NFC: Collecting account

[mcclurg luke e <mcclurgl at washburn_edu>]

Hello all,


 I was asked to join the Vertebrate Zoology class from Washburn University
on a seining trip yesterday as a "guide".  I did this two years ago also
with great success.   Yesterday we went to one of my favorite streams and
dropped the seines and went looking for fish.  We had really good luck
with the Red Shiners and Orangethroat Darters, but not much luck with
anything else.  This really disturbed me as two years ago we collected all
types of species including Golden Redhorse, Logperch, Largemouth Bass,
Longear Sunfish, Bluegill, Sand Shiners, Suckermouth Minnows, Redfin
Shiners, Bluntnose Minnows, Slender Madtoms and some snakes, frogs and
insects to name some.  But this time it was mostly Red Shiners with the
Orangethroats in the riffles.  Found a few Slender Madtoms and Bluntnose
Minnows and two male Central Stonerollers.  Everything else was lacking
though.  This is a tributary of the Kansas River which is #4 on American
Rivers list of endangered rivers.  I wonder if it was just the oddly cool
spring we've had, or something more insidious at work?

  I hope it's just the weather as the stream seemed to have a good
population of crayfish and aquatic bugs, but I don't know.  Anyone else
been experiencing early season problems like this?


Luke