Boston Aquarium Society Message Board

i have a 600 gallon acrylic "pond" in the basement and its pretty empty except for a school of rosy reds I got from petco.

I was thinking that maybe some of us who like native fish would suggest and arrange a collecting trip sometime in the spring. (I beleive a fishing license is needed)

_________________
Eric - Secretary/Bowl Show Chairman

I'd be up for this!

Do we have any native darters up here?

Cheers,
~Khrysti~

_________________
Mmmm.... fishies.

I'd be up for it - even if I don't bring any fish home, I love going collecting.

we would each need to have a fw fishing liscense. We might also need a collecting permit.

I'll try emailing Scott and see if he knows what we'd need or who to talk to.

I've got a few minnow traps, a cast net (sometimes good for sunfish etc, but sometimes bad for certain fish as they get "gilled" and really beat up), dip nets, an umbrella net, and last but certainly not least, a nice minnow seine.


A tougher question is sometimes where to go - we want clean (ie not dangerous to wade in - no staph bacteria, mercury levels, etc) water, fairly easy terrain (too many rocks or stumps means seining\castnetting is difficult, but traps work well ), physically safe (no broken beer bottles in the water to step on ) yet not too restricted (ie no collecting in state parks by law).

In the spring I recommend waders or wetsuits, in the summer I just go with reef runners and a swimsuit.

Aquatic diversity is also an issue sometimes - I know a few ponds that are full of sunfish and baby largemouth bass - but very little else (and the largemouth are not technically native to this area). I know another where I once found small trout stalking little "minnows" -- the "minnows" turned out to be 1" largemouth bass (they look like glowlight tetras with a green stripe instead of orange, at that age - wicked cute ) -- but the penalty for even accidentally collecting gamefish is huge.

I have collected darters once locally - at a pond in Easton MA, when they had drawn the water down during the construction of a new dam, I was able to dip net some swamp darters. However, that was years ago and the water is much higher now.

I also know a few good spots to collect saltwater or brackish natives down on Cape Cod - some salt marshes, a few jetties, etc.

Now I guess I just need a few more tanks setup to put the fish in (like I need a hole in the head)

_________________
Rich
-- ---------------------------------------
Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !

I *LOVE* seining!

_________________
Mmmm.... fishies.

good !
My old net dragging partner - my little brother - discovered girls and lost his interest in spending the day dragging a net with me
he used to have tanks, he used to come to meetings - now its work, truck, and girls (well, and fishing, lots of fishing)...

_________________
Rich
-- ---------------------------------------
Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !

Most of my training involves catching herps, mammals, and birds, but a lot of the FW techniques for herp catching are the same as for fish catching - and I miss them all... The field collecting is exactly why I got into ecology in the first place. Give me a full day out in the sun seeing what cool stuff I can find and I'm a happy little clam!

Speaking of, what's a good local ID guide for non-game fish?

_________________
Mmmm.... fishies.

I have a fw fishing license. Catching natives counts as collecting bait so I don't think we need a permit for that.

I got some shiners out of the charles just this week. (I live at a walking distance from the charles)

They are doing quite well. Only 2 died. They are about 4 inches each or so.

My favorite place to get natives is at Houghton's pond in Milton (Blue Hills reservation) That place has a roped off swimming area but next to it is a place where you could wade and have sunnies nip at your toes. I caught some bluegill in there once and kept them with some severums. There are also some really nice esocids in there about palm sized.

They like to swim around in the waterlillies. I've found that the best way to catch them is the sit (literally sit) in the water until they get used to you then start netting them into a bucket.

Jamaica pond is a good place to get crawdads, darters, and minnows/shiners but I have seen leeches in there (but I don't think they bite humans) Jamaica pond also has good sized yellow perch. Jamaica pond is close to Willow Pond in Olmstead park which has a landlocked population of three spined stickleback (they were put there by Olmstead who wanted to create a museum but died before he could do it)

_________________
Eric - Secretary/Bowl Show Chairman