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RE: NANFA-- Back Home - upper Darby

Folks,

Here's a little more info on our upper Darby outing (Union Co Ohio):

After stopping at the bank for cash and the bait shop for out of state
licenses, Jeff, Mike and I made the 35 min trip to my favorite Big Darby
site.  I had promised Jeff he would see some P erythrogaster, but being
August and dry lately, the creek was much lower than on past visits.  Only
a couple tiny juveniles were seined up where, earlier this year, many
breeding adults had been found.  It's quite striking the degree of change
in species composition from one visit to the next.  Seems like every time
I'm up there I see a species I hadn't seen there before.

Still, the Darby's diversity was evident during our 2-3 hr tour.  This time
out the predominant species were central stonerollers, blacknose dace and
various shiners.  Orangethroat and rainbow darters were common in the
shallow riffles.  banded, greenside and johnny darters were well
represented too.  Interestingly, the mottled sculpins, usually quite
abundant in the spring, were few and far between.  Newly encountered
species included golden redhorse (young of year and 6" juveniles) and one
stonecat.  The 1.5" redhorses are quite delicate and lost their scales with
the slightest friction.  This actually aids identification of this species.
The 6-inchers were a lttle more tolerant of handling.  Bullfrogs and
pickerell frogs were quite abundant, but not the leopard frogs that Jeff
was seeking.  Crawdads were everywhere and wreaked havoc on some of our
fish haul.

The blackstripe topminnows were much thicker in the slow quite pools of
August than in the higher flows of spring.  Many young of the year could be
netted at the surface with a long handled dip net.  Chasing these little
star-headed minnow targets is a good way to hone one's dipping skills - and
fun too!

Anyway, here's a more or less complete list of the species we encountered.
Get out your Peterson's and learn these fish by their distinct Latin names:

Noturus flavus
Ameiurus natalis
Ambloplites rupestris
Lepomis macrochirus
Lepomis cyanellus
Cyprinus carpio
Semotilus atromaculatus
Phoxinus erythrogaster
Fundulus notatus
Percina maculata
Etheostoma
        blennioides
        caeruleum
        spectabile
        nigrum
        zonatum
        flabellare
Campostoma anomalum
Catostomus commersoni
Hypentelium nigricans
Moxostoma erythrurum
Rhinichthys atratulus
Pimephales notatus
Cottus bairdi
various Notropis, Cyprinella and Luxilus species


Mark Binkley
Columbus Ohio USA          <))><
mbinkley at earthling_net

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him
to use "the Net" and he won't bother you for weeks.
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