I have not been out fishing very much, due to longer hours at work and pure laziness which can be attributed to the lack of satisfactory fishing in the area unless you have a boat. However that still has not stopped me from seeing a few cool fish here and there.

Below is a very large Gizzard Shad taken in an electrofishing survey at Emiquon. It measured in at 17″, larger than the average bass in that body of water.

The asian carp are getting to be much more of a problem to deal with down there with the lower water levels. Below is a very large Silver Carp collected electrofishing at Matanzas Beach, a backwater of the Illinois River.



I have also made a point to take more photographs of fish I encounter, especially minnows and other smaller fish. The idea is get a photograph of each difference species of fish I encounter. Including fish I had pictures of previously from fishing and other things, I am up to around 60 fish. The next photo is that of a Spottail Shiner captured electrofishing in Matanzas Beach.



Also collected in the same survey was a Bullhead Minnow.


Several other fish were also collected including Smallmouth Buffalo, Bigmouth Buffalo, River Carpsucker, Golden Redhorse, Black Crappie, Bluegill, and Largemouth Bass.





In another survey in a backwater lake called Lily Lake, which is located by Beardstown, I had my first encounter with the invasive White Perch. They looks similar to a young White Bass, but they lack stripes on the sides and the 2nd and 3rd anal spines are the same length.


I have also taken some more random photographs of the outdoors. They aren’t world class, but they are pretty decent for a 170 buck point and shoot.








Back to more fish-pictured below is a Starhead Topminnow collected in a mini-fyke net at Emiquon, the first one that I have ever seen. Pretty cool little fish.


We also collected a Western Painted Turtle in one of the nets.


There is also a large asian carp reduction project going on which involves commercial fishermen going out and harvesting large quantities of the fish. We went out and did some pre-removal work by doing standardized electrofishing run and trammel nets to have data to compare to after the removal effort when there is a post removal sampling to see if commercial fisherman are having an effect on asian carp populations. This project also expanded to include zooplankton sampling which I have been in charge of for the past month. The idea is also compare zooplankton community structures before and after asian carp reduction efforts. During this work I also came across a couple of other fish in an electrofishing run by Henry, Illinois. The White Sucker was the first I encountered this year.





On another day I went on a AC shocking crew down south on the river to Meredosia. We shared the river for a bit with this dude.




I also saw my Blue Catfish in nearly 3 years since I had caught one at LaSalle Lake as well as my first Black Buffalo. After seeing it, it is really obvious to tell the difference between them and Smallmouth Buffalo.




This past week, we had extra time to run mini trawls at the tailwater of the Peoria Lock and Dam after running hoop nets. Young of the year Channel Catfish made up the bulk of the catch, although there were a few other fish mixed in including a couple of smaller Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Speckled Chub, Silver Chub, Bullhead Minnow and Round Gobies.





I have gotten to do a little fishing here and there. A few weeks ago I went to the Mississippi River on pool 13 for a two day trip targeting walleyes with a friend from work. We started trolling cranks on weedlines but that proved ineffective so we went to casting cranks at wing dams. I caught the only two fish with this strategy, a keeper Largemouth Bass and a Channel Catfish.



This past week I also got out for some bowfishing with a buddy from work for the first time ever. It was a new experience for me, because I have only shot a bow a few times previously, and never a compound bow without sites. I had difficulty at first adjusting and getting comfortable with shooting it, but eventually I did end up shooting a couple of fish. My first was a large Spotted Gar on a 15 yard shot. My second was a smallish Shortnose Gar on a 10 yard shot while leading the fish. Later we hopped down to a small river with silver and bighead carp in it. I missed my only shot on a carp, going over the top of it by inches.




The next evening I returned to the same venue with rod and reel and fished for gar with shallow running cranks. This turned out to be a good strategy and I went 6 for 9 in a little over half an hour of fishing before the Packers game, all shortnoses. I lost a 3 foot plus longnose that was pulling out drag on me, but I will back for that one.

I have had difficulty maintaining a consistent internet connection so I haven’t had a chance to update people on my work. Things have been busy with height of field season underway and I have been involved with a number of projects. One of the more interesting days on the water has been when we trammel netted Clear Lake, a back water lake of the Illinois River, targeting asian carp for an experiment involving the hybridization of silver carp and bighead carp and making a guide to identifying a hybridized individual as well as what generation it is. There were a lot of very large fish in the net, which mostly consisted of bighead carp including a fish going over 40″ and close to 30lbs that would have been closer to 60lbs had the body condition not been so poor, which was the case on a lot of the fish. I personally think this is a sign that the carp have reached, or are close to reaching a carrying capacity in the Illinois River.

There was some bycatch in the nets as there were also some channels catfish as well as the paddlefish pictured above. There was also a giant freshwater drum, the biggest I had ever seen, which is pictured below, as well as a flathead catifsh and some common carp.





Two weeks ago we captured an American Eel in a hoop net, which is a rarity as it is only the third one in 29 years captured by LTRMP. It was frozen and sent off for otolith microchemistry research.



Some cool fish that we have gotten electrofishing





I have also done a little fishing when I have had time. I fished a pond in Oswego when I was visiting friends in Chicago a few weekends ago and caught some nice bass up there on soft plastics.





I also got my first musky at Spring Lake on a weedless swimbait.


I was playing around with my camera and got some sweet underwater shots as well.




The bass was one of the best shots I have ever taken and I am going to get a poster made of it. A lot of luck went into it as the water had to be clear, and the fish couldn’t spook. The fish actually seemed interested in the camera and almost seemed like they were posing for it which was kind of cool. I am going to return to this pond and see if I can get some action shots of them taking lures. That is all for now, keep tuned in as I am sure there will be some more stuff in the future pending internet connection.