Central Stoneroller

One of the most common fish in the smallmouth streams of the Midwest is the central stoneroller. I like to think of central stonerollers as solar batteries for smallmouth. You see central stonerollers are the champions of algae eaters and  may consume up to 27 percent of their body weight in algae per day. The algae thru the miracle of photosynthesis converts sunlight into energy. The algae in turn is eaten by stonerollers and then eaten by smallmouth bass. Nice direct line, simple is always better right? Well, except that according to Wikipedia there are over 72,500 algal species worldwide in most recent estimates and maybe more than a 1000 in a single river like the Little Miami. But that's a topic for another day, back to central stonerollers. Central stonerollers have a lower jaw with a flat, shelflike extension used to scrape algae from rocks. Omnivores, central stonerollers eat detritus, animal matter, and terrestrial vegetation besides the algae that makes u almost half of their diet. Adults range in length from 3 to 5 inches, but they can reach 7 inches. Males are generally larger than females.
 It takes one to four years for central stonerollers to reach maturity. Breeding males begin building nests in late winter and continue throughout midsummer, creating large, bowl-shaped depressions   just upstream or downstream of riffles by rolling stones along the bottom with their noses . Which is where they get the name stonerollers. The males aggressively defend their nests against rival males. Spawning occurs in early spring and summer. Females remain in deeper water outside the nesting site, entering only briefly to produce up to 4800 eggs in a nest. The male fertilizes the eggs, causing them to stick to the gravel of the nest, preventing them from being carried away by the currents.
When it comes to their appearance, it seems every source I find uses the word stout to describe them so I'll go with that that. Stout brownish minnows with breeding males that have some orange and black on their fins, large pointed tubercles (horn like bumps) on their head, and reddish orange eyes.
That's a pretty wild description and also accurate.

A little bit about Darters

With winter upon us, I'm trying to bone up a bit on the complicated food chain in our rivers. Today a bit on darters...
Darters are among the most ecologically important  fishes found in found in the  streams of the midwest. In many sections of stream up to a third of all fish species will be some kind of darter. But most fishermen that wade and fish these same streams know little or nothing about them.
Darters are also an important piece of that big puzzle we are always trying to put together when we are out on the water. So here is a mini primer on these cool little fish.
Each species of darter has evolved to occupy a specific slot or niche in the food chain. That is why there are often several species in the same section of riffle. Some may occupy bigger rocks and rubble than others. Some species may live in more current or shallower or deeper water than other species. In my favorite river, the Little Miami, there are a dozen species alone.  Darters prey on insects and crustaceans, and in turn are preyed on by species such as smallmouth bass and saugeye. Darters are an indispensable  link in the food chain. The presence of darters in a stream reflects good water quality and diversity of healthy habitats.
A darter is built to maneuver in, around and under rocks and gives it an advantage as a bottom forager. Fast swift riffles provide protection for darters because few predators can live there and must move in and out even if they do forage there. In nature, it is usually true that "form follows function."  Many darters do not even possess a swim bladder. This lack of buoyancy allows them to stay near the bottom in swift currents. Many bottom-dwelling darters possess flattened, downward-sloping heads. This feature lets them take advantage of water flowing to help plane or push down on the fish's head, thereby helping the fish to remain near the bottom. Some darter species that live at mid-water depths do possess a swim bladder to help them remain suspended in the water column.
Darters are small. However, there is considerable variation in length among the species found in  our rivers, anywhere from an inch or so up to six inches long.
What darters eat varies with the lifestage of the fish. Juvenile darters chomp on small crustaceans such as water fleas, plankton and zooplankton . Adults prefer midge larvae, blackfly larvae, mayflies  and caddisflies. Larger darters species  may also eat amphipods freshwater shrimp, isopods sowbugs and crayfish. Darters do not compete with most minnow species because the minnows often occupy the upper levels of the water column. Food availability and water velocity help to determine the activity levels of darters' foraging. For example, in pools or areas of slower current, darters range farther to procure food. Similarly, when flow rates are high, travel is reduced. The presence of large crayfish which will prey on darters as well as predatory fish such as smallmouth bass will affect how much darters move also. It turns out that in nature crayfish, while smallmouth prey themselves, benefited from darters being forced to hide underneath the rocks to avoid smallmouth predation. While at the same time the crayfish crawling around hunting in the rocks evicted the darters which made them become more active and available for smallmouth to prey upon. At the same time big darters will eat small crayfish, It is, as the saying goes a fish eat fish world down there.

Photos are from the great ODNR Species Guide Index, a great source on information on all wildlife.

Come visit me at The Columbus Fishing Expo

February 13th - 15th // 2015Friday 12:00 (noon) - 8:00 pm // Saturday 10:00 am - 8:00 pm // Sunday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

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60+ Seminars Taught by professional bass, walleye, crappie, musky, perch, trout, catfish and carp anglers, and yours truly on smallmouth bass in rivers. Plus I'll have a booth there signing my book.

www.columbusfishingexpo.com

 

 

 

 

 

matching the minnows

If your a long time reader of my blog you know I can rattle on ad nauseam  about the complicated food chain in our local rivers. And that one of the best resources for finding out about what's actually down there is the EPA studies done on virtually every stream in Ohio. The best place to find all this cool stuff is at http://www.epa.ohio.gov/dsw/document_index/psdindx.aspx. Under the appendices to each study it will list every species collected. Usually each river is sampled at four or five intervals over it's entire length.
On my favorite streams, the LMR and the GMR, there are at least a dozen different darter species. Plus five or six madtom species and mottled sculpins. In some places these little guys can make up over a quarter of all the total fish collected. In other words a major source of food for smallmouth bass. The majority of these little guys live in, around and under the rocks in riffles and runs. They use large prominent pectoral fins to help hold their position in this swift water.
My two favorite lures for imitating these guys have the last few years been the Jewel Sculpin and a three inch plastic grub. The Jewel Sculpin  has these prominent pectoral fins while the three inch grub has that beautiful curly tail which attracts everything that swims and smallmouth in particular. So why not combine the best of both worlds?
After reading in the tackle making threads on www.ohiogamefishing.com about creating molds out of plaster of paris for soft plastics I decided to try and make my own. The process is pretty much self explanatory but here is the link if you want to read more about it. I painted my mold with two part epoxy when done and sprayed it with cooking spray right before pouring in melted plastic from some old baits and the finished lure just about fell out of the mold. A little trimming of the roughest edges with some scissors and I should have a swell bait. Just another reason I can't hardly wait for spring to get here...

Last fish of the year?

Caught this guy this evening right before dark. On the upper end of a big deep wintering hole. Didn't get out during the last few warm days but I was hoping the river hadn't cooled off too much for smallies. From the looks of the forecast it's back to saugfishin after today for a while. The rivers up a tiny bit but still clear and pretty.

2014

Wow another fishing season just about gone...

I spent most of spring wishing. Wishing the rivers I love would go down. No terrible floods just enough rain spaced out just enough to seriously crimp river fishing, my fishing. Like all things tho, given time things seem to have a way of settling back down. Till now looking back, I fished about as much as I always do and caught about what I always do. But it's sure hard not to panic at the time. When it's like the third or fourth weekend in a row you cannot wade. I did spend a lot of time camped along the river this year, I'm awfully thankful for that. Watching deer wade the Little Miami as night falls. Having a beaver slap his tail as I got up to stoke the campfire on the Great Miami. To me that's one of the greatest joys of life. Sleeping outdoors staring into the fire or lying on your back watching for a shooting star, When you fish as much as I do, the fish themselves sometimes blur a bit and run together but a few things stand out that I'll never forget. A little ten inch smallie in a tiny creek jumping clear of the water and taking my pop-r on the way down. The feeling of being towed around in a belly boat by the biggest largemouth I've caught in many years. And being there when Dan caught his two spectacular fish, the prettiest river largemouth I've ever seen and the biggest striper ever seen around here.  A policeman pulling up and stopping right behind me as I caught a hybrid right along a little gravel access road. He sat, watched me land it, snap its photo and release it. Then just started up his car and drove off without a word. And a day spent catching little longeared sunfish on a dry fly. Each one making you stare at it like you've never seen one before, they are that beautiful. Building a rope ladder to reach an unreachable fishing hole. And like the year before chasing the great white carp on a fly rod without catching it. You see this one place I fish has some carp mixed in the population that look white compared to all the others you see and every year I make big plans and tie special flies to catch one. But like always it eludes me.  But it's the fish we don't catch that keep us coming back isn't it?
Three times (If I remember right) I caught a nice channel cat right at dark on nights I was camping out and kept it for supper. Wrapped in foil and cooked over the campfire it was feast for the gods. And every time setting there by the fire cooking the fish, I remember, like I always do, a similar time in the rockies when my cooking fish drew in a martin that kept circling camp and rising up on its haunches to sniff the air. 
This year one of my favorite places seemed a bit empty. The previous year a group of three boys and a girl were almost always there. Fishing, wading, building fires, swimming, just killing time in that way you could back when your young and summer seems like it will last forever. I must have seen them twenty or thirty times. Having the type of summer you only see in movies anymore. Now they are gone, the entire year passed without them. Off to start new lives, new schools, new jobs, new families I imagine. That piece of river felt a bit deserted and I kept finding myself looking for something whenever I went there.
Now its down to tying flies and making jigs and dreaming of spring. Oh of course I'll throw on every bit of clothing I own and try to tempt some saugfish but deep down we all know that's not the same. And I'll try to get out and catch that first hybrid, that first smallmouth of the year in a couple weeks. Looking down into that clear empty looking winter river, even while I'm fishing, part of me is wishing it was spring...

Fish Ohio Saugeye

 

 

47 degrees on December 23rd is pretty good. 47 degrees at 1 am is great. So with the river as clear as glass and the toasty nighttime temp I headed to river after work, getting there about 1230. Maybe three casts in a small saug hit my grub. Then a bit later a better one that got off as it thrashed around at my feet. Then the weight of a good fish. A saugeye that measured right at the qualifying length for a Fish Ohio award. All hit it surprisingly shallow water just below a rock pile that stuck out of the water creating a pretty seam of current. After the last fish it began to rain a bit so I headed to the house damp and happy.