NANFA-- A small Alabama trip

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Mon, 06 Nov 2000 23:03:06 EST

The weather in Alabama has been ideal for collecting the last several weeks,
in the 70s-80s F. I got out for a short afternoon trip last Saturday going
over to Collinsville in DeKalb County to visit a small tributary of Little
Wills Creek again. This stream runs on the edge of Collinsville, a run-down
town that used to be something better (a long story...). I was drawn
primarily by Rainbow Shiners, Notropis chrosomus (and I now have enough to
send to B.G., once I get plastic bags!). Working by myself with a 12'' x
18'' net on a 4 foot pole I was able to snag 6 Rainbows in about 45 minutes
of work, along with uncounted zillions of stonerollers and Dave Neely's pals
the sculpins. I also caught some Notropis xaencocephalus, the burrhead
shiner which is often found with N. chrosomus and at first glance can be
confused with it. My fun find of the day was a Coosa bass, Micropterus
coosae, about as big as your little finger. These are surprisingly gracile
fish, less hulking than even little Largemouths. It's become a good aquarium
fish behaving like a cichlid more than I've seen in any other bass.

DeKalb County is dry (ask Chris Scharpf!) and one of the interesting local
elections is in a town I had to drive through en route, Albertville in
Marshall County. It's also currently dry but is holding a referendum on
allowing liquor sales. You can't miss this election, every single church
except a Catholic church that I passed had a sign out front urging a dry
vote. Now there's some REAL political argument going on!

And now to worry about the federal elections some more...

--Bruce "Mr. Constitution" Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL

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