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Re: NFC: Collecting in Missouri
Im jelous....You shouldhave brought a dog as a beater they send the fish
right into the seine...
On Sun, 30 May 1999 15:07:54 -0500 (CDT) mcclurg luke e
<mcclurgl at washburn_edu> writes:
>
>Well, here is my account of my adventures from last week.
>
>On Monday, the 24th I traveled down to the Big Piney River near
>Houston,
>MO. to try my luck at finding Bleeding Shiners and Plains Topminnows.
>I
>collected at a public access area call "The Narrows" on the Big
>Piney.
>There was another access just up the road that I found out about later
>as
>I was driving home that looked even better...Oh well.
>
>Anyway, I took some traps and my dipnets and headed down to the river.
> It
>was a clear running stream, approx. 40 feet wide. I could see
>Longear
>sunfish, various minnows and shiners, killies and possibly Southern
>Redbelly Dace in the water. I set my traps and went to work. I took
>the
>dipnet out and began to sample for darters. It was hard going as the
>current was straong in this location and for a while I was coming up
>empty. Then, I lucked into netting one young Bleeding Shiner. As I
>continued to work along the stream, I collected a few Gold Crayfish
>and
>then a few darters started showing up. I managed to coolect
>approximately
>18 crayfish and about one dozen more Orangethroat Darters for an
>hours
>work. I then too my "fry net" and made a series of sweeps through
>the
>shallows and managed to catch several dozen fry of at least three
>species.
>One small Hogsucker and two minnow/shiner species as yet unidentified.
> It
>had been a long trip down there so my time was limited as I had a 7
>hour
>drive to get home that evening. So, I collected my traps (which
>caught
>nothing) and headed home. End of Monday's trip.
>
>On Thursday, the 27th I met up with "Tony" Tejavej (I know that is
>probably spelled wrong...sorry Tony) from Thailand for an attempt at
>Bleeding Shiners and Cardinal shiners near Joplin, Mo. First, we
>drove
>about 45 minutes east of Joplin to the Paris Springs access along
>Turnback
>Creek just east of Mt. Vernon, Mo. Here, we found a low water bridge
>that
>provided easy access to a small stream approximately 15 feet wide that
>was
>clear as tap water. We spotted several large groups of Bleeding
>shiners
>in the water and so got out the seines. Unfortunately, our seining
>skills
>were somewhat wanting and the shiners were smarter than than two of
>us.
>They all escaped. So, we set some trap and then Tony took my Umbrella
>net
>and I got out my fry net and we headed upstream. Our first bleeding
>shiner capture came as a result of an icident worthy of "America's
>Funniest Home Videos". I had sat down on a log earlier in the day
>that
>was fallen across the stream to take a short rest. As I came by
>again, I
>again sat down, but this time the log broke and I plunged into the 2
>foot
>deep water. It wasn't frigid, but cold enough to take your breath
>away.
>Tony asked me if I was alright and all my airless lungs could manage
>to
>say was something to the effect of "gungh!". I was fine,
>embarrassed,
>laughing hysterically at myself and unable to speak from lack of air,
>but
>still fine. I'm glad someone wasn't there with a video camera, I'd
>be
>hard pressed to live this one down. Anyway, Tony gve me a hand up and
>as
>we stood there he lifted the umbrella net to find a lard male
>bleeding
>shiner in it. Not the best way to catch them...but we 'd take it.
>:-)
>Tony managed to catch about 14 specimens with the umbrella net and I
>caught over 50 young fry. I turned them loose thought as some were
>dying
>and didn't seem to be taking the capture too well. All in all we
>caught
>or saw the following species in the creek: Bleeding Shiner, Ozark
>Minnow,
>Bluegill, Longeared Sunfish, Creek Chub, a large unidentified
>shiner/minnow with tubercles, an unidentified darter and some saddled
>crayfish.
>
>Next we went to the access point on the Spring River near La Russell,
>Mo.
>The Spring River was running high and fast so we did not feel
>comfortable
>wading into it. However we did dipnet along the shore and caught
>approximately two dozen crayfish. The Neosho Midget and the Saddled
>Craygish I believe.
>
>Our last stop was an access point just on the south edge of Joplin on
>a
>small backwater of Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek was running even harder
>than
>the Spring River, but fortunately the Wildcat Hollow (or was it
>Creek?)
>access provided a calm, clear backwater. There was a low water
>bridge
>there as well. At this location we caught a few Longeared sunfish
>and
>Topminnows that I think are Blackstripe but have not positively ID'd
>yet.
>I also collected about 50 young fry thatare doing well even as I type
>this. We also saw Bluegill and several large Bass in the water.
>Unfortunately, there were two young boys who kept following us around
>at
>this location. They dissapeared shortly before we called it a
>day...and
>unfortunately, so did one of our traps. The hazards of collecting I
>guess. We didn't ever find any Cardinal Shiners, but I am confident
>that
>they are to be found quite easily in the area and will try to go
>after
>them again later in the year.
>
>We didn't get as many fish as we would have liked but we caught some.
>I
>kept a pair of the Bleeding shiners, a pair of Longears and the four
>Topminnows. Tony kept the remainder including approximately 9 shiners
>and
>two small Longears. At least we were successful in locating
>collecitng
>points for Bleeeding and Cardinal shiners within a 20 minute drive of
>each
>other.
>
>Hopefully, with the next expedition, some guys will come along who
>are
>more experienced with seining for shiners and we can catch a large
>number
>of these beautiful little gems for all those interested in them.
>
>Anybody interested in a late September/early October attempt? Let me
>know...
>
>Luke
>
>
Robert Rice
Help Preserve our Aquatic Heritage join the Native Fish Conservancy
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