Seine fishing- by Talley L

Our day started with a tour of TNACI, also known as the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. Here we learned of the organization’s current conservation attempts, such as raising Sturgeon. One of the things we were shown were preserved pallid and shovelnose sturgeon, which were equally disturbing and fascinating. After we took the tour of TNACI, we headed to South Chickamauga Creek to seine fish.

 Once we took a short drive to the creek, we began to prepare to start seine fishing. For those who don’t know, seine fishing is when you put on waders and stand in the water. Two or more people hold onto poles that are attached to a net. Then people proceed to shuffle along the bottom of the water towards the net. If it worked, when the net is lifted up, there will be many species of fish in the net!

We got into the water and started to have fun doing the “darter shuffle” to get fish into the net.

Soon, we got to see many different kinds of fish, such as mosquito fish, snail darters, log perch, green side darters, spotted top minnows, sculpins, and even some crawdads just to name a few. The water level was rather high that day, so the current was very strong. We almost lost some river fellows! (I’m looking at you Annie).

 Once the fishing was all over, we said goodbye to the pigeon coop, chicken salad, and very kind people from TNACI, and headed back to GPS.

Thanks, Mrs. King for the awesome sketchnote of our day!