Longhead Darters and Streamlined Chubs (Western PA Pt. 5)

As the first full day in Pennsylvania wore on, it started to seem to Noah, Jake, and I that larger predatory fish were just not that active. Though we were on a fantastic watershed for big fish, the more we focused on them the less likely we would be to catch lifers. So I focused more and more on micros.

The Allegheny was teaming with small fish, and many were species I'd never caught. Some were also visually very striking. Peering into a riffle, I could see numerous longhead darters and a few small common logperch. These species are both in the same genus, Percina. They are a bit larger on average than other darters, and also quite aggressive. This meant they were pretty easy to catch on small flies, and with  minimal effort I had another lifer darter species in hand.

Lifelist fish #172, Longhead darter, Percina macrocephala. Rank: Species

I then put a bunch of effort into trying to get a logperch, and I did miss one, but the longheads and ever present silver shiners made this task all but impossible, beating the logperch to the fly time after time. Once, though, when I lifted a small minnow out of the water, thinking it was yet another silver, it clearly wasn't. I had no idea what it actually was, but after Jake caught some of the same fish later in the trip I was able to determine that I'd caught a streamline chub.

Lifelist fish #173, Streamline chub. Erimystax dissimilis. Rank, species.

This was a species I knew absolutely nothing about prior, and still wouldn't if I hadn't caught one. This little fish was quite lovely, though to some it may look completely uninteresting and extraordinary. To me every fish tells a story, a story about life on this planet. Streamline chubs had successfully held a small niche in this big river, changed and evolved from ancestors long gone, only still existing because they're fit to live where they do, as every organism is. To me that's always beautiful, and it makes no life insignificant. 

Back out in the river, I tried to find one more new species in this spot. I started targeting the different smaller darters that were perched up on boulders. This may seem odd, for a fish to be sitting on top of a big rock rather than hiding under it, but I've seen numerous darters and sculpins in freshwater and blennies and sculpins in saltwater doing so. 

Eventually I did catch one of these darters. I'm still not positive on it's identity but it is likely another greenside, so not a new species. 

Though the Allegheny was being oh so stingy with it's larger fish, these small fishes were not a bitter consolation for me at all. I love catching fish, with no exceptions. 

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.

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