The Beautiful Tippecanoe, and Farmers Too! - April 30, May 1-2, 2004Photographs by Bill Flowers, Sajjad Lateef and Nick and Linda ZarlingaText by Todd Crail |
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The river is tannic tea, kinda like the brown water streams we visited
in South Carolina at the 2004 Convention. It has a sand base with really
nice loose rock riffles. Plenty of aeration going on in the whole system...
All the stonefly, caddisfly and mayfly larvae we saw were proof positive
of that. I couldn't believe how many "bugs" we were looking at. You could
do a whole trip on just inverts there, if you had someone who knew their
bugs.
Sarah and I settled in early on the 30th and I went about scouting, once we had the dogs secure in their little pen and Sarah cozied up with the latest Nora Roberts paperback. I stopped first at the Route 35 bridge south of Winmac. I looked, it looked kinda blah, so I figured I'd just move on as I had a tip this was the real deal. This was good that it looked so, well, unassuming. At that hour if I'd got a seine in that water, I would have been stuck there all day and wouldn't have scouted else where! More about that in a minute... On downstream I went. I ended up in the little town of Paulaski. There was a canoe access there and I started poking around on some of the upstream riffles. I was using a dipnet because the flow was too much for one guy to use a seine effectively. I was working one rock at a time. Within 15 minutes I had caught 3 of the state listed fish we "might" encounter, Tippecanoe darters, bluebreast darters and a spotted darter. I'd also caught a couple of Nocomis chubs (which is significant this side of Southeast Kentucky with a dipnet) and an orangethroat darter (which I don't understand what it was doing on a large cobble, high volume riffle with all sorts of more typical habitat nowhere near. Oh well... Keep scouting :) I walked down a trail to check out another upstream riffle, before I disturbed too much of where I was. I had a big surprise as I made my way out of the floodplain to the stream side. A pair of river otters were sitting right about where I planned to go in. Man what a sleek, fast animal. It's amazing to see a mammal that well, still looks like a "mammal", yet is so incredibly adapted to aquatic living. I didn't get much of a look at them above water besides a brown blur... But watching those little torpedoes go through the water was such a treat. I think I made a giddy, hand-clapping, jumping motion. I hope no one was watching. :) Day was burning and I had promised to be back at camp around 6:00 to welcome people that came in for camping that evening. On the way back, I decided to poke in at that first stop, since there really wasn't many other options along that stretch of river. It was nice flat sand with small cobble, which is great for downstream seining, and I do often when I'm by myself. Brains, not braun :) I was kinda standing there thinking "Well, here goes nothin'". The first seine haul poked up hundreds of fish, but among the cast, about 15 bigeye chubs (Hybopsis amblops). In my limited experience, if you can name a river where that happens on the first haul in the Midwest, I would have to say you were talking about the Tippecanoe. I've been lucky when I've found _any_ specimens from the genus in a whole day of work in their remaining habitat in Ohio. There were also beautiful Cyprinella shiners, that I think were intergrades between spotfin and steelcolor. The anal ray counts on the three fish that I did bother counting were 8, so the guess is they're spotfin. But the dorsal fins were just immaculate, with charcoal spotting all the way through. Whatever they were, man, they were pretty (I can't wait to see them in breeding attire!). A second haul yielded similar results, this time with a couple State Special Concern Eastern sand darters. After we got in there with a bunch of people the next day, I'm not sure what the concern is, but I can understand not wanting to put all your eggs in one basket :) Droves of them. Time to get out of there and leave it pristine for the next day. I headed back to camp and soon met the Tiemann's (Jeremy and Bernadette) and their friends Donnie Jones and Autumn Hatten, all from IL. Bill Veenstra of IN soon appeared, which we all sorta mingled and such. And then it began....The rain. Ugh. UGH. UGGGGHHHHH.Nick and Linda Zarlinga of OH pulled in somewhere in the middle of the night, as had IL/IN Rep Ryan DePauw and his gal Kristen Wunder. We woke up to the rain. What was 70 and sunny while sampling the afternoon before, was now 55 and raining. Yucko. Once at the shelter parking lot, Bill Flowers, his son Shawn, and Ron Everhart (all of IN) pulled in, as did Sajjad Lateef and Jamie Ladonski of IL. We head out to the first site, which was the US35 Bridge Canoe Access. On the way, it was a pleasure to have Sajjad ride along with us, and chat about corporate life, computers and native plants for landscaping choices. This was the first time we'd met in person, and it's always a pleasure after so many years and emails to get to actually _know_ someone :) |
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Above are some pictures of the location before we got in and chewed it up a bit. This is the site
where I'd made the two magic seine hauls the night before. It did nothing but get better with
all the extra hands and feet. We quickly marched to 20+ species, in spite of its humble appearances
of open flowing water with sand bottom and sanded up gravel bars, that didn't seem like they'd hold
much in the way of diversity. This is a very fertile system, however. Seine hauls where you start
tossing the spotfin/steelcolor shiners immediately, so you might find something different, was common
place. In a stream like this, it seems you're routing through them all day long.
The rain persisted like a bad habit, as you can probably see in the photos. Sajjad had a really neat waterproof "bag" that went around his camera. I guess Doug Dame (FL) introduced these to the gang. It's basically a plastic lens in the shape of a lunch bag, so the camera sits inside all safe and dry, yet can take pictures through the clear container. Unfortunately, the humidity and excessive water foiled the plan. The bag began to mist up, and made it very difficult for Sajjad to get a shot. It seemed to disappoint him a tiny bit, but I still say it's a fantastic product, and think it will be on the Farmer's Christmas list. By comparison, my camera never even made it out of the regular camera bag on this trip! :) I think the highlight at this site was two local boys coming over to see what we had going on. Nick initiated a discussion with them about what lived in the stream. I wish it hadn't been so crappy out. We were just getting ready to call it when they showed up. Would have been nice to spend a little extra time to show them the sunfish and darters. The boys are in the photos below with a little more text. |
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And I guess I decided that the rain wasn't wet enough. I finally took my fall in waders. I guess I've been too lucky in the past... Running on loose cobble was a new thing for me. I'm used to my rocks being all fused together with silt :) To my credit, Nick claims it was the "most graceful dive he's ever seen". There were two attempts at recovery, and then it was very obvious when I felt it was time to give up ship, and get out of the water as fast as possible. Apparently, I went over spread eagle, like I meant to do it. Brrrrrrrrrrrr. This unfortunately played into cutting my trip short, and the following work week as well. People at work gave me the old "You should know better!" When I got to the doctor midweek, his comment was "Do you realize you're like two drops shy of pneumonia!?" "We do it all for the fish, Doc." ;) |
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Speaking of the Fish...Most impressive to me at this site were the abundance of sand darters and chubs. With a group kicking to the seine, it might have been possible to measure them by the pound per haul. Some of the larger sand darters were fully ornamented with radiant, iridescent splotches on the operculum and back of head, a silvery shimmer down the lateral line, with sharp black accents. This is a fish I'd love to show to anyone who said something to the effect of "boring silvery fish". Look at this and then tell me that's boring!We saw some real show stoppers, all fully adorned in that peculiar, large-riffle, "burn your eyes out" orange. Tippecanoe and bluebreast darters were very present at our second stop, the Canoe Access in Paulaski. This was a much faster gradient with large boulders and larger cobble, we had the fortunate experience to see buck males of each species. The dominant male Tippecanoe darter looked like something from a different world. Its body was chocolate brown, with fins of blaze orange. I'm sure they're impressive when the full body is in orange nuptial attire, the contrast on this specimen was incredible! The sheer numbers of dusky darters was also very _impressive_. I sort of felt bad that I took a specimen last fall from the 3 pack I caught on Paint Creek in Ohio. Duskys aren't exactly prolific in Ohio (nor are they listed, but still). This would have been a much better population from which to make my take for personal enjoyment. I think I'll remember that in the future when need calls again, as they are a very sexy and enjoyable to keep fish! In the words of Ferris Bueller... "If you have the means... I highly suggest getting one". |
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Early on, Nick and I had decided our "holy grail" for the day would be pirate perch (insert side-splitting, mocking laughter from the SC gang :) Even though this was a fast water habitat, there was a string of fine filament rootwads in very slack water adjacent to the riffles. We searched greedily through rootwad after rootwad to no avail. We made our way up and around the island, hoping for a brindled, northern or mountain madtom to make way into the day's log, again, no dice. At this point, most everyone had their gusto removed by a full day in the elements. I was shivering. People were doing that "end of day" tired, sloppy stumble. Autumn took a spill. I'm sure others were miserable. It was time to stop being "Super Troopers" and pack it in. It was COLD and WET. Back at the campgrounds, our little Fellowship disbanded quickly. The day trippers headed home for hot showers and warm meals. The Tiemann gang decided they'd had enough the night before; with Autumn having taken a dip (and pregnant), it was senseless to stay. I took as much of a hot shower as I could get at the campground facility (which is quite nice by the way) just trying to warm up. On my way back, Mark Binkley (OH) and his younger brothers David and Drew had just pulled in :) Fortunately for ol' Binks, Bill Veenstra was still raring to go. They headed out for the park's Canoe Camp access to the river to do some more sampling. Nick and I took our dogs for a vigorous walk to see if that would warm us up. We found a lot of nice (and different) habitat we weren't aware of in the park... A side channel by the Nature Center screamed pirate perch, mudminnows, grass pickerel and warmouth sunfish. It will definitely be sampled next trip. The return of the Binkley - Veenstra gang brought chants of legendary fish, in legendary numbers. "Tons of brindled madtoms!"As interested as I was, and as psychotic as I am about fish, it held my attention for about 3 minutes. I think I let out a whiney "Can I take one of the brindleds Mark?" and it was on to the next topic. "Hey, can we go get a hot meal and coffee someplace warm???" The Zarlingas had packed tons of excellent food to share around the campfire, yet offered little argument against the proposition. It was just too danged wet and cold. Sarah and I followed the Tiemann lead, threw our campsite into the back of the van, loaded up the dogs, and it was off with the remaining crew to find some place to eat in Winmac (with a somewhat delirious fearless leader giving an unplanned side trip to the canoe camp). We ended up in an interesting "dinner" with our server on her first night of work. She musta walked two miles with questions for us. Poor gal :) We parted ways after dinner, the Crail clan arrived home in Toledo at 2:00 AM, and not a minute too soon. Hot shower and then I crashed for the next twelve hours. I've already explained my unfortunate personal outcome. Meanwhile, back at camp, the Z's, the DePauw couple, and Bill toughed it out through the night in tents. Nick had a portable heater and said "it barely cut the edge". I can't even imagine how cold they were. There would have been no shame in sleeping in neoprene. Binks on the other hand, slept sound in his "Hilton" camper, which I'm sure commandeering from him was rationalized at least _once_ that night :) The next morning, the gang headed on to a more "headwater" section of the river, a tributary called Mill Creek, upstream toward Rochester, IN. The sun was out, the water was nice, I think it lifted some really dreary spirits. The fish community there was quite different than what we'd seen downstream the day prior. It was more of a small to midsize stream with rainbow and fantail darters, some Nocomis chubs, blacknose dace and a much more prevalent mottled sculpin population. Also found were some bonus starhead topminnows. Nick was impressed with the submergent vegetation at the site, which again, is uncommon in most Ohio streams. Below are some pictures of their excursion: |
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I think what really impresses me about this system... The fish that are supposed to be found in "x" habitat are there... Instead of having "typically headwater, but opportunistic and bullet proof" creek chubs, johnny darter, white sucker, and bluntnose minnows galore inhabiting stream sections that traditionally host Hybopsis chubs, madtoms and bluebreast darter; or even where you should at least find a creek chub, there are only some nasty looking goldfish, like we see too commonly in some of Ohio's headwater streams. The faunal communities are fully intact in this watershed. And again, in spite of similar land use practices found usually to be the blame for peril in the water systems. I think this is a fine example of how simple sustainability is, without regulations, Agency intervention, and battles of "winner takes all". I've become fond lately of saying "Stop doing what seems right. Do what makes the most sense." It will only be through collaborative open-mindedness that any kind of true sustainable solutions be achieved. But enough of my "moderation" soap box :) In any and every case, I look very forward to exploring this watershed further in years to come! I may even see if we can't work something out for a convention down the road, perhaps in conjunction with Indiana or Purdue Universities, and perhaps with some of our NANFA members who figure prominently in the Indiana Agencies. It would not be out of the question to get a look at 60+ species with larger or different equipment on permit (we crossed the 50 species mark with 8' seines and bad weather and only 4 "habitats") on the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers. And that is something to behold anywhere, in this day and age :) |
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Bonus Round - The InvertsSomething that totally struck me, but I hadn't really discussed much to this point, was the invertebrate fauna of this system. It was absolutely incredible. There were mussel valves laying everywhere, and it really struck me what a huge amount of microhabitat they provide, especially in the sand and small cobble to gravel areas that just looked like flow-thru areas, such as the US35 Canoe Access site. I would guess this was the difference in what I thought was "poor quality" by comparison to past experience, with what in actuality was a "high quality" fish community. The mussel valves were perhaps the link to, in what looked like a habitat desert, the consequent pile of diversity. This community perhaps relies very heavily on their presence for food and shelter, and this is a link that has been lost in many North American streams. It would be interesting if anyone has been able to make this connection in the literature.Seine hauls usually brought up one type of larvae of some kind of critter... What I think were a type of mayfly larvae were my favorite. They were dusky charcoal to black colored, but had a stark white "skeleton" print across the back of their body. There were caddisfly larvae with their "houses" of little sticks or tiny stones, all sorts of dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, stonefly larvae. Pounds of insects! I look forward to getting back there if only to photograph this segment of the stream fauna :) |
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The Lists - FishNote: It is illegal in Indiana to harass state endangered animals. All state endangered specimens captured were immediately returned to their habitat. |
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Family CyprinidaeCampostoma anomalum - Central stoneroller Family CatostomidaeHypentelium nigricans - Northern hogsucker Family IctaluridaeAmeiurus natalis - Yellow bullhead Family UmbridaeUmbra limi - Central mudminnow Family AphredoderidaeAphredoderus sayanus - Pirate perch Family FundulidaeFundulus dispar - Starhead topminnow Family AtherinidaeLabidesthes sicculus - Brook silverside Family CottidaeCottus bairdi - Mottled sculpin Family CentrarchidaeAmbloplites rupestris - Rock bass Family PercidaeAmmocrypta pellucida - Eastern sand darter (SSC) |
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Probable, but unconfirmed:
Notropis stramineus - Sand shiner - voucher at home was mimic.One beautiful hybrid: L. macrochirus x L. humils - Orangspot x Bluegill |
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The Lists - Mussels |
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This list is incomplete and only identifies species we were sure on the identification.
Again note: It is illegal in Indiana to remove any native mussels from the stream. All specimens in the photo were gathered for the purpose of education, and returned to the stream. I have included links to the species descriptions at the Illinois Natural History Survey, where the index can be found at http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/collections/mollusk/fieldguide.html and is an excellent resource if you would like to learn more about Midwest mussles. Subfamily AmbleminaeAmblema plicata - Threeridge Subfamily AnodontinaeAlasmidonta marginata - Elktoe Subfamily LampsilinaeLampsilis cardium - Plain pocketbook | |||||
