Spotlighting Stonecats and Darters (Western Pennsylvania Pt. 3)

As Noah and I drove through Franklin to where we'd meet Jake, I recognized places that hadn't changed and noticed others that hadn't. To me the biggest change is that my childhood home no longer exists, so though it was tempting to drive by where it used to stand just to see, I felt it would just make me sad. But the bar on the corner, the bank, the schools, the place my Dad worked; none of that looked any different. Even the small ice cream place we were meeting Jake at was very much the same. While we waited I decided to walk back to the river behind the place just for a look. In a quick, short circuit, I saw tons of redhorse and quillback rolling and three (!) different muskies. NEVER leave the rod in the car, dammit! It was getting dark, and we wanted to do something else with our time first. So when Jake got there we chatted for a while, this was the first time we'd actually met him after all, then headed back into town to a park on the river.

Our plan was to use our lights to sight fish for small fish species that become somewhat more active after dark, as well as those that are easier to single out that way. Hunched over, searching the shallows, we soon began to find fish we'd not caught before. Jake spotted one first, a small longhead darter. We ended up spooking that fish. Then Noah spotted a stonecat; a species of madtom, small catfishes of the Noturus genus. We tried to get that particular individual for a while without success, but soon found more. Jake got one before Noah or I. It was the first lifer of the trip for him, and in my opinion the most interesting of the ones caught already between the three of us.

Catfish are incredibly diverse and widespread. They are nearly ubiquitous in waters worldwide. From candiru to redtail to Mekong giant catfish, to saltwater gaftop sail cats, the size and variety of catfish is stunning. And the little madtoms of North America are really cool fish. Stonecats are on the large side as madtoms go, and though their lifestyle matches up with other species in the genus, they're named for their habitat: the undersides of stones in flowing water. Some of what we did looking for them was to flip over stones, and this did reveal a few, but at night they often exit their hides to feed and more were out than in. 

I struck next with a stonecat of my own. It was definitely hard to get them to eat a fly, but I was able to deceive one, or rather bother one into snapping at a tiny nymph. This was my 4th new species of the trip and my first madtom of any species. It was also my 8th catfish species on the fly.

Lifelist fish #169. Stonecat madtom, Noturus flavus. Rank: Species.

Then I found a darter. I'd put my tanago midge in front of many already this night but none were at all interested. Most were quite scared of it, actually. But this one ate. I knew that whatever it was, it was a new species. This individual turned out to be a greenside darter. 

Lifelist fish #170. Greenside darter, Etheostoma blennioides. Rank: species

This was only my second species of darter. CT has only two species, tessellated and swamp darter, and swamp darters are extraordinarily rare. I'd never really gotten to target darters in any areas with much diversity, so I'd only ever caught tessellateds. Darters are some of the most beautiful fish in freshwater. That said, though this greenside was a gorgeous fish, it doesn't hold a candle to, well, itself in spawning season. Like many fish species, darters color up extensively for the spawn, but are much duller the rest of the year. 

We continued fishing, seeing a number of species ranging from sauger to tiny darters and minnows, but Noah then took the cake with a notably large stonecat. His lifer was quite the specimen, and simply seeing it at all was a real privilege. It was such an awesome fish. 

When we got to some faster water, the small black water beetles I've always know as whirligigs became a giant pain, swarming our light and making it impossible to spot fish. So we started to work our way back down. On the way up, Jake had noted a slack, muddy, weedy spot and drew correlation between it and where we'd spotted the first longhead darter. Sure enough, he found one there and then caught it, his second lifer of the night. 

Longhead darter, Percina macrocephala

 By then our spines were destroyed, it was getting quite chilly, and we'd fished quite a lot of water and caught a bunch of very cool fish, so we decided to go find a spot to sleep in the cars. We found a good spot, said goodnight, and went to sleep wondering what the next day might bring. 

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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