorry about weird spacing in email... Keyboard is all screwed up :(
>
> After I'd paced the house about 40 times this afternoon, my wife asked,
no,
> make that begged me to do something I wanted to do, else I'd drive us
both
> insane ;) So I started looking around on my DeLorme and found myself
> wandering into some headwater streams I'd been eyebally to west of
Toledo.
> I called up my friend and email list member Shane Graber who
conveniently
> lives out that way :) Quick stop into Wally World for legal purposes,
and
> it was an official trip.
>
> Our first stop was the ditches that make up the headwaters of Bad Creek.
> The bottom was fine sand, I guess this is also land influenced by Lake
> Erie's predacessor, Lake Warren. Walking was easy, no thick clay to
> trudge thru. It seemed that the ditch was well lined with Blue Joint or
> Reed Canary Grass, which keeps the bank very stable (with the former much
> more desireable as the later is exotic and invasive). We stomped out a
> couple submerged patches of the grass. Quickly found our way to some
Creek
> Chubs and a Stoneroller. Had hoped for a couple Mudminnows, but not bad
for
> a usually dry ditch.
>
> Not wanting to spend too much time in any one place we then headed over
to
> another headwater of Bad Creek. It was only about a mile south of the
first
> spot, however, its substrate was all clay and silt. Crazy glacier, that
> thing. We poked in here, nabbed a few Bluntnose Minnows and decided to
> move on, as this place didn't really seem condusive to collecting. I
> wanted to get on a gradient and out of the fields, so onward we went into
> Delta, Ohio.
>
> >From here, we parked at the Delta Reservoirs and hopped into a high
gradient
> portion of Bad Creek proper. There was a small dam at the top of our run.
> The stream was highly modified, with piles of concrete rock, but the bed
> was mostly gravel, so not so bad. The species and numbers gave way to
> highly disturbed habitat. Here we found GOBS of Johnny Darter, 2
Greenside
> Darter, a few Stoneroller and Bluntnose and a single Silverjaw Minnow.
This
> was the highest congregation of Johnny Darter I've ever seen. I was
> suspect they were the only darter that could flourish in the blast of
> turbidity in the spring, and have just kinda filled the niche since. So
> much for Bad Creek. More like Bad Humans.
>
> The sun was setting and we thought we'd try and get one other
watershed
> in before dark. We initially chose Bear Creek with belongs to the River
> Raisin watershed, which is an interesting one because it goes from high
> quality headwaters in Michigan to high modification and channelization
by
> the time it gets to Lake Erie. But... Tenmile Creek called again :)
>
> We ended up in what had to be the tenth mile lol. It looked more like a
> ditch here than anything. It will be interesting to go back with more
time
> and walk it to the source. The substrate was clay instead of the usual
> sand and gravel (we were just west of the Oak Openings), but the water
was
> crystal clear and again had a good stabilization of grasses along the
> sides. A nice channel ran through the bed and there was prime habitat
in
> grasses laying in the water.
>
> First we popped up the usual suspects... Bluntnose and Creek Chubs. Oh
> and some freakin' "soooo dead now" goldfish. I was hoping to run into
a
> Grass Pickerel or two, but suddenly the real treat of the trip
> appeared....
>
> "Hey! Are those darters!? Oh my gosh! They look like Least Darters!!"
>
> Yeppers, some E. microperca made fortunate sideway jaunts into the seine
> and were spotted at the last second. 5 in all. This is pretty exciting
> because, as was verified when I got home, they hadn't been seen in
> Tenmile for the last 50+ years, according to the literature in hand.
My
> sources were '83 Fishes of Ohio and all Ohio EPA data from the 90's. In
any
> case, isn't the resilience of Life grand? :)
>
> There were some other high quality indicators as well from the invert
> world. Caddisfly larvae, amphipod like critters, and all sorts of
things
> I don't normally see around here. It became dark quick, so we only got
to
> see about 30 yards of this location. Pretty exciting stuff. I'm quite
> hopeful to really begin to learn the ways of all Ten Miles hehheh.
>
> Took one Least specimen home for verification and photography.
> Photography was interesting. How do you get a pic of something that
> small??? Well, soon I'd raided the kitchen, and was using one of Mrs.
> Crail's nice drinking glasses.... And I won't tell if you don't ;)
>
> http://www.farmertodd.com/nanfa/032303LeastDarter/
>
> That *is* normal sized gravel, by the way ;)
>
> So, it was a good day out, despite the lack of diversity. Definate
strong
> finish and hopefully a forecast of finds to come :)
>
> Todd
>
> I hope you know that this will go down on your permenant record.
> http://www.farmertodd.com

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/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org