- myself
- Kevin, his wife, and friend, Brandon
- Kenna and kids
- Michael
- Ted Judy and kids
- Mike Meyer and kids
Our first stop was at a tiny, roadside park on the Spring River in Verona, Missouri. The park basically consisted of a covered picnic table and parking for a few cars. This stop probably offered the most diversity of species caught— mostly various darters and crayfish. I caught a male orange-throat darter that was probably the prettiest fish on the trip. Kevin nabbed a long-pincered crayfish, which was a new one to me. I wish I had shot photos of those two, even if they had to be photos of them in a net. I'm not a native-fish person, so I'll leave Kevin and others to comment on the various species we caught, many of which were indistinguishable to my untrained eye.
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We accidentally caught a young trout, and quickly released it.
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Here are some of the "keepers" that Ted Judy was taking for a friend.
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Ted shot many pictures of most species that we caught, as they lay in the net or were held in someone's hand. Mike Meyer is on the left. One of Ted's youngsters is on the right.
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Mike Meyer and son fishing.
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Kevin, always the teacher, showed catching techniques to one of Ted's sons.
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This aquatic salamander was one of the most interesting catches. I looked it up in The Amphibians and Reptiles of Missouri and The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas, but was unable to positively ID it. (The latter is an awesome book, by the way, often showing all life stages.) The salamander is probably a Eurycea spp. If anyone gets a better ID, let me know.
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There were some gorgeous damselflies flitting around at every stop.
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A couple of freshwater isopods showed up in one of my scoops with the net.
Our next stop was Flat Creek at the bridge on Highway C. This stream had a bigger flow, which was much colder on one side. We didn't catch as many species at Flat Creek, but we did get some nice ones. There were two species of sculpins, the banded sculpin and, if I remember correctly, the mottled sculpin.
Kevin tried out his new underwater video camera. Sadly, it failed. He bought a replacement the next day, and it failed, too. Too bad. He could have gotten some cool pictures. Ted bought an underwater point-and-shoot camera, which seems to have worked for him. Hopefully, he'll post some of the pictures on his site or ours.
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Kevin tries out his new underwater video camera.
Our third stop as at Shoal Creek, at Highway 97, in Pioneer, Missouri. This stop was not very productive. We caught few fishes, but marveled at the huge number of mud dauber wasp nests, and one swift nest, attached to the underside of the bridge. I saw a large green darner dragonfly, but was unable to photograph it. The kids still made plenty of fun for themselves in the water.
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Ted's kids didn't care that there were few fishes caught at this spot.
Our final spot of the day was at the Missouri Department of Conservation boat ramp on Big Sugar Creek near Pineville, Missouri. I had actually collected this spot before, late in the fall when the water levels were low. Small pools had been separated from the stream. I caught a bunch of Hyalella amphipods (similar to Gammarus) and lots of tadpoles. I also collected some Azolla which had turned nice red for autumn. In the spring, this whole area becomes a raging river. No collecting can be done then. This visit, however, found something in between. The pools I had hoped for were all merged into the stream, but the water wasn't high or fast. So collecting was easy in places.
I learned some new collection techniques here. When I've seen this stream before, in the spot where we fished, there was nothing but a bed of rough rocks. Even now, with the rocks underwater, it looked barren. No algae and little sign of fishes. Yet, if you scuffle your feet in the rocks, and hold the net downstream, you'll catch fish. What I learned new was that if you scuffle your feet deep into the rocks, you'll catch madtom catfish. We caught a bunch of them, though Kevin will have to remind me what species they were.
Kevin pulled up about 20 fish in his first seining of the area, and impressed us all. He and Kenna seined up the river a bit and barely caught anything after that. I teased Kevin that he must have planted that first big, successful catch, by having the fish already rolled up in the net before he unrolled it for first use. It would explain his lack of success afterward.
But you've got to give him and Kenna credit for trying. As you can see in the following photo, they weren't scared of deep water.
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Kevin and Kenna celebrate 15 minutes straight of catching nothing.
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They weren't entirely unsuccessful with the seine, though. Witness these two longear sunfish gems. No, those aren't Missouri kissing fish!
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Kenna at work with seine
Day two. The gang met up in Arkansas. Michael was able to join us for this leg of the trip, as was Kevin's friend, Jordan. But Mike Meyer and his kids had headed home. Our first stop was at Kyle's Landing on the Buffalo National River. It's a gorgeous spot, with towering cliffs on one side. We did some collecting, while Kevin and Brandon snorkeled the deeper parts. I had fun letting damselflies land on me. Ted took some pictures of that. If he forwards them to me, I'll post one.
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Kyle's Landing
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The most interesting catch at this site, in my opinion, was a young map turtle.
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Michael surveyed fishes with his dip net.
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Ted Judy teaches his son how to seine.
Ted brought coolers full of lunch, so we all chowed down and headed for the Ponca River Access on the same Buffalo National River. Here, the cliffs weren't so obvious, being lower and covered with vegetation. A group of teenagers was having a bellyflop contest off the one-lane bridge. Ted had fun with his underwater camera as he tried to photograph a bass guarding its nest. Fry were readily visible. He also tried to film a sunfish nest, but his presence scared off the guarding parent and a school of juvenile sunfish sneaked in and starting eating the eggs. Oops!
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A view upstream
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This unknown plant was thick in some shallow water areas, and spattered with one-inch flowers.
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Kevin and Jordan caught an Ozark bass.
Kenna and kids had left a little earlier, but as the rest of us were gathering everyone to leave, we had a scary incident. Ted's youngest was playing in the water near the bridge and the current overcame him. Ted hollered out asking if his son could stand up. The panicked look in the kid's face said no. (I'm sorry, but I have forgotten his name.) He had gotten himself into an area where the bottom drops off fast and the bridge was causing a strong current. The little guy was swimming as fast as he could, but the current was still carrying him backward. His brother headed that way to help but it was too deep for him, too. Ted ended up jumping in to grab them both, and all three were being swept toward the bridge. I could see it was trouble. I started to wade in to help, but had to stop, they had drifted too far away. I can barely swim. I realized that I would be of no help and probably would make things worse. I knew they were almost to a point where they could grab the bridge, but what scared me is that I thought there might be a culvert under the water there. If there was, these three would be sucked through it at any moment. Fortunately, there was no culvert. Kevin came running and they got everyone to shore. But it was a close one!
It was a good time to call it a day and head home. We missed a turn and ended up travelling in the wrong direction. When we righted ourselves, Ted's car got separated from ours. Apparently, our Garmin GPS units gave us each different directions home. I think his was smarter because my Garmin took us on dirt roads. I need to check the program settings.
Well, that's enough from me. Hopefully, some others will jump in with narratives of their own. If I have misidentified any people, places, or species, please let me know!
