Not So Little Things

It was one of those full, heavy summer days. High humidity, some puffy cumulus, very little wind... I'd gone out mostly hoping to see a copperhead that day, but ended up not seeing a single snake of any kind. I had my 2wt though, and one box of flies. And there was a stream where I was herping. The water was low and this wasn't a wild trout stream but I wondered what sort of fish might be in this water, having to fished it. I assumed I'd be in for some small fallfish. But when I brought the first fish to hand I was almost a little surprised to see that it was not a fallfish at all, but creek chub. I've caught creek chubs everywhere from North Carolina to Deboullie in Maine. But I rarely ever catch them so close to home. Eastern CT has a very patchwork population of creek chubs. I caught one once in a small stream about 15 minutes from my house and was so thrown by it that I remember every detail of that capture to this day. I'd never before and have never since caught a creek chub in that watershed, an area I've fished most of my life. Most fisherman wouldn't bat an eye at catching a creek chub anywhere, but of course the average fisherman isn't ichthyologically literate. That's not necessarily a dig, but I wish more fisherman sought to really understand their local fish. But to most angler it seems "creek chub" applies to any silvery minnow species, and in Eastern CT that is fallfish, common shiners, and golden shiners far more often than it is Semotilus atromaculatus.
I certainly lack far more knowledge of ichthyology than I possess, I'm still way behind properly identifying the sea chubs on my life list. It's hard to keep up with updated classification in the study of fishes. But I know a creek chub when I see one, and I was delighted to see this one! The thick lips, the defined lead grey lateral line, the wonderful hatched pattern made by dark scale edges, the faint tints of lavender on the gill plate and face, the small black mark on the dorsal fin....

This may seem like such a "little thing", as in "the little things in life". But to me it isn't. To me this is all that matters, an appreciation of all things natural. That appreciation come from both academic understanding... studying the native range of the species, where it has been introduced what niche it fills, what it eats, how it spawns... as well as what some would call spiritual understanding... watching the species in it's habitat, or holding one it my hand, and thinking about how these things make me feel. Both feed into each other. I don't think you can have a full appreciation of a species without a healthy amount of both. I hope, above all else, that I can impart this on as many of my readers as I can. That's really all this is about. I want as many people as possible to care deeply about even seemingly insignificant, entirely stable fish species like creek chubs, because they're still important. A stream full of native dace, darters, and shiners deserves to be protected as much as any full of more at risk fish like brook trout and slimy sculpins (of these two, we're more likely to lose sculpins here in CT... food for thought). The latter may require more, time, effort, and money, and that's fine, we're closer to losing those. But letting a stream go dry or get poisoned because it lacks glamorous species like salmon or trout is no more acceptable.
Learn to love the little things. They really aren't so little.
Until next time,
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.