Beautiful Bait

with the Ringed Crayfish (Faxonius neglectus) from the Blue River in Oklahoma. More subtle in color compared to the others we came across, these crayfish are still stunning in their own right! That combination of brown, reddish-orange, and black is just 🔥

Happy y’all! Time to meet another aquatic friend, and this time it’s the Redspotted Sunfish (Lepomis miniatus)! Lepomis is Greek for “scaled gill cover;” and miniatus is Latin for “scarlet,” referring to the characteristic red spots on the body.

The Redspotted Sunfish is a small, typically dark olive fish with a pale, yellow belly, and three dark lines behind the eye. Distinguished from other Lepomis species by stiff opercular lopes, a pale spot on the end of lateral line, and dark spots on the lower gill cover. Young fish may have vertical bars or small scattered dark spots along their sides.

The Redspotted Sunfish is an inhabitant of rivers, reservoirs, lowland streams, swamps, and oxbow lakes. They are highly insectivorous, consuming mostly midge larvae and other larval aquatic insects, amphipods, and cladocerans.

They can be found throughout the Mississippi River Valley. The distribution spreads north into Illinois and to the Ohio River, west into Texas and to Oklahoma’s Red River, and east to the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. Currently the populations of Lepomis miniatus found in the southern United States seem to be stable. However, the species numbers have diminished significantly in the state of Illinois which lies at the northernmost point of the fish’s historic range.

The breeding time of the redspotted sunfish varies across the range of the species but usually occurs in late spring or early summer. The fish breeds in shallow, shaded, areas close to the shore in nests constructed by the males. The redspotted sunfish has an average clutch size of around 2000. Breeding adult males are beautifully colored, displaying red and orange spots along most of the body and above the ear flap.

featuring the Painted Devil Crayfish (Lacunicambarus ludovicianus) from a tributary of Crooked Creek near Broken Bow, Oklahoma in the Little River Wildlife Management Area

Happy y’all! Today I’m bringing you the gold standard of subsurface swimmers, the Golden Topminnow (Fundulus chrysotus). Again, we see Fundulus which is Latin for “bottom of habitat;” while chrysotus is Greek for “gilded or golden,” referring to the gold flecks along the body and on the opercular flap.

The golden topminnow is a small fish, about 1.5 – 3.5 inches, that lacks a lateral line. It is olive green to yellow with iridescent golden flecks. Males can develop olive green bars and red spots along the sides of the body. Fins are yellow or white. Females and juveniles can have small blue spots on their body.

Native in North America from Santee River drainage in South Carolina to Trinity River drainage in Texas; Former Mississippi Embayment north to Kentucky and Missouri. East of the Mississippi River mostly restricted to lower Coastal Plain.

The golden topminnow can be found in swamps, sloughs, and pools, and in the backwaters of creeks and small to medium rivers. These topminnows are usually found near, or inside, aquatic vegetation.

Spawning occurs in late spring through summer, with pairs preferring roots of floating plants or the stems of plants such as Myriophyllum. Eggs are extruded and fertilized singly, with about 10 to 20 eggs produced on a daily basis for a week or more per spawning episode

Painted Crayfish (Faxonius difficilis) from the Mountain Fork River in southeast Oklahoma! Look at the claws on these beauties 😍 They reminded us of Oreos, so that’s what the group kept calling them. They stood out at night under a headlamp and were easy to come across all along the river.

Happy everyone! It’s that time of the week again to visit another one of our underwater friends! This week I give you the Creole Darter (Etheostoma collettei). Etheostoma is Greek for “strained mouth;” while collettei is in honors of American ichthyologist Bruce Baden Collete.

The Creole Darter resembles the Orangethroat Darter in that it has striking blues and oranges, with females and juveniles being more dulled with browns. There is a powder blue streak on, and behind, the pectoral fin that seems to be consistent across all individuals.

Their native range is restricted to just several drainages between two states. It spans the Ouachita, Red, Calcasieu and Sabine River drainages in Arkansas and Louisiana. They were originally described from the Dugdemona River in Jackson Parish, Louisiana.

It inhabits gravel riffles, current-swept vegetation and organic debris in creeks and small to medium rivers. The waters are often described as being cool-water with clear to little color/cloudiness.

Spawning often occurs when water temps are in the mid-50s to low-60s. Like other darters in the Oligocephalus subgenus, the primary mode of spawning is to bury their eggs in the loose substrate where they will be protected from predators and kept oxygenated by the flowing water. The colors on breeding males intensify and become brighter to attract females to their small spawning territories.

Like their cousins, the Rainbow or Orangethroat Darters, Creole Darters will readily eat a small piece of bait put in front of their face. If microfishing isn’t your cup of tea, taking a dip and snorkeling with them would be the next best way to observe them with some face-to-face contact!

One week from today I will be Pedal, Paddle, Play hosted by Northeast Indiana Water Trails Come check out this great event and see some of our fishy friends!

Happy y’all! I finally got around to looking at camera photos from NANFA so this week I get to bring you the Bigeye Shiner (Miniellus boops)! Miniellus is a newer genus that arose from Notropis. Miniellus is combination of Latin and American vernacular that means “small and plain”; and boops is Greek for big eye, so the name literally means “small fish with big eye”!

Bigeye Shiners have large eyes, being longer in diameter than the length of the snout. The front edge of the dorsal fin is about equally distant between the tip of the snout and the base of the caudal fin. There is a dark stripe from the caudal fin base to the snout with a clear stripe above it. The mouth is large with the upper jaw extending back past the front edge of the eye. The back is green-yellow, and the scales on the back have dark edges. The sides are silver, and the belly is silver-white. The fins do not have markings.

Their native range covers Mississippi River basin from central Ohio to eastern Kansas and south to northern Alabama, northern Louisiana and southern Oklahoma. Historically they were found in the Lake Erie drainage in northwestern Ohio

The Bigeye Shiner usually inhabits clear, small to medium-sized streams with pools over substrates of gravel, rock, or sand; it typically avoids fast waters. They can be found associating with aquatic vegetation beds that are adjacent to faster waters.

Little is truly known about their breeding habits but we do know spawning occurs from spring through mid-summer. Breeding males have tublercles on the head and body.

This I bring you one of the craziest crustaceans I’ve come across to date! This beauty is the Longpincered Crayfish (Faxonius longidigitus) that came from Crooked Creek in north-central Arkansas. On the way down to Oklahoma, and I made a stop to night fish this beautiful stream. While out and about, I kept seeing crayfish on their nighttime hunts. I slowly reached down into the water and managed to grab several Longpincered and other species. I had to be quick with pictures because they earned their name and have a crazy amount of reach with their claws! Even though they have a mix of blue, green, and orange, they camouflage well into the rocky substrate making them hard to see at times.

Happy from one of the largest and most colorful species in the Topminnow family. Today I give you the Northern Studfish (Fundulus catenatus)! As I’ve covered before, Fundulus is Latin for “bottom”; catenatus means “chained” referring to their body pattern of chain-like spots.

Northern studfish have a light brown back with a short gold streak down the center of their back just in front of the dorsal fin. The dorsal and a**l fins are set far back on the body like other topminnows. Also like other topminnows, the dorsal and a**l fins of females are smaller and rounded compared to the long pointed fins of males. Their sides are silver or blue in color with redish brown spots on the sides of their head and many redish brown horizontal lines along their sides. On breeding males these lines and spots are a brilliant red over a vivid light blue background. Breeding males also have a bright orange margin to their tail followed by an almost black band.

The have an interesting range that expands from the upper East Fork White River system in Indiana; upper Salt and Kentucky River drainages in Kentucky; upper Green, middle and lower Cumberland, and Tennessee River drainages; west of Mississippi River; southwestern Mississippi in Mississippi and Gulf Slope drainages.

Northern studfish are found along the edge of pools and riffles in a wide size range of streams. They tend to stay in shallow water often only a couple of inches deep. They prefer clear waters with clean sand and gravel substrates, along with abundant vegetation beds.

Northern studfish spawn in shallow water along the edge of streams. Unlike most Fundulus species (topminnows) they spawn on clean gravel substrate rather than on plants. It has been reported that they may occasionally use the nests of longear or other sunfish species as spawning sites. No parental care is give to the eggs or young.

Happy from a subtle, and not so drab, member of the Topminnow family! This week I give you the Blackspotted Topminnow (Fundulus olivaceus). The name Fundulus comes from the Latin root fundus which means “bottom” (odd for a fish named Topminnow); olivaceus is Latin for “olive-colored.”

The blackspotted topminnow is a sleek, swift fish with a slender, elongated shape. They are light brown, with a velvety black longitudinal stripe running from the tip of the snout through the eye to the base of the tail fin. It is distinguished from its cousin, the blackstripe topminnow, by having upper sides with few to many black spots that are regular in outline and that are about as dark as the stripe along the midside.

Their native range is the Mississippi River basins from eastern Tennessee, western Kentucky, southern Illinois and central Missouri south to Gulf of Mexico (west to central Oklahoma); Gulf Slope drainages from Chattahoochee River in Georgia to Galveston Bay in Texas.

Along large lowland rivers and in the pools of streams draining flatter uplands. Prefers slightly warmer and more turbid streams than the blackstripe topminnow, so it inhabits streams where the closely related blackstripe topminnow is not found. In the Ozark and Lowland regions, they are widespread and abundant, wherever there are clear permanent-flowing streams, where it lives in quiet water at the edges of pools or near emergent aquatic plants.

Spawning occurs in spring over clean gravel substrates near emergent vegetation. This species lives in pairs or small groups that cruise slowly along the shoreline. They are most active mornings and evenings and commonly live 2 to 3 years.

Happy everyone! I’m excited to highlight one of the many new species from my travels to Oklahoma. That being said, I give you the Bleeding Shiner (Luxilus zonatus) from our first stop in Arkansas! Luxilus is Latin for “small silvery fish,” and zonatus is Latin for “belted or banded,” referring to the thick lateral stripe on the side of the species.

The Bleeding Shiner has an olive-brown back and a broad dark stripe along the midline. Sides are silvery with two black stripes separated by an iridescent golden stripe: A prominent black stripe extends to the tip of the snout, paralleled above by a narrow and sometimes indistinct secondary stripe. The stripe along the midline of the back is very dark and broader than the base of the dorsal fin. Gill opening has a prominent, crescent-shaped, dark bar. Belly is silvery white.

Their range is relatively small compared to other species we’ve covered. They’re native to Ozark-draining tributaries of Missouri (west to Sac River), Mississippi (including Meramec River), Little, St. Francis and Black rivers in southern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas.

This minnow inhabits clear, small creeks to moderately large rivers having persistent strong flow. It typically is found over a clean, gravelly or rocky bottom, near riffles or in pools with noticeable current. The young tend to occupy quieter water than the adults.

Spawning occurs in our state from late April to early July, especially in May and early June. Male Bleeding Shiners sport brilliant red during breeding season. Breeding males have darker markings, and parts of the head, body, and fins are bright red. Breeding tubercles are largest on the head but are also present on foreparts of body and some fins. Most often, spawning is over the gravel nests and pits made by other fish. Breeding Bleeding Shiners gather over these sites in groups of a few to a hundred or more individuals. Few individuals live beyond three summers.

Thank you Northeast Indiana Water Trails for having me host the paddle social this past weekend! It was a great time and I hope to get out more with the crew!

Happy from a species that is typically silvery and not showy but looks like an underwater rainbow in the spring! This week I bring you the Striped Shiner (Luxilus chrysocephalus)! The name Luxilus is Latin for “small silvery fish” from the root word Lux which means light; and chrysocephalus means “golden head.”

The striped shiner is a deep-bodied and slab-sided large species of minnow. They have large scales and silvery sides with a darker colored back. They get their name from the series of dark stripes that run down their back and come together in the center of their back behind the dorsal fin forming “V” shapes. The scales directly behind their head are uniform in size and distribution. Breeding male striped shiners get a bright pinkish-red coloration on their sides, lower fins, and rear edge of their tail. They also get small pointy bumps on their head called tubercles which they use to defend territories from rival males.

They have a native range across the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins from western New York and Wisconsin, south to Alabama, Louisiana and eastern Texas, USA; Gulf Coast drainages from Mobile Bay in Georgia and Alabama, to Sabine River in Louisiana, USA. Introduced to Escambia River system in Florida and Alabama.

They prefer streams with relatively clear water and clean gravel and sand substrates. They are much more abundant than the very similar common shiner. They spend most of their time in deeper pools and can often be seen eating insects off the surface. Striped shiners are frequently caught hook and line by stream fisherman.

Striped shiners spawn in large schools at the top or bottom end of a riffle. Males dig out shallow pits with their tails in course sand or fine gravel substrates. The eggs of many females are then scattered into these shallow nests. This can lead to interesting hybrids with different parental species! After spawning the adults return to deeper pools where they spend most of their time. After hatching the young drift down stream and spend their time near the edge of pools in shallow water.

🌳🐟 This coming Sunday you can catch me at Headwaters Park for I’ll have new and old materials, along with some friends that I would love to introduce to the public!

Come talk everything aquatic and local to northern Indiana! Learn about the paddle social I’ll be hosting in June. And most importantly, let’s plan an educational creek adventure this year!

Happy from another interesting Darter! This week I bring you the Bluebreast Darter (Nothonotus camurus)! The name Nothonotus is a proposed elevated subgenera, replacing Etheostoma; camurus means “bluntfaced,” a nod to their short and rounded face.

The bluebreast darter has a rather blunt snout and 7-10 dark saddles over its back. The narrow spaces between these saddles are much lighter colored than the rest of the fish. They also have 8-12 vague vertical bars along their side. These are most visible closer to the tail. Bluebreast darters have many thin horizontal stripes along their side which are also more visible as they approach the tail. The outer edge of their fins has a dark margin followed by a thin white line just inside that dark outer margin. The first dorsal fin has a dark blotch on the webbing between the first 2-3 spines near the base of the fin.

They range within the Ohio River basin from western New York to eastern Illinois, and south to Tennessee River in North Carolina and Tennessee in the USA.

Bluebreast darters are found in medium to large streams and rivers. Areas of swift current over gravel and cobble, along with slabs and boulders that act as a buffer from the flow. They are intolerant to silted or embedded substrates.

Bluebreast darters spawn in June and July. They bury their eggs in gravel in fast flowing riffles. Males guard a small territory around the spawning site until the eggs hatch. After the eggs hatch no further parental care is given.

This coming Saturday I will be at Pathway Community Church from 9am-1pm for the Allen County Marketplace! Super excited to be back this year and for market season to kick off! Come stop by to see all the amazing vendors there and the Mother’s Day treats they have to offer!

I’ll have both old and new items with me, so make sure to drop in if you’re around!

Happy everyone! Today I got to show a group of students one of my favorite local spots to get in-field experience and just back to nature. My dual credit Biology class braved above average water levels and flooded waders, got to do some collecting, and absolutely crushed it today on our field ecology trip! Despite some mishaps (hopefully I didn’t scare them away from the rivers or water in general😅), I would call today a success. This is what I strive to provide while I’m an educator, opportunities to drive curiosity, in both my personal and professional life.

We only found 10 species, but what we did find were some awesome representatives of them! The cherry on top being a large, breeding male River Chub (Nocomis micropogon)! Other catches shown were: juvenile River Chub, a hefty Rock bass, and some perfect sized Logperch! The macroinvertebrates also treated us with some dandies, I’ll make a post for them on another day.

Species list:
- River chub
- Rosyface shiner
- Spotfin shiner
- Rock bass
- Bluegill
- Greenside darter
- Johnny darter
- Fantail darter
- Logperch
- White sucker

Happy everyone! This week I’m bringing you one of the smallest species of Darters, and fishes, we have in North America, the Least Darter (Etheostoma/Microperca microperca). The name Etheostoma is Greek for “various mouths”, and microperca literally translates to “small perch,” which makes sense because they’re miniature cousins in the perch family! I also used Microperca for the genus name because the Least Darter is actually the type species for the current subgenus of “micro darters,” which should be elevated in the near future.

The least darter is a very small fish rarely reaching a size of more than 1.5 inches in length. They have an over all light olive brown body color covered in darker brown speckles. The lateral line is often absent or when it is present it is very short. They have 7-15 dark blotches along their side which are wider than they are tall. The second dorsal and tail fins have many small dark spots that tend to form wavy rows. Least darters also have a distinct tear drop under the eye and often several other dark lines radiating outward from the eye on their head and snout. Breeding male least darters have a band of red spots in the middle of their first dorsal fin. Males also have over sized pelvic fins and their pectoral, pelvic, and a**l fins are flushed with orange or red. Females look very similar to males but are lacking any of the red or orange and have smaller pelvic fins.

Their range is the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins from eastern Ontario in Canada and from Minnesota south to southern Ohio, central Indiana and central Illinois in the USA; Ozarks-Ouachita drainages of southern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, northwestern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma in the USA.

Least darters are typically found in small, sluggish prairie streams that have clear water and profuse amounts of aquatic vegetation. They are also found in natural lakes and permanent wetlands that contain dense beds of aquatic vegetation and clear waters. Historically this species was probably more widely distributed where appropriate habitat was present but historic, and recent, human activity has altered their preferred habitats.

After visiting my parents, I decided to make a quick stop on the way home in the kettle lakes region of Indiana to look for Iowa Darters. I struck out on finding any live individuals but did scoop up a dead male. While swinging my net around the public access, I came across more Least Darters (Microperca microperca), that seemed to be getting closer to spawning season! I managed to get a Logperch*, which was a pleasant surprise because I have been wanting to collect some from this area for a while! A red Dragonfly naiad made its way into my net also, which was a first for me!

Water temperature was right around 50°F, so I was limited to the bank without waders. This will definitely be another spot I check out later in spring or early summer, possibly with a kayak to get to more secluded places!

*the Logperch in this area are different from ones in other locales. I suspect it’s the undescribed subspecies from the Tippecanoe drainage, but further research will be needed

Happy everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and what better species to cover than the 2024 Fish Madness winner? So this week I give you, the Blue Sucker (Cycleptus elongatus)! This is probably one of the most unique species I’ve covered to date, so let’s dive in. The name Cycleptus is Greek for “round and slender” hinting at their small, round mouth; and elongatus is “elongated” referring to the general body shape of this fish!

Blue suckers have a rather long, cylindrical body shape with a very long, sickle-shaped dorsal fin. They have an over all very streamlined appearance which helps them hold a position in swift currents. As the name suggest they are a blue to slate gray in color with somewhat darker gray blue fins. They have a small head and long snout that overhangs the small mouth. The thick fleshy lips are covered in small round bumps, known as papillae.

Their native range is the Mississippi River basin from Pennsylvania to central Montana and south to Louisiana, USA; Gulf Slope drainages in the USA from Mobile Bay, Alabama to Rio Grande in Texas and New Mexico, and in Mexico. they have been extirpated (locally extinct) from some areas but are holding on strong elsewhere.

Blue suckers are an inhabitant of deep swiftly flowing chutes or channels of large rivers. They are not uncommon in fast gravel bottomed chutes of the middle to lower Wabash, down to the Ohio River, here in Indiana. Preferred structure and substrate can vary, but the most common sites will be sand-gravel bottoms!

Little is known about the spawning habits of this species aside from probably spawning in May or June. During the spawn, males develop a dark blue color and become covered in fine breeding tubercles across their entire body. They migrate into tributaries and form large breeding congregations. Some reports state that these are so thick, you can walk across the backs of the Blue Suckers!

Aquatic education is my jam, and hands-on learning is the best learning! I had the chance yesterday to help out fellow Native Fish Coalition Ohio chapter board members Cameron Layne and Liesel Fenstermaker run a fish collection and ID workshop for Ohio Women on the Fly! There was a great turnout from the group, filled with local fishing enthusiasts who were curious about native, non-sport species. We were able to demonstrate different collection methods with a seine, or other net, as well as how to ID the species we caught!

The river was down to a safe level after extremely high waters only few days before, and the weather was perfect for a day outside. We found 16 different species, some of which were similar to previous samples in years past and some that were new to site. We also came across one of the biggest Silver Shiners and Bluntnose Minnows I’ve ever seen! I’m excited to see this event continue and meet another great group next year!

Species found:
- Silver shiner
- Mimic shiner
- Sand shiner
- Rosyface shiner
- Spotfin shiner
- Bluntnose minnow
- Fathead minnow
- Northern hog sucker
- Brook silverside
- Longear x Northern sunfish
- Green sunfish
- Rainbow darter
- Johnny darter
- Bluebreast darter
- Greenside darter
- Banded darter

Today was definitely the highlight of my spring break to say the Least 😏! Took the boat out with my dad to break it in for the year, and it was a bit too windy, so we came in early. After replacing bunk boards on the trailer, we turned the day into a mini-collecting trip afterwards!

I’ve been coming to this spot for about 15 years now, and I knew it was special but not this special! Bouncing around the lake channel, some drainage ditches, and a connected pond, we found a great mix of fishes, herps, and invertebrates! The best part about it though, I got to show my dad all of these wonderful creatures.

These were all found in northern Indiana!

1. Least Darters (Microperca microperca, male and female)
2. Central Mudminnows (Umbra limi)
3. Northern Starhead Topminnow (Fundulus dispar) - male
4. Northern Starhead Topminnow (Fundulus dispar)- female
5. Macromiidae naiad
6. Bullfrog Tadpole
7. Typical habitat we hit, ditch with adjacent wetlands
8. Sandhill Crane on a nest

Alrighty folks, the time has come! It has been a great run of Fish Madness this year, with some major upsets it seems. I’m grateful for all of you who participated this year. If you filled out a bracket, send a picture of it to me to see who gets bragging rights and a small prize package! But without further ado, your 2024 Fish Madness champion…..

The BLUE SUCKER (Cycleptus elongatus)!

Happy Monday everyone! We are o-FISH-ally in the championship round of ! It has been another exciting year of putting this on and I’m happy to see all the new participants this time around. Our two fishes going head-to-head to be crowned champion are the sickle-fin swimming Blue Sucker and the tangy Tangerine Darter! Voting is open until Thursday, so make sure to spread the word and get your vote in!

https://forms.gle/ECVpzBz8uogqLcSi7

Happy Wednesday everyone! The FIN-al Four of Fish Madness is out! The voting link is live, share it with your people and let’s make the championship interesting!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVEtSddWts-bvL2rjX7cnEMi-Opi69kyVvObCmzpmSCTYN5g/viewform