2016 Fish Species

[MJREDDY]

Long time reader, first time poster.  I figured I was only guy in the world deliberately targeting shiners from time to time w/my 3 wt. Did not know this was a socially sanctioned activity! Got a 90 gallon in my office with a powerhead to mimick a stream, and I spend way too much time watching my captured bleeding shiners "rise" to small bits of sun-dried shrimp. Couple thoughts: One of the most amazing of all "minnow class" fishes to get on a fly is the fully colored male plains topminnow. Crazy colorful and aggressive as heck. I've caught them up to 6 inches on dries, but they are smart and finicky. Also, back in college my buddies and I fly fished the Mississippi @ the Alton dam where 367 crosses into East Alton IL and we could get goldeye, mooneye, skipjack and white bass without moving our feet. Occasional drum and gar too. Darn near everything swam in those eddies, right beside or even IN the rushing spillway water. Also got bluegill, greenies, crappies, largemouth, drum, walleye and sauger. All on about 300 feet of bank. I don't think it's there anymore. Never occured to me to use flies for darters. I have a few in my tanks, but all were seined.  I've seen some BIG darters in the Huzzah and prob. should get a few by rod. Great thread guys - thanks! 

[Ham]

MJ do yourself a favor and get over to Roughfish.com  there's a whole big world out there.

[MJREDDY]

Thanks for the link. Anybody else keep Ozark fish indoors? I've kept most ozark minnows, plus gar, bullheads and an ocassional longear or small bass for many years.

 

[Flysmallie]

 

Anybody else keep Ozark fish indoors? I've kept most ozark minnows, plus gar, bullheads and an ocassional longear or small bass for many years.

 

Yep, I keep a few buddies in my office.

 

 

[MJREDDY]

Wow. Really nice photos.

[Johnsfolly]

I have always thought about keeping longear sunfish. Now that I have been catching these darters, the idea of setting up a stream tank is on my mind. Any issues with keeping the fish colored up? I have ready access to live midge larvae, larval fathead minnows, and Daphnia. So a live diet is not likely to be a problem. Would I need a chiller?

[MJREDDY]

Chiller is great question. Have not tried. My sunfish tank was around 70 degrees through the winter in my office. Longears and darters lost color no matter what. I fed them live guppies and frozen brine shrimp. Could be oxygen, or water hardness issue? Minnows that I keep will "light up" when given premium food. And crawdads also keep their colors very well. In fact they clean up and get brighter over time. Somebody told me to try very dark gravel and decor for the fish. My main tank now is sort of "gravel bar" themed, with tan meramec river gravel and some drift wood. Fish seem to adjust to that dull color.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I had a buddy that grew a small mouth to just under 3 lbs. in a tank.  When it died he had it mounted.

[Chief Grey Bear]

 

I had a buddy that grew a small mouth to just under 3 lbs. in a tank.  When it died he had it mounted.

Don't let the STL7 hear about that! 

[Flysmallie]

I haven't used a chiller for the sunfish, but never saw the water temp over the mid 70's. I use good filtered water when topping off or replacing after a water change. I actually got it too filtered at one point and they had issues with their fins. I backed off a bit and it seems fine now. Never had a problem with coloration and I just have creek gravel in there. Some wood and big rocks. Meals consisted of shrimp pellets mostly (it's easy), mealworms, worms from the garden and grasshoppers in season. I actually had a pair go through the spawning process twice that I witnessed. Made the nest, did the dance, the whole deal but it didn't produce any off spring.

Right now it's pretty empty. I let the inhabitants free before fall, there were only three of them and were starting to push the boundaries of what that 90 gallons could do for them.  It's about time to take the kids out to find new smaller guests.