Re: NANFA-- chattanooga trip report (addendum)
Roselawn Museum (roselawn_at_mindspring.com)
Thu, 07 Jun 2001 11:57:37 -0400
Yes, indeed! Another great day in the water. Casper knows his turf well, so
we didn't have to go far to find the fish (or Bojangles!). Geoff Kimber and
I have been emailing & trading fish for a couple of years. It was good to
meet him in person. Tucson's loss is Lexington's gain. I was able to take
home about 8 blacknose dace, one of my target groups for the trip, and the
afore-mentioned hornyhead...what a cool fish! I left Casper's place a
little after 3 to get home in time to go to my night job. I promptly turned
the wrong way getting onto the freeway, and found myself headed in the
direction of the Golden Triangle...(extreme NW GA)...our original
destination. After a brief argument with myself about responsibility, I
stopped for a few minutes in Rising Fawn, GA at one of my favorite creeks.
I'm fairly good at one-man seining, but this creek is brutal to work alone.
I did manage to score only one warpaint shiner (sorry, Luke, I'll get ya'
some soon...promise) and 3 rosefin shiners. Both of these fish, although
elaborately decorated, have the amazing ability to mask their more
prominent markings under stress. On a previous trip, I had gathered about a
dozen "mystery shiners" only to get home and have them turn out to be
warpaints & rosefins after they colored up in the tank. This was the case
yesterday. The warpaint cannot completely hide the red around its mouth.
That and its distinctive body shape help to ID it. The rosefin will have a
somewhat purplish hue to its upper body in the net, but completely conceals
its striking vertical bars under stress. I almost threw them back, thinking
they were the more common striped shiners. Yes, I was late to
work...another victim of the sirens that beckon from the Golden Triangle.
Thanks, Casper, for a great trip!
Steven A. Ellis
Kennesaw, GA
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