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Re: NFC: Missouri Collecting Trip



   That was a real nice read Kevin and so nice for the
kids . You mentioned 45 minutes collecting and that
makes me wonder what an average time spent collecting
is .I think for myself its something beween 30 and 60
minutes . Antbody else care to say ?
--- K M <tropheusof at hotmail_com> wrote:
>      You know that sounds very official for what it
> really was.  There were 
> five of us, one dip net, one seine, and one white
> bucket.  It was a party 
> bent on collecting some fish, even if I was the only
> one who knew it.  As 
> usual my wife, and her two brothers (15 and 12) got
> roped into going, and as 
> an extra benefit a friend of the youngest brother
> came along.
>      The stream of choice is a springfed stream
> about 2 miles from the house 
> where it passes under a bridge on a dirt road.  It
> is a local hangout for 
> the kids and on the weekends sees it fair shair of
> alcohol and backseats.  
> It is a wonderful collection of small swift riffles
> and belly deep pools.  
> When the kids aren't playing too rough up stream you
> can see all the way to 
> the bottom, no matter where you look.  It flows
> through pasture land and 
> light forests along most of its course, and believe
> it or not, felt 
> refreshingly cool today. (we hit 80 degrees here
> today)
>      When we got there it we were met by some of the
> younger local boys who 
> just knew there weren't any fish in this stream.  It
> was a real pleasure to 
> prove them wrong, and it was a great thrill to see
> them eyeball a sculpin 
> and ask if it was really a fish.  The young boys
> weren't able to stay long, 
> but they got to see some neat fish before they had
> to leave.
>      All in all, I thought today was one of our most
> successful collecting 
> trips for the amount of time we spent collecting,
> about 45 minutes.  We 
> collected at least two species of shiner, my field
> identification of shiners 
> is a lot rusty, so don't ask me which.  We collected
> southern redbelly dace, 
> though no breeding colors were showing so it wasn't
> as exciting as it could 
> have been.  We collected central stonerollers, many
> of them so fat with eggs 
> I was afraid to remove them from the net.  We
> collected creek chubs, both 
> the creek chubs and stonerollers were simply huge
> and came out of the belly 
> deep pools.  We collected a couple sculpins, Ozark
> possibly, it has been a 
> while since I have had to tell them apart and my
> "Fishes of Missouri" is not 
> handy.  We collected three species of darter. 
> Rainbow darters were nicely 
> in color for us, and I have collected them here
> before.  The females were 
> almost all heavy with eggs.  We also managed to
> scoop up two fantail darters 
> who were looking very nice in there sleek
> nondescript way.  I also found one 
> darter that I am at a lose for a name on, possibly
> E. zonatum, but again I 
> will need to get to my books for a positive ID. 
> Ahh, but you are saying, 
> that isn't that big a deal, those are all relatively
> common fish. Well, I 
> would be pleased to death to catch the fish I did
> any day, but there was one 
> fish that made my day today.  While dragging a
> deeper pool with some tree 
> roots in it, we came up with a very nice littler
> treasure.  At first glance 
> in the net I thought we had brought up a
> particularly large stoneroller, but 
> then it rolled onto its back, and I caught my
> breath. It was a white sucker. 
>   My personal experience is that suckers just aren't
> caught in a net like 
> that, so I was very suprised to find him there.  I
> don't know how many times 
> I have seen northern hog suckers outswim and evade
> nets.  Wow, what a 
> thrill!
>      Along the lines of nonfish finds we also saw
> spring peepers, and many 
> nice invertebrates including crayfish, helgramites
> (not sure on the spelling 
> there), mayfly larvae, caddisfly larvae, and a large
> water beetle.  I was 
> dissappointed in not seeing any snakes, but I can
> wait a couple weeks to see 
> those still.
>      I couldn't wait to share this trip with all of
> you, and I hope all of 
> you get the chance to have this trip of your own
> soon this spring.  If you 
> haven't already that is.  I would like to encourage
> all of you to share 
> collecting trips with us all also.
> 
> Kevin Mouser
> Stella, Mo.
> 
> ps.  Did I mention that I slipped on a large flat
> rock and fell during this 
> collection trip?  What is a collection trip without
> a good bath?
> 
> 
>
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=====
Bill Hoppe
Yellville Arkansas

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