Buffalo River collecting results

Post by **sumpnfishy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:21 pm

This past weekend my Sunday School class had a group campout at the Buffalo River. Of course I couldn't resist a little (a lot) of collecting and snorkeling. What a fantastic spot! I was snorkeling in some pools where I couldn't even come close to touching the bottom, but the fish down there were perfectly visible. There were piles of boulders that looked like something out of my Lake Tanganyika video, only instead of cichlids there were longears and smallmouth bass hanging out. I did some collecting in the day and then more at night. I was surprised when I caught a big darter that I didn't recognize at first. It was a species I'd never seen, the Arkansas Saddled Darter. Been looking for that one for a while!! The books that say they only reach 4 1/2 inches are full of it. Some of them I saw while snorkeling were a good six. I also caught a lot of small redhorse, bleeding shiners and sunfish on my fly rod.
Here's the list of everything I saw:
Shiners: Whitetail, Bigeye, Duskystripe
Darters: Greenside, banded, yoke, rainbow, Arkansas Saddled
Checkered Madtom
Redhorse
Hornyhead chub
Creek Chub
Stoneroller
Brook silverside
Smallmouth bass
Longear sunfish
The campground was a beautiful place. Club trip anyone?
Michael

etheonut · Post by **etheonut** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:30 pm

Me me!

I would love to see that population of bleeding shiners in the White River system.

Seriously though, the Buffalo river is one of my favorites. When do we leave?

Kevin

Post by **sumpnfishy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:59 pm

Bleeding? I don't see anything that says bleeding. Everyone knows bleeding shiners are only in the Osage system!

pinkrblu · Post by **pinkrblu** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:46 pm

OH, take me, take me!

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be up to any collecting until spring due to my foot...but that sounds simply wonderful.
Doc says about 6 more weeks, by then the water will be too cold for me.

We're going camping in Bates county this weekend, on the banks of a bayou off the Marias Des Cygnes River.

Post by **sumpnfishy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:03 pm

Well, it won't be a winter place, or any time it might be rainy either. The road going down to the campground is VERY VERY steep. Coming out I had to drive about 10 mph because if I tried to go faster the wheels started spinning!