Northern Wisconsin road trip day 2

On our second day we started off with a hike along a river with scenic waterfalls. The rivers in this part of the state are tea stained a reddish brown color. We assumed it was from the red soil, but perhaps the decaying pine needles or leaves play a role as well.



Our fishing destination was an old quarry pond adjacent to the river. I was informed that this pond contains nothing but pearl dace, which was an exciting prospect because it would be a new lifer.



The fish we caught were not pearl dace though; they were finescale dace. Finescale dace are similar to northern redbelly dace, but instead of a second stripe they have a darkly colored back. They also lack the intense yellow found on breeding northern redbelly dace.

Finescale Dace (Chrosomus neogaeus) - new hook & line species #240




We caught a few dace without breeding colors that looked more like northern redbelly dace. The two species hybridize, so there may be both in this pond (along with the elusive pearl dace).

Dace (Chrosomus sp.)


Ruoxi also caught this tiny brook stickleback. She's becoming quite the microfisherwoman even though she insists that microfishing does not interest her.

Brook Stickleback (Culaea inconstans)


We continued north to Superior, WI, which is the sister city to Duluth, MN. The St. Louis River separates the two cities and flows into the western end of Lake Superior. I was hoping to pick up an invasive ruffe for my lifelist, but they were nowhere to be found. Another invasive fish, the round goby, was the most common catch.

Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus)




I also picked up two redhorse, which were quite exiting catches on a #10 mosquito hook and 4lb line. Ruoxi did an excellent job helping me land these fish.

Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum)


Silver Redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum)


There was a mayfly hatch going on, so I used a couple as bait. They got hits faster than the pieces of nightcrawler.

Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens)


Giving up on the ruffe, we drove east along the shore of Lake Superior to check out a few tributary creek mouths. We were pretty disappointed to find the water not flowing at the first creek. It did not look pleasant.



With the murky stagnant water, I didn't feel like microfishing, so I got out the dip net instead. The only fish was this tiny juvenile trout.

Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) - juvenile


We stuck to our schedule and headed back south to meet up with Mike Channing, another lifelisting enthusiast. Mike took us down to his local fishing spot, and we were able to get baits in the water just before the sun went down. Ruoxi caught the first fish and was pretty excited that it was her lifer shorthead redhorse.

Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum)


I caught the next couple fish, a freshwater drum (not shown), and two species that are always favorites: a baby lake sturgeon and a northern hogsucker. The scutes on the sturgeon were sharp! Mike's kids handled the important responsibility of releasing all of the fish.

Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)


Northern Hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans)


Thanks Mike Channing and Aaron Bye for the fishing spots! It was a tough trip as far as catching new lifers, but the fishing was nothing short of specactular. Ruoxi and I can't wait to repeat the trip again someday.

Northern Wisconsin road trip day 1

A few days before Labor Day weekend Ruoxi and I made the last minute decision to head up to northern Wisconsin on a road trip. Illinois was hot and muggy with scattered thunderstorms, but the north woods had a clear forecast and pleasant temperatures.

I'm usually pretty open with my fishing spots, but most of the places we visited on this trip were given to me in confidence, so I'll have to leave out the water body names. On the drive north we stopped at a lake that has Iowa darters and blackchin shiners. I saw one darter, but couldn't find it again when I got out my gear. I got bites from some juvenile shiners, but they were too small to hook. Ruoxi, however, had no trouble catching a few normal sized fish.

 
Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)


Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens)


We continued to our primary destination, a river that is known for redhorse. We fished from a bridge, and sure enough, redhorse is what we caught! There was very little overlap with the species. The day started out with silver redhorse, which was a lifer for Ruoxi.

Silver Redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum)




I then caught a couple nicely colored shorthead redhorse. They really are beautiful fish! Ruoxi had to wait until the following day to catch hers.

Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum)


Later in the afternoon the bite switched over to goldens. Sometimes they would bite within seconds of the bait hitting the bottom. They fought much harder than the silvers and shortheads, even though they were smaller fish. We had some pretty spectacular jumps that you would expect from smallmouth bass or trout.

Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum)




I've never seen so much color on the belly of a golden redhorse. Pretty neat!



You have to take some head shots. Redhorse are pretty adorable.



Occasionally our bottom rigged nightcrawlers would get picked up by smallmouth bass. They were very darkly colored and great fighters.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)

Ruoxi's was a bit smaller.



An unexpected catch was this hornyhead chub. We were using #6 octopus circle hooks, and I guess its mouth was big enough to get hooked. It was a cool new lifer for Ruoxi.

Hornyhead Chub (Nocomis biguttatus)



I also had an usual catch on a circle hook. This ambitious logperch tried to swallow half a nightcrawler. He's going to have a sore face... ouch.

Logperch (Percina caprodes)

Lifelist fishing double date

It's not very often that a lifelist fishing double date occurs!  Our friends Josh and Joy Leisen were passing through Illinois on their way to Wisconsin for a wedding, so I took them to Sandy Creek, one of my favorite Illinois fishing spots.  The day after their friends' wedding, Ruoxi and I took Josh and Joy to a couple more fishing spots in Wisconsin and near the IL / WI border.  We had a great time!

Sandy Creek has large numbers of colorful red shiners and spotfin shiners.  The red shiners were new lifers for Josh and Joy, and they were very happy to each catch colorful specimens.

Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis )

Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera)

We caught a handful of other species, including this bluntnose minnow and golden shiner.  The golden shiner is a new species from Sandy Creek for me, so that was cool.  I think I'm getting close to 40 different species from that one short stretch of the creek.

Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)

Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)

Two days later, Ruoxi and I took the Leisens to a spot for bigmouth buffalo.  Josh and I each hooked one, but we didn't have a landing net and unfortunately lost them at shore.  While Josh and Joy diligently tried for more buffalo, Ruoxi and I moved upstream to catch a few catfish and carp.  Ruoxi racked up quite a few new lifers at this spot!

Black Bullhead (Ameiurus melas)

Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus)

Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus)

Bowfin (Amia calva)

Next we stopped at a microfishing spot and had a picnic lunch.  We saw a bunch of minnows in the water, but they refused to bite.  Lunch was good though, so we were in good spirits.  We continued on to a small river near the IL / WI border.  This spot is great for sunfish and micros.  Ruoxi accidentally caught this colorful northern sunfish, which was quickly released unharmed.

Northern Sunfish (Lepomis peltastes)

Other sunfish were in good numbers too, and we got to see a good variety of them.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)

Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)

Josh and Joy took their own photos, and I'm sure they'll post up a report sometime.  We had a great time fishing with them, and can't wait to do it again!

Sunfish of Sandy Creek, IL

Yesterday I took a break from trying to catch alligator gar and made the short drive up to Sandy Creek to fish for whatever was biting.  Sandy Creek has a couple lifers that I'm hoping to catch eventually (suckermouth minnow, mud darter, and banded darter), but I just wanted to catch whatever was biting rather than spend the day hunched over trying to catch those elusive ones.  I set up at my favorite pool where this baby swallow was hanging out.  I showed him the fish I caught, but none of them impressed him.



I caught nice examples of the different sunfish in Sandy Creek.  It will be nice to have these pictures for future reference.  Bluegill were particularly aggressive in the center of the pool, and green sunfish would slam my worm whenever I cast near the rocks and fallen wood near shore.  The big surprise of the day was longear sunfish!  I've fished Sandy about a dozen times and never caught a longear until yesterday.  I caught around half a dozen of them, with the most colorful one shown below.  Super cool!

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)




Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)


Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)


Juvenile bass were all over the place.  Every now and then I'll see an adult, but rarely any lunkers.  I hope the people who fish the Illinois River realize how important Sandy Creek is as a spawning grounds for the bass they like to catch.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)


Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)


There were a few juvenile carp mixed in as well.  Of course I'd rather they not be in here, but I released all the fish I caught because killing a few individuals wouldn't put a dent in their population.

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)


Towards the end of the day I put on a Tanago hook and did some microfishing.  There were plenty of shiners eager to bite.  I caught some brilliantly colored spotfin and red shiners but didn't take photos of them because they were coming home for my aquarium, and I didn't want to stress them.

Sand Shiner (Notropis stramineus)


Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides)


Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus)

In addition to the longear sunfish, I also saw gizzard shad in the creek for the first time (which is no surprise, given how close I was to the Illinois River).  Adding those two species to the list of fish I've seen in Sandy Creek puts the new total up to 37.  Sandy Creek is one of the most diverse bodies of water I've come across in Illinois!  As you may remember from one of my earlier posts, there is an industrial hog factory proposed to be built adjacent to Sandy Creek.  Please join the fight to stop it before it's built!  The link below is for the Save Our Sandy facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Our-Sandy/461381980658934