NANFA-- Condensed Collecting
R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Sun, 8 Sep 2002 21:22:01 -0500
Around six oclock this afternoon I decided to make a rush trip to the marsh
to do a little collecting and fishing. I only had about two hours of light
left, but the beautiful day beckoned. Temps in the low 90's and hazy sun, my
kind of weather.
The first stop I made was at a large pond area with sandy bottom and bath
warm water. I was alone and ran a 20 foot seine, it wasn't too hard. I just
pushed the one pole into the shore angled away from the water and swung in a
large arc. Its a hike to the pond, so I did only four swings. I would have
really slayed the fish had the other end been manned. The killis jumped the
net and others ran under, and many just kept out away from me.
The species caught were:
Pumpkinseed
Pumpkinseed X Green Sunfish
Yellow Perch
Central Mudminnow
Blackstripe Topminnow
Western Banded Killifish
Tadpole Madtom
I jogged back out trying to save time and hopped in the truck, after unloading
my other equipment from the cab. Then tooled down the highway to a dam on
Cranberry Creek with a Railroad tressle located between the dam and the
highway. There were several people fishing the dikes. I tied on a small
marabou jig and sort of "cane poled" it with my spinning outfit around willows
and cement pilings. This produced little. I walked back around the swamp under
the dike and down the tracks to the tressle. There I did well, catching
several Black Crappie. Only one was worth filleting, and went back in to fight
another day. The sun was turning pink on the horizon and I needed to book to
the last spot I hoped to hit. This was near Sandhill , the ditch I often hit
that flows out of Quail Point Flowage.
After getting to the vicinity and travelling the couple miles down gravel road
I pulled in to see the waters surface dimpled with fish. I pulled out the
cast net thinking this might be best. As I got up to the culvert I stand on,
the netting and rope were tangled pretty bad and gave the really big fish time
to cruise down the dithch , no clue to what they were. After casting a couple
times I figured a dip net the way to go and tried that on both sides of the
road. It was now nearly dark with the last scoop being more mud and fish than
water. I was mud covered and then the buzz of the mosquito march could be
heard. I was in a bit of a quandry, a pile of mud writhing with fish on the
shoulder of the road, and little light. Then I began to be drained of blood. I
got the fish up into the pail and shot out of there like a rocket. I was
thirsty , lack of blood maybe, and stopped in Babcock to pay 75 cents for a
can of ice tea in the machine, since I prefer Coke and it was a Pepsi machine,
where is my Coke machine?
Here I caught the following species.
Finescale Dace
Northern Redbelly Dace
Pearl Dace
Brassy Minnow
Blacknose shiner
Brook Stickleback
Central Mudminnow.
I of course determined this when I got home and could sort through the pail
that looked like stew. I needed the feeders for the gar that were finally
moved to their new home earlier this afternoon, the addition to gar river. Now
I have to go hose off.
Ray
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