2016 Fish Species

[Johnsfolly]

Thanks Al. I appreciate the response. That's a lot of water with all kinds of opportunity for both big fish like smallmouth bass, whites, walleye, etc, and the little guys as well. I do like catching big smallmouth and trout as much as catching a new darter species. I'm just a bit obsessive lately about catching some new species and the darters are really cool now that I see them and can catch them.

[MJREDDY]

I look forward to seeing what darters you catch. I'm thinking about setting up more tanks and one specifically for darters. Few years back I started snorkeling with an underwater digital camera and discovered some truly huge (6" ?) darters that couldn't be spotted from above. These fish were down in swift runs, kinda turbulent around softball size rocks, maybe 4 foot deep. A shoal, I guess. Because of the current I couldn't get close to them. I think this year I'll try angling for those big darters. They were tan colored, no fin color to speak of. At a glance you might think they're suckers. The photo attached is a 12" smallie I found under a log on the upper meramec, not even 20" of water. I held the camera maybe a foot from his face. Used the flash too. He just sat there. 

[Al Agnew]

Darters aren't easy to keep in an aquarium.  They want live food.  Eventually you can train some of them to eat frozen brine shrimp (not freeze-dried, though, gotta be "fresh").  Some just never get it, and eventually die.  Logperch are really cool, being the biggest darter (probably what Mjreddy saw).  They continually hunt by flipping pebbles over with their snout to see what is under them.  But they are very difficult to train to eat frozen food.  I can keep darters in the aquarium during the warm weather months, because the little mostly dry creek behind the house has a lot of some kind of small aquatic insects that are easy to catch by the dozens in a little net, so I go down there every day or so and scoop up a bunch.

Sculpins are even more difficult.  They absolutely want live food.  Topminnows are sometimes difficult as well.  The last batch of stonerollers I got, some of them just wouldn't eat, even though they are usually good in the aquarium. 

Right now I have a hybrid sunfish (looks like a bluegill/green sunfish cross), several redbelly dace, stonerollers, creek chubs, and one big striped shiner.

[MJREDDY]

I've managed to train darters when I've had them, although a few did not catch on and eventually fed the crawdads. Moving food was the trick for me. Even flake food that was pushed around the tank by a powerhead became fair game and my darters learned to chase it down. The lone darter resident in my deep 90 gallon right now will stalk and pick up motionless shrimp pellets... He's 100% domesticated I guess! He also discoverd guppies recently. I dump fry in the tank and the powerhead currents push whatever guppies survive the shiner ambush down into the gravel and the darter grabs what he can. He'll get hold of fairly large guppies too from time to time, which surprised me. --- Top minnow experiences are mixed. Black striped do well and learn to eat everything in my tanks. Studfish I could not feed and they would not acclimate. Seemed to be in perpetual state of shock. Was hoping to take advantage of this dry spring we're having and add some variety to my current set up. My big tank now is a rolling mass of overfed bleeding shiners from the Huzzah that probably have grown to state record size. Eat like kings since I work at home and walk by the tank hourly.  BTW, thanks Al. My buddies hung posters of Demi Moore and Farrah on their walls. I opted for bass illustrations torn from magazines — helped keep me sane in winter. I knew i recognized your name from somewhere.

[bfishn]

9 minutes ago, MJREDDY said:

I've managed to train darters when I've had them, although a few did not catch on and eventually fed the crawdads. Moving food was the trick for me. Even flake food that was pushed around the tank by a powerhead became fair game and my darters learned to chase it down. The lone darter resident in my deep 90 gallon right now will stalk and pick up motionless shrimp pellets... He's 100% domesticated I guess! He also discoverd guppies recently. I dump fry in the tank and the powerhead currents push whatever guppies survive the shiner ambush down into the gravel and the darter grabs what he can. He'll get hold of fairly large guppies too from time to time, which surprised me...

That describes walleye fry behavior to a tee. I (tried to) tank raise about 1/2 million when I was a trout farmer. At <1/8' at hatch, live food becomes a real challenge when you don't have a pond full of zooplankton prepared like the State boys do. I devised a jet system that helped suspend the extremely expensive, nanometer-sieved feed that a buddy at Bozeman USF&W recommended. It worked to some degree, but only about 10% fell for it. The others, determined to have a live meal, ate each other to (practical) extinction in a mere month.

[MJREDDY]

Interesting. Can't imagine handling that much fry. Or farming fish, for that matter. Can't imagine the challenges. I breed guppies and the fry that get baby brine shrimp all survive and grow quickly. The fry that receive powdered "baby food" grow at half the rate and survival is maybe 60%. Many appear to never eat. Anyway, these observations support my theory that wanton gluttony is a positive survival trait/gene that should not be frowned upon.  

[Johnsfolly]

I got out for two hours to try to catch some crappie with a jig and float. I also set out a bottom line with a nightcrawler and circle hook. I ended up with a couple of yellow bullheads, a channel catfish, a couple of bluegill, and several white crappie with all of these being new species for 2016. I didn't take any photos. I am going back to the creeks at least one time this weekend and hopefully get to add some more fish to the list. Good luck to those getting out this weekend.

[MJREDDY]

Johnsfolly- where do you fish in central MO? There were some creeks near Warrenton I fished as a kid, also seined a lot of minnow species but those creeks are either filled in or solid algea swamps now thanks to ag and residential encroachment. Kind of depressing to go back to my haunts and find them so changed. Gotta drive a little further to find good water.

[Johnsfolly]

MJR - I typically fish within an hour or two from my house for most of my fishing on the weekends. If I can get some time off of work I will travel down south to the Current, Niangua, and 11 pt. rivers, Crane creek, etc. The fish I caught last night were caught in Little Dixie lake in Callaway county. Gans creek, Grindstone creek, Bonne Femme creek, Hinkson creek, Hominy Creek, and cedar creeks are all close to my house. Both Gans and Grindstone have good populations of the orangethroat darters. Gans is where I started my darter obsession.

With persistence a 9' flyrod with my spinning reel, a #26 tanago hook, and a micro worm piece, I was able to succeed in catching a blackstripe topminnow this morning. I got a fair number of strange looks from the bikers and joggers in the park that I was fishing. Maybe it was the camo hat and jacket and me being hunched over staring intently into the water. This is a new life list species. This catch puts me at 5 new life species towards my goal of 15 for 2016. It also represents my 100th fish species that I have caught with hook and line.

[MJREDDY]

Ha- that's great.  Love the rig. I experimented on the Jacks Fork a few years ago with a saltwater style sabiki rig. I used 6 old #22 nymphs and dropped it into the riffles to catch shiners. That got some looks as well.