The Flying Fish of Wisconsin?

It's been a weird non-winter.  As a result some of my spring activities are happening a bit sooner than expected.  Fishing for instance.  Geocaching for another.  And where they overlap, the Strange Fish geocache series where I pay homage to the weird and mostly unloved minor fish species of Wisconsin.  The gimmick is that I catch something strange then put a geocache at the spot.  

It's not an easy task.  I'm limited to places where you can fish from shore, and by the increasing list of fishy weirdos that have already gotten a cache.  In fact.....its getting pretty hard.

So I've taken to scanning Google Maps to try and find new locations.  And recently I spotted something tempting.  An area of DNR owned land that has both Chippewa River frontage and more interestingly, about two dozen abandoned gravel pits.

My first walk around was with Hank the Dog.  He makes it hard to sneak up on anything, so while I did see various little fishies scooting away from shore I could not make any positive IDs.  But they were small, and at least two different species.

So how do fish get into gravel pits?

Sometimes there is proximity to say, a river, and in flood conditions a possible connection.  Pretty unlikely for most of these.  Sometimes people just ignore the rules on such matters and pitch a bunch of fish into new bodies of water in an impromptu stocking scheme.  Maybe....I did see evidence of other people fishing here - old worm containers mostly - and they probably had some reason to do so.

But mostly the fish fly in.

Oh, in egg form.  Ducks and geese love these little ponds.  And hop from one to another in search of whatever it is that makes them happy.  Along the way they pick up various fish eggs that stick to their feet and feathers.  Eventually, and with the right combination of factors, they do the stocking for us.

And those conditions are?  Well for most fish it would have to be a deep enough pond that it would not freeze solid.  Also it is helpful to have some kind of organic material.  Sticks and timber in the water, various aquatic plants (see also bird transport).  Big holes dug into gravel are not ideal for the sort of nutrients that feed small fish and the even smaller bugs they feed on.  Oh, and it is helpful if the water is not so shallow and nasty that oxygen levels vanish later in the year, although even that is sometimes not a deal breaker for bullheads and such.

My first attempt to catch fish here was not a success.  I was using micro-tackle, as none of the fish I saw scooting around were more than about 2 inches long. 

Not a single bite.  I think it is just a bit too early in the year.  Water temperatures, availability of hatching bugs etc.  I'll be back periodically.  In the meantime I did put out a "gateway" cache at the parking lot.  If such things interest you....

The Flying Fish of Wisconsin???