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Re: NFC: Missouri Collecting Trip
Im moving to Joplin...lets collect :)
On Fri, 15 Mar 2002 01:59:11 +0000 "K M" <tropheusof at hotmail_com> writes:
> 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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Robert Rice - NFC president www.nativefish.org
Hemochromotosis the # 1 genetic killer in the USA . Ten percent of us
have it.
I do. Learn more about this disease visit http://www.americanhs.org/ .
Treatment is simple and easy with an early diagnosis so get tested.