After work today (yes, work on a stat holiday), I headed out to the same small pool that produced my lifer rainbow darter last week. There were many other darters around, and I figured I’d try to catch them… plus… this area is known to have “abundant” redside dace.

I hooked a darter and noticed the black W’s and X’s marking the spot…

Species #113 Johnny Darter

I moved along the river to the next “large” pool. After a few drifts through a thicket of creek chub I saw a red flash. There it was!

What was very unfortunate was that this fish was a goner. It was belly-up as soon as I put it in the micro tank (pretty much as soon as I got it out of the water). I’m not sure why… perhaps these fish are very delicate (probably why they are so hard to find). The pictures were difficult to take, and I wish I could have done a better job… but getting the fish back to quick, cold water was the priority.

Species #114 Redside Dace

I got the fish back to the water and it revived OK, at least it wasn’t belly up anymore! It sat in the current, holding itself steady. Hopefully it will recover.

I thought there would be more, so I kept fishing through the thicket of creek chubs. There were other micros of various other species on the sidelines, but I failed to hook into them. Alas, creek chubs and blacknose dace were the tune of the remainder of the evening.