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The date is February 8th, 2003... The stream is Killbuck Creek in Wayne County Ohio... The conditions, 25 degrees F as a high. Snow and a gnarly wind chill... It's an icy mess outside...
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| Killbuck Creek Downstream |
Killbuck Creek Upstream |
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Wait a minute! Was that open water!?!?
Guess there's only one thing left to do for any good Northern NANFAn!
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Who are these crazed neoprene robed NANFANs?!? |
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Mark Binkley Nick Zarlinga Todd Crail |
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| Mark | Nick | Todd | |
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The Story: My oh my did we have fun with this one! I think we're still having fun with it heh heh. Yep, the three of us thought we'd get together as a start for a fantastic year here in Ohio for our state's membership. First priority was to discuss how to nurture the club in our state, second was to see how Jonah's Aquarium was set up ( http://www.jonahsaquarium.com), and third was to go out and do it, if the stream was willing. Well, maybe I should say the real priority was to just have some fun on an otherwise frozen day in February, and it was mission accomplished. :)
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Click Here for Detailed Directions |
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Once in the water, the new goal was to have an uneventful trip as possible ;) We managed to pull
this goal off with only a few near misses. There were the usual "I do this in the summer without
repercussion" habits like sticking your arm into the water or running across algified icy rocks/concrete... But
we managed to keep warm and dry and no one ended up getting a "bath".
The others seemed thoroughly entertained with my best Sammy Davis Jr. impersonation. Not just once but twice... At our second location (Christmas Run at Christmas Park) we walked a tunnel that went under the road to sample a pool at the base of the tunnel. And compliments of some algae... I about took a dive at the beginning of the tunnel and then again at the end of the tunnel 30 seconds later. {sigh} If you ever want to know a great way to throw out your back, just let me know... Thank goodness for yoga. I think I'd have died a horrible death there if my back slipped on me during my "show" :) Catches were reasonable. We turned up 11 species for the day, which considering the limited habitats we had to sample, was okay. It will be very interesting to hit Killbuck in the warmer months. Our time for collection was somewhat limited by the amount of time we had before the seine completely froze. You can see below how rigid it ended up getting :)
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| Workin' The Ice | A Fine Catch | Frozen Seine | |
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We'd also discussed making a semi-manual for Xtreme collection... Words of wisdom gained through experience, tips and techniques, safety precautions and such. We'll get to that down the road and perhaps it'd be nice to just create an All-Weather sort of collecting guide. I'll post when that's been worked on :) After it became so dark that we were unable to tell if a fish was a creek chub or not, it was time to head on home. Once back to the Binkley's, we did some photography of the specimens I'd kept for my home aquarium while Susan cooked us a DELICIOUS meal of Fondue and Smoked Salmon yum yum. The photographs turned out all right, considering the plastic container would mist up in about ten seconds. It made it a little bit difficult, especially after it'd wet up the entire towel. I can't wait for April to take some shots in the sun and with fish in full nuptial dress.
What was even cooler was showing the greenside darter to a friend later in the evening and she said: So thanks to the Binkley's for all their hospitality... We'll have to do it again when it warms up a bit! :) The Gallery: |
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| Banded Darter
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Darter Convention
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Fantail, Banded Darters
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Fantail Headshot
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| Greenside Darter
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Greenside Darter
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Greenside Darter
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Greenside Darter
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| Greenside, Banded Darters
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2002 Convention T-Shirt Pic
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Lil' Sally
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Species List for Killbuck Creek: Yellow Bullhead - Ameiurus natalis Stoneroller - Campostoma anomalum Rainbow Darter - Etheostoma caeruleum Fantail Darter - Etheostoma flabellare Greenside Darter - Etheostoma blennioides Banded Darter - Etheostoma zonale Hogsucker - Hypentelium nigricans Bluntnose Minnow - Pimephales notatus Blacknose Dace - Rhinichthys atratulus Mussel - White Heelsplitter Salamander |
Species List for Christmas Run: White Sucker - Catostomus commersoni Creek Chub - Semolitus atromaculatus Blacknose Dace - Rhinichthys atratulus |
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