See, you just can't stop the wierd factor from creeping into any good
collecting trip...it's just gonna' happen! I hope y'all took some pix this
time...of the collecting, not the FW whale mating ritual. (-:
Steven A. Ellis
Kennesaw, GA
At 06:34 PM 6/11/02 EDT, you wrote:
> On Friday, June 7th, Dustin Smith, Dan Hagley and I headed out after work
>for a collecting warm-up in preparation for a full day of collecting on
>Saturday. We headed out towards Lancaster, SC making our first stop at SSR
>39 and N. Branch Wildcat Creek. This spot had a very low water level with
>very little flow. There were pools scattered around with much fish
activity.
> There were some very interesting rock formations here with sizes ranging
>from small pebbles to large jagged boulders. Not a very good site for
>dipnetting although we did get a few shiners this way. We decided to use
the
>small seine in some of the larger pools and see what turned up. We wound up
>with the following fish:
>
>(Site 060702-1)
>Bluehead Chub - Nocomis leptocephalus
>Highfin Shiner - Notropis altipinnis
>Dusky Shiner - N. cummingsae
>Tessellated Darter - Etheostoma olmstedi
>Redbreast Sunfish - Lepomis auritus
>Pirate Perch - Aphrododerus sayanus
>
> Since we only had limited time and there was so much fish activity, we
vowed
>to return the next day. Our next stop was the South Branch Wildcat Creek on
>the same road. This site was much different from the last. The bottom was
>firm sand with some rocks scattered around. Here the water was deeper, the
>stream wider and, while slow, it was flowing. We seined in the large pools
>here and got one of the most beautiful Redbreast I've ever seen. Dan took
it
>back to Riverbanks to put on display. The list from this spot is as follows:
>
>(Site 060702-2)
>Tessellated Darter - Etheostoma olmstedi
>Redbreast Sunfish - Lepomis auritus
>Highfin Shiner - Notropis altipinnis
>Dusky Shiner - N. cummingsae
>Bluehead Chub - Nocomis leptocephalus
>Fieryblack Shiner - Cyprinella pyrrhomelas
>
> We quickly loaded up and moved on. Our next stop was the Lynches River at
>Hwy. 265. This spot had a lot of granite riprap around the edges, probably
>because of the bridge way overhead. We could see small fish swimming in the
>current and in small pools. There was also a large pool, practically a
small
>pond, caused by the riprap blocking the river flow. In this pool we could
>see many large fish swimming around. We got the large seine out for the big
>pool and used the small one in the current and little pools. From this spot
>we got the following:
>
>(Site 060702-3)
>Fieryblack Shiner - Cyprinella pyrrhomelas
>Greenfin Shiner - C. chloristia
>Highfin Shiner - Notropis altipinnis
>Dusky Shiner - N. cummingsae
>Sandbar Shiner - N. scepticus
>Bluehead Chub - Nocomis leptocephalus
>Brook Silverside - Labidesthes sicculus
>Bluegill - Lepomis macrochirus
>Brassy Jumprock - Scartomyzon spp.
>Largemouth Bass - Micropterus salmoides
>Tessellated Darter - Etheostoma olmstedi
>Piedmont Darter - Percina crassa
>Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
>
> By now the sun was starting to get low so we figured we had time for one
>more spot. We headed down river a little ways to where Hwy. 903 crossed the
>river. This area did not look as inviting as the last, especially after the
>sight we saw as we walked down beside the bridge. There, in a small white
>car parked under the bridge, was a rather large man and woman with a very
>bothered look on their face. It appeared the woman was pulling her pants
up.
> Well, it was Friday night! If that happened to be anyone reading
>this...."We're very sorry to have disturbed you". If not, then we probably
>should have brought some of the mammal guys from the zoo. Bet they have
>never seen anything like that! Someone may need to document these "wildlife
>activities". Anyway, we hustled on by and hit the water, while they left.
>Much of the water here was muddy with no flow. The bottom was muddy with a
>few sandy spots scattered around. We got these fish:
>
>(Site 060702-4)
>Chain Pickerel - Esox niger
>Bluegill - Lepomis macrochirus
>Redbreast Sunfish - L. auritus
>Dusky Shiner - L. marginatus
>Sandbar Shiner - Notropis scepticus
>Unidentified Shiner - Cyprinella spp.
>Piedmont Darter - Percina crassa
>
> We decided to call it a day, especially after the mentally disturbing sight
>we had seen to start with here. Hopefully we could still get a good night's
>sleep without any nightmares and we did need to be ready for an early start
>on Saturday.
>
>
> Early Saturday morning, June 8th, our little group left Columbia and headed
>down towards Bennettsville to meet John Patterson from just outside of
>Raleigh, NC. We met at Burger King (our good luck meeting place) ate a
>little breakfast and discussed what fish we wanted to catch. After doing
>this we headed to our first spot of the day. This was Paul Wallace Lake on
>the outskirts of Bennettsville. We got here, climbed into our waders and
>broke out the seines. The water was very clear. Well, as clear as tannin
>stained water can be. The bottom was firm in most spots although there was
>the occasional silty spot or hole to be wary of. Anyway, we proceeded to
>pull up many nice fish from this area. Here is what we got:
>
>(Site 060802-1)
>Blackbanded Sunfish - Enneacanthus chaetodon
>Bluespotted Sunfish - E. gloriosus
>Banded Sunfish - E. obesus
>Dollar Sunfish - Lepomis marginatus
>Bluegill - L. macrochirus
>Warmouth - L. gulosus
>Flier - Centrarchus macropterus
>Largemouth Bass - Micropterus salmoides
>Pirate Perch - Aphrododerus sayanus
>Chain Pickerel - Esox niger
>Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
>Lined Topminnow - Fundulus lineolatus
>Taillight Shiner - Notropis maculatus
>
> From here we had a good little ride to get to the next spot. This was the
>crossing of Hwy. 401 over the Lynches River. This is located neat Lamar,
SC.
> We headed into the water, finding a good sandy bottom here. Many shiners
>could be seen swimming around over the sand. The flow was strong but not
>strong enough to cause difficulty walking or seining. While we were out in
>the water, an older couple came kayaking through and asked what we were
>fishing for. We showed them some of the shiners that we had caught and told
>them about many of the smaller attractive native non-game fish. They seemed
>genuinely interested and said they would start looking for these on their
>kayak trips. This is what we found here:
>
>(Site 060802-2)
>Dollar Sunfish - Lepomis marginatus
>Bluegill - L. macrochirus
>Pumpkinseed - L .gibbosus
>Redbreast Sunfish - L. auritus
>Largemouth Bass - Micropterus salmoides
>Banded Pygmy Sunfish - Elassoma zonatum
>Pirate Perch - Aphrododerus sayanus
>Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
>Taillight Shiner - Notropis maculatus
>Coastal Shiner - N. petersoni
>Fieryblack Shiner - Cyprinella pyyrhomelas
>Whitefin Shiner - C. nivea
>Greenfin Shiner - C. chloristia
>Brook Silversides - Labidesthes sicculus
>Tessellated Darter - Etheostoma olmstedi
>Unidentified Shad
>
> After we finished up here, it was time to grab a bite to eat. We stopped
at
>a little convenience store in Lamar. Here a pleasant young lady took our
>order for pizza. When the pizzas arrived at our table we were amazed at the
>amount of toppings on the pizza. You couldn't pick up a slice without
>spilling beef, sausage, bacon, mushrooms or green peppers all over the
place.
> We will definitely stop by here again! After eating, we contemplated
taking
>naps but eventually decided we had too many sites yet to visit to go to
>sleep. Our next stop was just out of the Lamar town limits at Newman Swamp
>on Hwy. 401 heading north. We didn't spend much time hear. The place was
>heavily vegetated with a soft bottom. A beaver dam had backed the water up
>into the trees on one side of the road and the other side had so much
>vegetation that you couldn't see where the water started. We didn't find
>very much here while dipnetting, although we probably could have had we
spent
>more time. We were still full from lunch and easily distracted with talk of
>moving on to better sites. We did find a few fish here:
>
>(Site 060802-3)
>Banded Pygmy Sunfish - Elassoma zonatum
>Pirate Perch - Aphrododerus sayanus
>Eastern Mudminnow - Umbra pygmaea
>Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
>
> We jumped in our vehicles and headed down the road for a few minutes. Just
>down the road was a spot called Sparrow Swamp. This spot was not as
>vegetated as the last but it was still very muddy. It was a much deeper
spot
>and we couldn't sample much here. A few fish were found, but not the
>diversity we had hoped for. This is what we found:
>
>(Site 060802-4)
>Banded Pygmy Sunfish - Elassoma zonatum
>Pirate Perch - Aphrododerus sayanus
>Redfin Pickerel - Esox americanus
>Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
>
> It was now getting later in the day so we decided to make a long run back
to
>North Branch Wildcat Creek, where we had been the previous day. The
memories
>of the traumatic event that occurred the day before were still fresh in our
>minds so we decided to take a different route there. After a long ride we
>finally arrived at the spot. We pulled off of the road and decided that,
>since the water was low and the bottom firm and rocky, we would just wear
>shoes and/or flip-flops. With Dustin leading the way we headed down.
Almost
>instantly after entering the creek, Dustin yells "Oh s*_at_%!" and comes
>running back past Dan and me. "There was a Water Moccasin back there and it
>was swimming straight at me" he says. Dan and I hadn't moved, we were still
>trying to keep from laughing too hard. If you have ever seen anyone run
>through a creek with a slick rocky bottom while wearing flip-flops, you
would
>understand. We looked around for a bit and, not seeing anything even
>resembling a snake, headed on to the fish. We, as we had done the day
>before, used the smaller seine with pretty good success. John "if I can see
>it, I can catch it" Patterson, did a pretty good job using his dipnet as
>well. We some nice fish from this spot again and a few that we had not
found
>the day before. Most pools had at least a couple of Bluehead Chubs, in full
>breeding form, in them. It was pretty cool to just watch them swimming
>around. At times, Dan would chase them under a rock and grab them by hand.
>Here is what we found:
>
>(Site 060802-5)
>Redfin Pickerel - Esox americanus
>Pirate Perch - Aphrododerus sayanus
>Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
>Tessellated Darter - Etheostoma olmstedi
>Redbreast Sunfish - Lepomis auritus
>Pumpkinseed - L. gibbosus
>Margined Madtom - Noturus insignus
>Dusky Shiner - Notropis cummingsae
>Bluehead Chub - Nocomis leptocephalus
>
> With the shadows getting longer, we decided to call it a day. John had a
>good four hour drive ahead of him, Dustin had to do some work around the
>house before a Father-in-law visit the next day and Dan and I had to drop
>some fish off by the zoo. We loaded our equipment up, said our good-byes
and
>hit the road. For our trips, both days, we had really nice weather. Sunny
>and relatively mild with a breeze for most of the day. Couldn't ask for
>better collecting weather. Maybe next weekend we can head out to find some
>Christmas Darters. Details to follow.
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