Yesterday I visited my parents near Chillicothe, IL and sampled the creek that I grew up playing in. I was a little worried the orangethroat darters would be past their prime, but they were still fired up and doing territorial things. I wanted a better photo for my lifelist album, so I caught a few on hook & line first. Definitely a huge improvement over what I had before! Second photo is a female (they're boring).
For the remainder of the time I used a dip net. I'm pretty good at microfishing, but the net is a lot faster, haha. The number of orangethroat darters in every sweep was impressive.
Western blacknose dace were abundant in the deeper pools, and the males were colored up.
Also abundant were central stonerollers. Creek chubs were less common, and they were usually tucked up in roots and overhanging vegetation.
In years past, southern redbelly dace have been one of the most common species. However, on this visit they were nearly impossible to find. I only caught one, a female. I looked hard but couldn't find a male for the life of me.
One of the last fish I caught really blew me away. I present to you the BLUEST orangethroat darter I've ever seen. Even the tail is blue!
For comparison here is another colored up orangethroat. This is what I'm used to seeing.
Here are a few bonus scenery and non-fish shots.
