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NFC: Winter collecting



-> Boy, this list seems dead lately :-(

-> It's starting to cool off here in MS, and the winter rains are setting
-> in.  What is the group's experience with cold weather collecting vs.
-> warm?  Different pop distributions, richer collections, what?  Here
-> in MS a lot of streams dry up in the summer but hold fish in the
-> winter.  And some that are too small to pull a seine through
-> suddenly become very inviting.


-> Prost,

-> Martin

 So far, cold weather collecting here has been fabulous, though it
hasn't been that cold.  We did manage to collect on the coldest day of
the fall so far when the temp struggled to reach 40.  The rain has been
almost non-existent so fish have been easy to come by.  The fish follow
the food.  Riffles that held a lot of fontinalis or algae in the summer
(hence food) have mostly disappeared along with the fish.  But if you
search in deeper water you can still find the darters.  The minnows seem
to be more dispersed in the bigger rivers and turn up in leaf litter
along the edges.  Perhaps thats where the food is now.

I wear neoprene gloves in cold weather and neoprene socks.  They work
great and I dont get so cold hehe.  Of course a lot of the fish don't
have good color this time of year, but in the case of southern red belly
dace, they color right up at home when well feed etc