NANFA-- Wisconsin meandering
R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Sat, 14 Apr 2001 21:24:48 -0500
Like Bruce I was out and about today. And also like Bruce I ran into lots
of high water. High water here often means great collecting in eddies since
all the fish are flushed into these tight pockets. As Murphies law would
have it, the water was just slow enough fish were not in eddies ( the water
has receded in the past few days quickly because ground water is way down,
near as low as the drought of '88). So I did not catch much. However, in
some ponds not connected to rivers or creeks I did manage to catch four
species. Fundulus diaphanus menona ( western banded killifish) were thick
along the shore, since the shallow water with sandy bottoms gets warm fast
in the sun, and they love it. In another leaf littered pond I caught some
really pretty central mudminnows, they must be spawning right now. Males not
only had enlarged fins and bright rainbows of stripes, along with lightening
dazzling blue lower fins, the scales on the caudal penduncle are bumpy when
they are spawning. You could easily sex them by touch blind folded. This is
a trait shared by some African killifish. I caught a few tiny pumpkinseeds
and tadpole madtoms too. These areas were hard to collect also, since water
was up nearly two feet, and all the weeds were out away from shore. I also
tried some walleye fishing in the Wisconsin river, but no luck with the high
water. Lots of boats were out, I hope they had better luck than I did.
Still, it was a fun time.
Ray
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