# Ohio Darters



## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

i spent the day netting through ditches with my cousin who's a doctorate in biology from university of toledo. he's doing survey's on darters in the watersheds of ohio. i saw probably 30 species of fish that i've never seen before, mostly in the darter and carp family. it was one of the most rewarding days of fishing i've ever had, and i didn't even have a rod in my hand. check out some of these amazing fish


























We're going out to survey portions of the Darby tomorrow. Apparently they're much more abundant than what i saw today. pretty freakin sweet


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Awesome pics! Rainbow, varieagate, banded?? Hopefully you will get some bluebreast or tippecanoe darters tomorrow...both area stunning. I'm not sure if they will be in the riffles still or if they would have retreated to deeper areas. Looking forward to more pics!


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## Smead (Feb 26, 2010)

Those fish are really neat!!

Related to perch!

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/greensidedarter/tabid/6654/Default.aspx

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Default.aspx?tabid=21853


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## claytonhaske (Apr 16, 2010)

the one with the green stripes is freaking awesome looking? way to go!


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

Yup, people are amazed when they learn that the fish in my tank all are native Ohio fish - they'll give tropicals or salt water fish a run for the money! There are some beautiful fish out there.


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

mushi, they are all still holding on riffles. just basically varying depths. i saw a ton of tippecanoe's and bluebreasts today in the darby. it's crazy, i've spent countless days this year casting for smallies on the spot i took my cousin today. it was LOADED with spotted, bluebreasts, varieagetes and tipps. he gave me his old saine net and a bellyboat! i hit the lotto! he also set an old 10 gallon tank up for me with habitat and i kept about 10 rainbows. here's a list of what we ran into yesterday in ditches and the little miami. the darby was KILLIN these spots though...madtoms are cool as ****

Minnows
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Central Stoneroller Minnow
Spotfin Shiner
Striped Shiner
Rosyface Shiner
Sand Shiner
River Chub
Southern Redbelly Dace
Bluntnose Minnow
Blacknose Dace
Creek Chub

Suckers
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White Sucker
Creek Chubsucker
Northern Hogsucker
Silver Redhorse Sucker

Catfishes
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Yellow Bullhead
Stonecat Madtom
Mountain Madtom (SE)

Pikes
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Grass Pickerel

Silversides
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Brook Silverside

Killifishes
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Blackstripe Topminnow
Northern Studfish

Stickleback
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Brook Stickleback

Sunfishes
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Rock Bass
Bluegill Sunfish
Bluegill x Redear? Hybrid
Central Longear Sunfish
Spotted Bass
Largemouth Bass

Perches
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Greenside Darter
Rainbow Darter
Fantail Darter
Least Darter (SSC)
Johnny Darter
Orangethroat Darter
Variegate Darter
Banded Darter

Sculpins
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Mottled Sculpin


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Great! Those tipps, spotted, and bluebreast are indicators of a very very healthy stream (obviously, it's the darby!) and are quite rare. variegate's also need very clean water and good habbitat. banded are ranked as an intolerant species, but I catch a ton of them in some not-so-clean water.


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

"not-so-clean" = scioto?  we went to a place on the scioto today and holy hell was it "shitty." stunk like all hell and there wasn't a very healthy population of darters. there was more life in the ditches we surveyed yesterday. 

my cousin gave me a net so i'm all about doing some different type of "fishing." we should get out sometime man. shoot me a PM if yer interested!


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## MDBuckeye (Sep 29, 2009)

Awesome stuff! I can't believe that some of the ditches are in better shape than some of our streams.


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## anglerNpurgatory (Jun 17, 2010)

Awesome pics, man! I was always fond of darters as a kid, tromping around in the creek. Don't remember seeing any that bright, though. Are they always so colorful, or are those spawning colors?


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## Raybo92255 (Feb 10, 2007)

I am assuming your cousin warned you about those madtoms. Unlike other catfish/bullheads, madtoms do have venon in thier spines and even though many madtom species and specimens are really small if you do get poked through the skin it is pretty painful ... makes a bee sting seem mild. Back in the days when I sampled fish for a living I probably handled hundreds if not thousands of madtoms pretty carefully but the two times I got stung are etched in my memory banks.


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## percidaeben (Jan 15, 2010)

Incredible sample list skycruiser I love seining seeing what's in the water I've actually seined up a couple of rainbow darters in a riffle in the olehtangy behind Graceland shopping center you know next spring would be a good time to get folks together and hit some creeks and streams and see what's out there


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

thanks everyone. on sunday we found numerous tippecanoes and bluebreasts. it's crazy to see these things right in the spot i crossed the darby 60 times this year hiking into the honey hole. the madtoms were pretty quickly released. i think a majority of them are either endangered or threatened. you wouldn't know it from the healthy sampling we found. then again, the dnr only shocks and collects with nets. how the hell do you expect to get a true sample of these tiny fish that way? you almost HAVE to sein

Here's a few more we ran acrossed sunday:

Gravel Chub **
Bigeye Chub **
Suckermouth Minnow **
Black Redhorse Sucker **
Northern Madtom (SE) **
Bluebreast Darter (ST) **
Spotted Darter (SE) **
Tippecanoe Darter (ST) **

All in all, over 45 brand new fish i've never seen before. my cousin even set up my old 10 gallon tank with a bunch of rainbow and veriagates. he gave me his old sein net so if you want to go out and see some of these spots send me a PM!


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

skycruiser,

Great thread! This is very interesting stuff . . . what is a madtom? Sounds like a small catfish? Would love to see a pic of one if you have one or any other cool pics of these Darters.

Is there any technique tips to seining the river to find out whats in the home waters. I'm sure most anglers could use a good education in the variety of fish that roam the liquid we fish.


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

Here's a google image search of stonecat madtom. they're TINY. you really cant even see the whiskers









funny enough, i google image searched stonecat madtom and the pic that i was pasting was from my cousins website! how funny is taht?!

i would be happy to take you out and show you the technique. it's weird man, you'll be in a riffle and it all looks the same to an ameture, but small 4 ft segments are different habitat for different kinds of darters. some like broken shale and small rocks, others like bigger rocks and deeper pools. it really made me step back and think about bass environments and i think it'll help me be a much better angler in the long run


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

here's a few more pics of the Darters. I believe they're flared up like that in the spring in and around spawn, but the ones in my tank are starting to color up like the pics

greenside darter (probably my fave)









bluebreast (those red dots get as red as lava)









orange throat


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## Rybo (Jul 23, 2009)

Awesome thread. Thanks for sharing, skycruiser.


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## norseangler (Jan 8, 2009)

Great thread! Reminds me of the days back in the 70s when I would sometimes go out with Ray Jezerinac when he was surveying the Licking River system. It wasn't as healthy as the Darby, but I still saw some neat darters and other fish. Also learned a lot about crayfish from Ray and Roger Thoma.


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## Smead (Feb 26, 2010)

Beautiful!

As adults we move away from such simple neat things to appreciate...I remember when there was nothing better than discovering a cool salamander to look at.


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## Gottagofishn (Nov 18, 2009)

Awesome Post. I spent my younger years crawling around the rivers with my cousin. I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention though, I had no idea those existed. Thanks for the thread.


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## hogjerker (Apr 8, 2008)

Skycruiser,
I would LOVE to go do that sometime. I have tried to get with the dnr to help with the electro-netting, but can't get a call back. Water really intrigues me because, as you have showed, you never really know what is there. I was at the beach one time and noticed a slow moving shadow. I swam out to check it out and ended up swimming with a manatee. He really enjoyed being rubbed. One of the coolest days of my life. 

I will PM you and see about getting together.


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## EE (Apr 13, 2004)

Smead said:


> Beautiful!
> 
> As adults we move away from such simple neat things to appreciate...I remember when there was nothing better than discovering a cool salamander to look at.


Smead, you hit it right on the head....my concern with this generation's 'disconnect to the natural world' is what drives me in my work place. We spend alot of time in ponds, streams, fields, deciduous forests, etc. and in the end, I like to think (at least hope) another 50 students are more in tune with things they didn't even know existed. 

Sky cruiser, great thread and awesome pictures! These experiences can impact people for a lifetime, young or old. kudos to you and your cousin!


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## NewbreedFishing (Apr 15, 2004)

interesting post. thanks for sharing. did you weigh them


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## Fisher4Life12 (Aug 12, 2010)

I wonder if I could maintain these in my aquarium? I have a 110 gallon tank full of different species of blue gills (about 40 of them)...for those of you that don't know, gills make the best pets and they last for at least 3 yrs or more. They are out of everywhere from the scioto, the olentangy to antrum. I've tried to catch darters for years (by hand & with nets) but have never caught a one. Who here knows if they will do ok in a aquarium and how can I catch them?


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

they last really well in an aquarium. They have about a 3 year life span. For basic information on how to set up your tank and what to feed them check out this link:

http://www.farmertodd.com/pdfs/native_fish_tank.pdf


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## timmyv (Apr 26, 2006)

Fisher4Life12 said:


> I wonder if I could maintain these in my aquarium? I have a 110 gallon tank full of different species of blue gills (about 40 of them)...for those of you that don't know, gills make the best pets and they last for at least 3 yrs or more. They are out of everywhere from the scioto, the olentangy to antrum. I've tried to catch darters for years (by hand & with nets) but have never caught a one. Who here knows if they will do ok in a aquarium and how can I catch them?


Post some pics of your tank! I've been thinking about doing the same with my 75 but only put about 3 in it with a small catfish.


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## percidaeben (Jan 15, 2010)

Fish4life12 most darters will do fine one goal of mine is to save up enough to get a refrigerated aqaurium that's has a flow pump to create steam effect I could observe that crap for hours pretty expensive but one of these days till then I got my 8 10-50 gallons with everything from fish to wrinkle leaf pond weed well at least for now


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

> refrigerated aqaurium


If you get lucky, you can get a chiller unit off a lobster tank (the kind you see in restaruants or super markets).
Here's the setup under my tank -









Fisherforlife - Ima thinking the gills will pretty much _eat_ any darters you put in with them. . . 

Some pics of my 150 gallon set up. Temps are around 55 degrees right now - I'll turn it down a little more for winter.


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## timmyv (Apr 26, 2006)

Creekcrawler...I bet you don't have any algea problems at that temp? Sweet tank! I love it! Nice set up next to your chair too!


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

dang man, you got a sweet set up bro. 

here's my modest 10 gallon set up. so easy to do and so easy to get these fish. they're some cool little buggers with tons of personality


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

Skycruiser, your cousin's first name who you went out with wouldn't happen to be Nate would it?


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## skycruiser (Aug 7, 2009)

Not this specific one...I do have a cousin named Nate whom i bass fish with alot, but this one's name is Todd


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## Mr. Catfish (Apr 10, 2004)

Darters are awesome! I currently have a 55 gallon with rainbows,orangethraot,greenside,blacksided,and logperch darters.I also have southern redbelly dace ,blacknose dace,redside dace and blackstriped topminnows in the tank.
I am in the process of setting up a 6foot 150 gallon tank for them all. 
In the spring I would like to get banded,variegate,and fantail darters.


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