Missouri: Day Two

Day two is really the first day of collecting. We got up and loaded up the truck with our gear and headed off to find the minnow trap.

We had a wonderful gourmet breakfast along the way...stale donuts and diet Coke. We were excited so nothing really mattered too much...just getting out and seeing what we could find. Katy was going to be handling the mapping duties...and myself, well I was going to try to drive.

Tropical Fish and Supplies This whole collecting trip was about fish of course. But while we traveled through the countryside we couldn't help but notice how beautiful the state of Missouri is. We traveled down many miles of back country roads and saw some very picturesque scenery.

The trap site was about 25 yards downstream from the Tropical Fish and Supplies bridge and in about 2 feet of water. The water was slow moving, turbid and there was no visible plant material in the water. The water channel looked "scoured" and was muddy bottomed...I expected that we would find a catfish or two in the trap. I was surprised. We didn't attract anything into the device. What a start. Skunked before we really got going. We could only get better from here...we hoped.

Through our research we had identified eight potential sites to collect in. The first was Loose Creek, not far from the bridge over the Maries. The creek was small, shallow and slow. It was shrouded by trees and also...behind barbed wire. All the red flags for a bait collector from California. We kept driving past the first site and on towards others. Other sites were on the Little Maries Creek and further up on the Maries River itself. We headed South on Hwy. 63 and then West on Route 133 in search for better habitat on the Little Maries Creek.

What we found was that the rumors of a rather dry season were true. The water was shallow and not moving in all of the crossing areas of the Little Maries Creek. We didn't think we would have much luck in the conditions we were looking at so we decided to save time and head to another potential site on the Maries River.

As it turned out, we headed for out last scheduled site as our next stop because it was easier to get to in that order...so it was one back road after another through Central Missouri to the Maries River...and another bridge with a small road down to the river below. There was a fisherman parked at the site and we chatted a little. He told us that the river was very low for this time of year... Freshwater Tropical Fish and also that he had seen a lot of little fish and yes they were the kind that "skipped" over the rocks along the bottom of the river. That was good news. We knew we would be looking at darters soon.

We walked down to the river to scope out the conditions. Not bad. We could see small fish darting around as we approached the water. The water was cold and moving pretty fast over a rocky bottom, perfect looking for Darters. The water was crystal clear and there was a healthy mix of aquatic vegetation growing long the sides of the water. All good signs for fish.

Back to the truck to don our waders and rig the nets. It didn't take too long to get ready. It also didn't take too long for my fashion conscious daughter to note that it was a good thing that none of her friends could see her dressed for this particular occasion. I have to admit, the waders and boots were a little goofy looking.

We headed back to the water. Now it wouldn't be too bad except this back and forth from and to the truck was up a little hill that was covered with gravel. The slipping and sliding on the hill was an experience I could have done without.

We had decided to use cheap Styrofoam ice chests as collecting buckets. We took one down to the water with us and put about 4 inches of water inside it. We had hopes to catch a few fish to add to the water of course Fish for Freshwater Aquariums ...but the wind was blowing and without the water in the chest it would have blown into Tennessee. The wind was fairly stiff, but warm...and the air was humid.

We immediately found out that a good net is essential...not an oK net. Invest in a good one. Grindal worms are a super food! The ones we were using (and borrowed from a friend) were good ones...extendable, sturdy, shallow bag and fairly small netting with a wide mouth. The reason for needing a better than average net became evident with we pushed the front end of the net into the gravel and rocks, followed by our performance of the Darter Stomp toward the net. Tropical Fish and Supplies

That's right...a new country dance craze was started under the Maries Bridge that day. My daughter and I found that by watching the Darters and seeing one stop under a rock we could plan an attack. If we placed our net about 8-10 inches on the far side of the rock and then quickly shuffled our feet toward the rock, the fish would (sometimes) dash into the net in an attempt to escape...dumb fish...dumber fisherman if he were to think that the fish would react that way all of the time. The Darter Stomp was effective about 20% of the time...the other 80% of the time was simply a way to punish your feet stomping through the gravel.

Mid-May is still breeding season for a number of fish...most of the shiners and most of the Darters...some of the displaying males could be witnessed 7-8 feet away...the clear water helped but the fish were extremely colorful.

On one of the first scoops, I caught a "Bleeding Shiner". Unfortunately the specimen was about 5 inches long...too big to bring back, but still beautiful none the less.

One of the surprises for me were the abundance of young crawdads. Not only were there lots of them (my opinion of course) but the most common one was very handsome. We caught a number of specimens of The Golden Crawdad. We didn't take any out of the field. We noted that the critter has some pretty small red markings on the sides of it's head and the males had some stunning metallic gold markings along the sides of their tails. They are not all that large but you wouldn't be able to convince the feisty little creature of that! Crawdads will defend against anything including your fingers. There particular Crawdads are not very large and if they do pinch you, you won't be too worse the the experience.

By noon we had only captured some 15 Darters. I had set a goal of 30 fish from the site...but I could tell we were fading fast. Catching the little fish can be a very tough job. We didn't feel as if we were too good at the collecting game yet...and the goal of 30 was only half achieved...and it was noon. We had a quick bite to eat and were back to work. We were done with the goal in just a few more minutes. We seemed to be getting the hang of the Stomp.

Along with the Darters and the Bleeding Shiners, we found Gambusia affinis, two varieties of frogs, magnificent bull frog tadpoles and a large water snake on the order of 5 feet long. I also found that my daughter does not like snakes...at all.

We were glad we had brought along some granola bars as snacks. We were miles from any city for lunch...we ate our granola bars for lunch and washed them down with water...and were thankful we had them.

We quickly netted the fish from the styros and placed them into plastic containers for the ride in the truck. We filled up one of our water jugs with water from the river and off to the next site.

We headed back the way we came for a bit and then it was down to Argyle and more of the Maries River. Just South of Argyle, the County Road "T" crosses the Maries...the water is cold, clear, riffled and no barbed wire in sight....looked very promising. We turned off the road and headed back towards the river.

We dropped the minnow trap into the nearest pool Tropical Fish and Supplies and went after Darters in the riffles...more of the Darter Stomp and wow...a Darter on my first attempt. Because the river is narrow at this point, barely 6 feet wide, I decided to get right in the middle of the stream bed and stomp a little there...several fish per net was not uncommon at this site...more Bleeding Shiner fry...more Golden Crawdads...a Slender MadTom...several species of Darters. We were having a good day. Grindal worms are a great food!

We checked the minnow trap and 4, 5 inch long Bleeding Shiners had been attracted by the cat food...we may think the stuff stinks but it's honey to the Shiners. Of course the 5 inch fish were a little big to take from the field...they were replaced. We then set the trap in a more shallow location within the same pool and within 20 minutes, 50-60 Redfin Whiteworms are a super food! Shiners had taken the bait. They too were too big to consider removing from their habitat, so we released them also.

Again, it was time to remove the fish from the styro collecting boxes and "can" them for the trip to the next motel...which we still had yet to book.

We removed approximately 150 fish from this last site. We called the site #5.

We stayed in another cheap motel but this time we redecorated the place the way we like it...fish everywhere.

Fruitflies are a superlative food! Day Three: The Spring River System...Madtoms and Crawdads