I did load up the family and go to Louisville (pronouced 'loo-ah-vul' as
close to 1 syllable as possible by the locals) this weekend for a trip to
the zoo and floyd's fork park where Steven Ellis and I collected last fall.
Despite the heavy flood waters this spring, the place has really not
changed. There is a nice gravel island with riffles upstream and downstream
along with quiet backwaters. I found a really nice complete fossil clam
(Platystrophia ponderosa)
My wife (Julie) and I along with Daniel(7 1/2), Noah(5 1/2), and Samuel (4)
spent a couple of hours playing in the water and fishing. Julie is pretty
good with a seine and is able to ID many fish by looking at them. She can
even recognize stonerollers and topminnows in the water and does a mean
'darter dance' in the riffles.
We went to Floyd's Fork looking for fish for Noah's first grade class fish
tank. His teacher is pretty science oriented and is very interested in a
native fish tank for the year. My goal is to collect interesting fish that
can be trained to take flake food. I am hoping that the kids will learn
that 'minners' are more than just good bait. My target species were f
notatus, green side darters, and a small school of attractive cyprinids. My
dream fish is southern red belly dace, but rosefin shiners are pretty common
here and are OK. I have kept all these fish recently with good results on
flake food.
We got to the park and I loaded up all the stuff I needed. Being the Dad,
one of my main duties is pack horse. I got Julie a pair of waders this
spring and she was interested in trying them out. Previous collecting trips
have left her soaking wet in the car, gravel in the shoes, with an annoyed
expression after an hour or so of collecting. I had hoped that dry clothes
and comfy feet would make a difference.
species list:
central stone roller
spotfin shiner
emerald shiner (I'm pretty sure - if not, then a random 'minner')
common shiner
rosefin shiner
fantail darter
greenside darter
rainbow darter
logperch
?banded darter (looks like it, but it hides too much to be sure)
hognosed sucker
longear sunfish (really gorgeous fish!)
blue gill
largemouth bass
fundulus notatus
a YOY catfish I'm trying to talk myself into believing is a madtom, but it
probably isn't
All in all, a great afternoon collecting. Julie really enjoyed the creek
and collected quite happily for over 2 hours. Daniel had a great time
swimming in the creek. Samuel did very well and fished a lot with Noah.
Noah was trying to collect with a dipnet with poor results. When he took a
turn at the seine with me, we came up with some interesting fish which made
his day.
I now have a rather nice school of rosefin shiners in the creek tank. The
males are in breeding colors pretty much whenever the day cycle is longer
than 12 hours. They take on a beautiful bluish/purple sheen speckled with
tiny diamonds. The red fins just add to their beauty.
I also have some nice fundulus notatus and greenside darters.
So while we didn't make it to Ga, we still had a good time.
Next week, we hope to go to the Green river in south central KY. It's anice
river which is supposed to be one of the more diverse in the nation. Of
course, someone dammed it up to make a lake, but there is still plenty that
is in good shape.
Is anyone willing to share collecting locations along the Green River? I am
especially interested in SRBD, but I am also interested in just seeing neat
stuff. Who knows - I might be able to organize a green river trip later
this year.
Geoff Kimber
Lexington, KY
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