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| Eastern Creek Chubsucker |
Early this week I went exploring some small ponds and creeks in Norton. I didn't want to travel far and Banded Sunfish supposedly inhabit some water in the area. So I searched for them unsuccessfully. However, while I was seining the Wading River I caught some little minnows I'd never seen before. I thought they were Eastern Blacknose Dace. It turned out they were Eastern Creek Chubsuckers. Either fish would have been a lifer, but I was glad to have people give me the correct ID. They are pretty little fish with orange fins. They certainly would be worthy of being in a household aquarium. These guys were released though after I took some photos.
Today my friend Allison O'Connor went seining in Ninigret Pond. I did well there last week getting some pretty cool fish including a lifer Four Spined Stickleback (Don't worry if you have never heard of the fish I'm writing about. I never knew most of these fish existed until recently). I knew that it would only take one new fish to make the trip worthwhile. I met Allison at 12:30. We made a couple passes at
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| Sheepshead Minnow |
Our second pass produced the same and also a two and a half foot eel. For our third pass we decided to go way out and work our way back in. We caught over a thousand fish and rushed to get them back in the water. There was one odd looking black and white fish that I put into the holding tank. We took some photos of the fish and released them. We learned a lesson on not catching too many fish at once. The black and white fish looked a lot like the Sheepshead that DJ and I caught while in North Carolina.
It turned out that the fish wasn't a Sheepshead, but a Sheepshead Minnow. Thanks to the ID from our friend Rick Rego. It was obviously a lifer for me and Ally-O. All in all, seining at Ninigret really produced. We had about ten species all from the twenty foot seine in waste deep water.
Other notes from the day...
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| Swamp Darter in the front |
Before I met Allison I went seining alone in a freshwater pond. Seining alone means I put one stake in the bushes and swing the net into a big circle. Once the circle is unbroken (country song) I take both ends and drag the net up the beach. This is how I caught all of my freshwater fish. Today when I did this, I caught the expected Banded Killifish and Bluegills. What I did not expect was the little tiny Swamp Darter that I caught. I knew they were in the pond since we caught one last year. I had given up hope of catching one after the last outing. I assumed they were just in another part of the pond.
On a not so fun note, on my way home I saw a piece of "dirt" in my elbow pit (you know what I mean). I tried to brush it off but it was stuck. I tried rubbing it off but it did not move. After a minute of this I realized the dirt about the size of a flake of pepper was a deer tick. So when I got home I pulled it out with tweezers and saved it on a piece of Scotch Tape. I called my doctor and explained that I had a deer tick embedded in my arm for up to six hours. It did not have a bullseye but probably didn't have time to form. So they prescribed me medicine as a preventative treatment for Lyme Disease. I will take this tomorrow. If you are wondering how I got a Deer Tick on me while seining, I went looking for snakes before seining while it was cool out in the late morning. I walked through grass and weeds higher than my waste to get to the rocks. I did see my Milk Snake friend again though.
More photos below of some of the fish we saw today...
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| Another photo of the Swamp Darter |
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| Needlefish |
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| Male Striped Killifish. Really beautiful |
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| First of the year Pickerel Frog |
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| American Eel |
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